Nature based tourism a key incentive for visitation to Tasmania, so it is crucial that our industry is empowered to deal with the rapidly warming planet while doing all it can to mitigate its own impacts on climate change.
Today the Greens are backing UTAS academics calls to urgently establish a climate change adaptation fund for Tourism in Tasmania.
Our tourism industry is important to Tasmania’s economy and is a major employer in the state, especially in our regional areas. The Government must do all it can to safe guard the sector amid the climate-biodiversity crisis that is here and effecting the industry now.
The government has demonstrated that it can provide support after extreme events, such as during COVID lock down, or post bushfires and floods, now we must see adaption before these major events unfurl.
We won’t know what the full impacts of climate change and consequential biodiversity alterations will be, but we do know that extreme weather events will be more frequent and more severe, so ensuring we begin have an adaptation fund, in addition to a contingency fund, to support businesses who find themselves in exceptional circumstances is critical.
For those in Bicheno the climate adaptation fund would ensure funding for research and employment monitoring the penguins that do return, assisting with greater education for visitors and longer term understanding of how warming oceans might alter penguin activity into the future.
Empowering climate change adaptation is an important step for business continuity and resilience while we push the Goverment to assist mitigating the industries impacts to begin with.
