Hohoe, June 7, GNA- An official of the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), on Wednesday said only a discreet conservation and sustainable management of natural resources at tourists site would make the expected socio-economic impact on the tourism industry. Mr Theo Van Der Sluis, Senior Advisor in-charge of Natural Resource Management of SNV, noted that there were high economic returns in the conservation and sustainable management of the environment and natural resources than plundering those potentials to satisfy short-term parochial interest.

He was speaking at a two-day sensitization workshop, organised for stakeholders in the tourism industry, in the Hohoe District, including tourism Committee Chairmen, levy collectors and accounting staff, on the benefits of community-based tourism, at Hohoe.

Mr Sluis emphasized that a study conducted by scientists at the Canada's University of Alberta to consider costs and benefits of protecting different water bodies, plants and animal species, indicated that rain forest conservation could, 'be more than pay for itself', and was more financially rewarding than clearing the forest for farming and other activities.

He also said research by authorities at the Uganda's Mabira Forest Reserve indicated that tourists were willing to pay much more than the current five dollars entry fee for a chance to spot some of the reserve's 143 bird species, as published in the November 2005 edition of the National Academy of Sciences, which recommended that the fee should be increased to about 47 dollars.

Mr Sluis noted that the beauty of community-based tourism was that communities influenced decisions and were involved in the management of resources, created employment and income and benefits accrued were ploughed back to develop those areas.

He said the cultural values and interest of the indigenes were upheld and protected to ward off the negative impact of tourism. Mr Sluis called on government to prioritised activities of the industry including developing tourism infrastructure with non-governmental organizations complementing such an effort.

Mr John-Peter Amewu, Hohoe District Chief Executive (DCE), said the tourism industry could only thrive on prudent conservation and environmental management and re-afforestation activities.

He, therefore, urged communities in the precincts of tourist attraction sites to consider such natural resources as theirs and to protect them. The DCE asked the participants to take the workshop seriously to enable them work towards the improvement of the industry.

Mr Dennis Jordor, Chairman of the District Tourism Committee, called for the rehabilitation of all roads to tourists sites in view of the large patronage the district was experiencing in recent time, resulting from vigorous marketing of it potentials. He urged the Ministry of Tourism and Diasporean Relations to expedite action on the tourists' receptacle facility in the district, which had been abandoned.

The workshop was as a result of a memorandum of understanding signed between the Hohoe District Assembly and SNV towards the show casing of tourists potential in the district to the outside world.