What Is Nature Positive Tourism?

The experience offered by tourism is often built on the values provided by nature. A clean coastline, a healthy forest, a thriving marine ecosystem or cool mountain air directly determines a destination’s attractiveness. Nature also forms tourism’s invisible infrastructure. Wetlands limit flooding, forests support the water cycle, and coastal ecosystems provide protection against erosion. When these resources are damaged, the foundation on which the tourism economy depends is also eroded.

Biodiversity gives a destination its distinctive character. Local cuisine, agricultural production, seafood, landscapes and nature-based activities thrive with healthy ecosystems. When tourism revenue is directed to local guides, producers and protected areas, a mutually supportive relationship can be established between nature and the economy.

Water stress, coastal erosion, forest fires, habitat loss and extreme heat affect the visitor experience, operating costs and the length of tourism seasons. As a destination loses its natural assets, its attractiveness, competitiveness and local livelihoods also weaken. For this reason, biodiversity conservation is a key area of investment for the long term resilience of the tourism sector.

Click here to read our article titled “What Is Biodiversity?”

Tourism’s impact on nature does not arise only from hotels’ energy and water consumption. Land use, transportation, food supply, waste management and visitor movements can create pressure across the entire destination. For this reason, the nature positive approach looks beyond the boundaries of individual facilities.

I. Land Use, Development and Habitat Loss

When hotels, roads, marinas and entertainment areas are built on sensitive coastlines, in forests or wetlands, habitats can become fragmented. Intensive lighting, noise and human activity can also affect wildlife feeding, breeding and migration patterns. In new investments, ecological sensitivities need to be assessed at the beginning of the planning process.

II. The Biodiversity Impact of Water, Food and Supply Chains

A tourism business’s greatest impact on nature may sometimes occur outside its own premises. Intensive water use can strain local watersheds. Out-of-season products, unsustainable fishing, raw materials linked to deforestation and long supply chains can increase nature loss.

III. Waste, Pollution and Pressure on Wildlife

Untreated wastewater, plastics, cleaning chemicals and food waste can harm marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Uncontrolled wildlife tours can alter animals’ natural behavior. To reduce these impacts, businesses and all relevant stakeholders, such as local authorities, tour operators and visitors, need to act according to common standards.

The first step in nature positive tourism is to accurately understand the relationship a business or destination has with nature. It should be determined which water sources it depends on, where it obtains food and construction materials, which habitats it places under pressure and which ecosystem services it benefits from. This assessment should not be limited to the boundaries of the facility. The value chain extending from the products purchased by a hotel to the transportation networks used by visitors should also be taken into account. This makes it possible to understand where the greatest impact occurs and to direct resources to the right areas.

The next stage is to prevent the risk of causing harm, reduce existing pressures and restore degraded areas. Avoiding new development in sensitive ecosystems, planning water consumption according to watershed capacity, safely treating wastewater and limiting practices that disturb wildlife are fundamental to this approach. In terms of restoration, long term efforts suited to the ecological structure of the region should take precedence over one off tree planting campaigns. Protecting coastal dunes, restoring wetlands, supporting seagrass meadows and repairing habitats after fires can be considered within this scope.

The participation of local communities in the process is also critically important. This is because the strongest knowledge about how nature is changing is often held by the people who live in that region. Directing tourism revenue to local producers, conservation organizations and community-based projects both strengthens nature conservation and helps ensure that the economic benefits remain within the region. When seasonal food, sustainable seafood, traceable raw materials and low impact products are preferred in the supply chain, the nature positive approach becomes part of daily operations.

For the nature positive approach to be credible, the work carried out needs to be monitored through concrete indicators. The first step is to establish the destination’s baseline conditions. A baseline dataset should be created to answer questions such as which species live there, the size and health of habitats, how water quality is changing, and what pressures are observed in coastal or forest areas. In subsequent years, indicators such as the area restored, habitats protected, improvements in water quality, reductions in waste, the share of local sourcing and resources allocated to conservation efforts can be regularly monitored. In this way, the actual impact of investment on nature can be seen.

The measurement process should not rely solely on the business’s own declarations. When universities, local authorities, conservation organizations and independent experts are included in the process, the reliability of the data increases. It is also important to use indicators specific to the region. In a coastal destination, seagrass meadows, water quality and coastal erosion may come to the fore, while in a mountain destination, forest health, wildlife corridors and visitor pressure may be more decisive.

One of the greatest risks in this area is that the concept of nature positive turns into broad commitments that cannot be measured. Attempting to compensate for damage caused in one region through afforestation carried out elsewhere does not restore the loss of the local ecosystem. For this reason, the approach should be to first prevent harm, then reduce it and, at the final stage, carry out restoration in place. Nature positive claims made without transparent reporting, scientific data and independent verification can easily become vulnerable to the risk of greenwashing.

Other barriers to implementation include the fact that common measurement standards are still under development, small businesses have limited data and financing capacity, and supply chains cannot be sufficiently tracked. In addition, while conservation investments often produce results over the long term, tourism businesses operate with shorter term economic expectations. Overcoming this gap requires public incentives, pooled funds, technical support and destination level coordination.

Nature positive tourism aims to build the future of destinations not only around visitor numbers, but also around protected ecosystems, strengthened local communities and restored natural assets. The tourism sector will become more resilient to the extent that it can measure its relationship with nature, reduce its impacts and create lasting value for the geography in which it operates. The destinations of the future will be places that respect nature’s carrying capacity, strengthen local life and consider growth together with ecological improvement.

Click here to read our article titled “What Is a Green Destination?”

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