In decision VII/14 the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the Guidelines on Biodiversity and Tourism Development. The guidelines provide technical guidance to policy makers, decision-makers and managers with responsibilities covering tourism and/or biodiversity, whether in national or local governments, the private sector, indigenous and local communities, non-governmental organizations and other organizations, on ways of working together with key stakeholders involved in tourism and biodiversity.

In order to increase clarity and facilitate the detailed understanding of the guidelines and their implementation, the COP also recommended in paragraph 3 of decision VII/14 the development of a user's manual on the guidelines. To this end, the Secretariat invited Parties, Governments, relevant international organizations and other stakeholders to submit written comments by June 2005 by Notification 2005-072. Comments have been considered and the draft was substantially revised.

Ensuing Notification 2006-055 (Ref.: SCBD/SEL/ML/MRe/54589), Parties, other Governments, relevant international organizations and other stakeholders were invited to submit written comments on the second version of the Draft Users Manual on the CBD Guidelines on Biodiversity and Tourism Development.

The draft user's manual will be further improved in light of the comments received and the final version will be made available prior to the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties.