Tourism, environment and development: Values, sustainability and stewardship

The present concern for sustainable development and environmental protection poses questions for tourism developers and the managers of destinations about the values which are afforded the environment of tourism. Development has often ignored the values of local people and as a result has failed to take account of naturally occurring changes in the natural resource itself. At the same time, it is possible to acknowledge both the values and the changes in the design of new tourism destinations so that both the local resources and the tourism product have better chances of sustained use.

Vincent May is Professor in the Depart- ment of Tourism and Heritage Conserva- tion, Bournemouth Polytechnic, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Dorset BH12 5BB, UK.

Submitted March 1990; accepted January 1991.

‘Eg E. Cohen, ‘Impact of tourism on the physical environment’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol5, 1978, pp 215237; E. de Kadt, ed, Tourism: passport to development?, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 1979; J. Pigram, ‘Environmental implications of tourkm development’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol7.1980. DD 554- 583; and P.P. Karan and C: Math&: ‘Tour- ism and environment in the Mount Everest region’, Geographical Review, Vol 75, 1988, pp 93-95.

Tourism, environment and development Values, sustainability and stewardship

Vincent May

Famine, floods, disease, blooms of red algae, drought, rising sea-level and changing climate have made headlines and entered the lingua franca of politicians over the past year. In a global system where many species and habitats are fragile but change is normal, tourism can bring about the destruction of its own resources and add to the pollution and degradation of the earth.’ Yet it is arguable that the recognition of the potential losses to economies as a result of deteriorating quality in the tourist’s environment has led to considerable improvement of some parts of the earth’s surface.

This article sets out to:

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review some of the effects of the growth of tourism in the developing world; show how a concern with the three phenomena, tourism, environment and development, raises questions for us about the ways in which we value our planet; consider ways in which the wider issues of environmental management can be integrated with tourism; outline methods which may help safeguard the earth’s best attri- butes and its abundance of resources for future generations to value.

Tourism and environmental values

Many models represent well the patterns and flows of tourists and money, but do not emphasize sufficiently the role of information flows within the tourism system. These flows include perceptions and evalua- tions of tourism products by both tourists and professionals. Their attitudes affect and respond to the activity of tourism itself, which presupposes particular views of the value of recreation and leisure. Comparison is also an underlying drive to much travel and tourism. The places to which we travel are inhabited by people who have different values expressed in their styles of work, dress and architecture, and in many other artefacts and modes of behaviour. These values can be affected and may be fundamentally altered by tourist behaviour when guests’ values impinge upon those of hosts.

112 0261-5177/91/020112-07 0 1991 Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd

Tourism, environment and development

All parts of the earth play a role in the life of the human species. The interplay of humans and their environment may be intense and direct (eg in farming and urbanization) or it may be more remote and indirect (eg in our attitudes to remote and wild places or to the impact of atmospheric or oceanic pollution). The nature of any place is made up of plants, animals, soil, water and air and the people who occupy them however temporarily. How they treat it depends upon their needs for survival, their technology and the ways in which they value it and conserve it for future users. Traditions, customs, organizations and laws all play their part in the integration and interaction of people with their environment. In order to sustain their future usefulness, there are often specific policies or practices designed to conserve natural resources. Damage to the same resources and processes upon which future use depends is brought about by:

0 the pressures of population on land; 0 inadequate means of transporting plentiful supplies to areas of

need; 0 land degradation itself.

These overwhelm the sense of design and stewardship which many individuals and communities have made part of their philosophy for living. Individuals and small communities are usually the means of interaction between human society and its environment. Many small actions may have little individual effect, but together they can be influential in bringing about degradation of the environment or its enhancement. The natural environment, as well as the built human habitat, is used by all humans within a framework of ideas, experience and expectations, which affects our approach to its exploitation or management. The values of a community can be the most critical component in any scheme of environmental management. Different communities, for example from donor countries, often judge these issues from different systems of values and expect different outcomes. Attitudes also differ towards the future and there are conflicts between short-term and long-term objectives. In brief:

0 values form a basis for judgments about the natural environment; 0 values are not fixed by place or time; 0 decisions about the environment. by one group or in one place

impinge on others.

Many of these issues impinge directly on the tourist, for it is during outdoor leisure that the modern urban dweller comes most intensely into contact with the natural world. Although it is short-lived, this contact often places the tourist in an intense person-environment relationship comparable to that of traditional farmers or fishermen. The more sensitive tourist is thus alerted to the risks and quality of this symbiotic relationship.

Impact of tourism

Tourism has its main impact in the destination areas, along transport routes and around service areas. There are two types of impact - those which are associated with structures (hotels, roads, aircraft etc) and those resulting from the tourists themselves. The spread of the car and its polluting effects, the impact of noise and demands for land around

TOURISM MANAGEMENT June 1991 113


airports are greater because of the growth of tourism. They have sometimes been introduced by the spread of tourism itself. In destination areas the impact of tourism can sometimes appear dramatic and longlasting. But is it ? For example, the spread of tourism into the Himalaya brought with it trails of litter, waste and extensive cutting of timber for firewood. The Himalaya have long been a centre of pilgrim- age (a strongly value-driven form of tourism) but the respect for nature demanded of the pilgrim and the relatively small numbers did not cause environmental degradation. Why should degradation have come with the trekkers in the 196Os? The increased numbers of visitors posed problems, but even greater effects arose out of the different values of the visitors. Attitudes to the provision of services changed and so did attitudes to the land. Social relations and conditions changed. Hot showers and meals demand heat for which wood is the sole source. As woodlands have been stripped, erosion has removed soil and land has been abandoned.

There is, however, another side to this argument. The mountains of the Himalaya are young active geomorphological systems in which erosion is widespread, rapid and spectacular. The growth of population has been associated with a spread of farming on to slopes which are potentially highly unstable. The spread of tourism, while providing income, has accelerated an already devastating loss of forest and soil. While it will be difficult to repair much of the environmental damage associated with tourism, steps have been taken to reduce future impact with the introduction of small hydro-electric generators and legislation requiring trekkers to carry kerosene stoves. Some of the human elements can be reversed, the environmental effects are more difficult. Attempts to return conditions to an earlier state are likely to meet strong resistance. For example, many senior mountaineers are now arguing through the medium of such organizations as Mountain Wilder- ness for greater protection of the mountains and even the removal of high-level lifts. The perceived potential loss of income from reductions in tourists certainly stiffens resistance to such proposals.

Like this example, most development projects raise several important questions. To what extent has tourism:

0 accelerated these changes; 0 altered the local inhabitants’ evaluation of their environment, and

their way of life; 0 drawn attention to the risks to these communities which arise as a

result of both increased exposure to other cultures and their naturally hazardous surroundings?

0 the potential to offset the most damaging scenarios; 0 a constructive role to play in the sustainable development of poorly

endowed regions?

Sustainability of environmental resources

Much tourism occurs in locations which are particularly sensitive to change, eg mountains, coasts, lakes, savanna. Many of these locations are not only peripheral to the world economy in its traditional sense but also extremely vulnerable to environmental change. The species, the habitats, the physical features and the people of these areas are adaptable to change. As beaches shift or landslides occur, villages are moved or fields replanted. However, when tourism occupies such

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Tourism, environment nnd development

vulnerable areas it often brings an infrastructure of accommodation, routes and services which are fixed. Like all urban communities, they

are unable to adjust rapidly to environmental change. Indeed, they set out to prevent it. For example, many recent hotels and resorts are built beside sandy beaches, 60% of which are affected by erosion.” If they or other economic resources are not also to be lost, seawalls. groynes and other structures will be constructed to hold back the sea, often at great cost. The most recent example is the Japanese defence of the island of Okino Ton Shima, less than one metre across, against erosion. Its disappearance would deprive the Japanese of their exclusive fishing and seabed mining rights under the provisions of the Law of the Sea over about 390 000 km2 of the western Pacific.’

Environmental change within the human time-scale may be attributed to three key groups of effects:

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long-term changes associated with the natural variability of the earth’s processes; short time-scale intensive events, which often reveal themselves as disasters; changes associated with human occupation of the earth’s surface, many of which are deliberate, whereas others are accidental and often go unnoticed until their effects are difficult to unravel. Some of these are reversible.

Measures are needed which both maintain or enhance productivity and ensure its continuation into the future.4 Tourism as part of the economy of the developing world depends upon the quality of its natural product. At the same time, it:

0 makes use of water resources; 0 requires land; 0 purchases or imports agricultural and craft products; 0 produces waste, litter and sewage.

Rural communities which do not benefit directly from or contribute to tourism may be seriously affected by the construction of water supply systems or the construction of resorts. As a result, when lowland farmland is taken over by resort development, more marginal steeper lands will be cleared for agriculture. Soil erosion may then not only strip the land of a valuable resource, but also deposit sediment in the normally clear waters around coral reefs. The net result is a loss of soil, damage to coral, a reduced fish population, clouded water, and a damaged tourism product together with a damaged rural landscape. In small islands or coastal plains, excessive demands upon water may lower groundwater levels sufficiently to draw in saline water. In recent years, Malta has faced this problem.’ Inadequate treatment of sewage may lead to eutrophication of lakes, a problem confronted in the well-known

‘E.C.F. Bird, Coastline Changes, Wiley, and popular Dal and Nagin Lakes in Kashmir. Damage to shallow-water

Chichester, UK, 1985. corals, nutrient enrichment and bacteriological contamination, as well 3’Lonely rocks important to Japan’, Geo- as beach erosion have recently been identified as emerging long-term graphica, National Geographic Magazine, Vol 174, No 5, 1988.

difficulties for the growing tourist industry in Barbados.

4World Commission on Environment and In contrast, there is evidence that the important place of tourism in Development, Our Common Future, Ox- some economies has led directly to improvements which have enhanced ford University Press, Oxford, UK, 1987. 5M. Oglethorpe, Recent developments in

the quality of the environment for local people as well as the tourists.

Maltese water supply, Geography, Vol 67, For example, for many years the Indian national press has expressed 1982, pp 62-64. public concern that the beautiful Lake Dal in Kashmir was in danger



both of disappearing and suffering such serious pollution, that tourists would no longer visit it.6 The potential loss of a significant part of the Indian regional economy as a result of environmental degradation stimulated both public and government concern. Pollution from the city of Srinagar was partly responsible for the problem, and so the urban sewage system is being rebuilt. As a result the quality of both the tourist attraction and the urban environment can be improved.

Widespread concern with pollution of beaches around the Mediterra- nean strengthened the arguments for regional management of the Mediterranean Sea. The United Nations Environmental Programme, through its Mediterranean Action Plan, has brought about considerable cooperation between developed and developing countries almost all of which have well-established and growing coastal tourist industries.

Development and stewardship

Governments, individuals and non-governmental organizations alike have been concerned during 1970-90 that economic development should provide lasting opportunities for communities rather than short- term survival.’ This objective remains elusive. Degradation of environment and widespread poverty remain. When the World-wide Fund for Nature celebrated its first 25 years of existence by bringing together leaders of the great world religions in Assisi, Italy, in 1986, statements were made on behalf of each faith about the earth and how it is regarded by them. Bhuddist, Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Muslim delegates expressed their values in similar terms, emphasizing:

0 the principle of symbiosis between humans and all other living organisms;

0 a responsibility of care and stewardship for the planet and all its inhabitants.

Stewardship means recognition of a duty of care to the present and future custodians of the valuable resources of the earth. Design for the future and in particular the use of low energy means of production may be especially important. Can tourism accept the responsibility that where forest is removed for construction of hotels, or land is converted from farmland to resort, it may infringe these attitudes? Since its essence is to take people to attractive, clean and valued places, can it aspire to providing an experience of re-creation and continuity, and also ensure that others following in the same paths may experience the same? Should we make greater efforts not only to understand the values which others place upon their environment, but also bring this more completely to the attention of the tourists visiting them?

Measuring environmental sensitivity to tourism

If development of tourism is to avoid some of the most damaging effects on the natural and human resources of developing countries, it needs to adjust its objectives towards longer-term outcomes and to consider ways in which development can be made more environmentally sensitive. It

6Various editions of The Times of hjia could thus offer greater chances for sustainable development of both

since 1950. tourism and the economy within which it takes place. Given the

‘Eg OECD, The impact of tourism on the economic context of tourism development as an earner of foreign environment, OECD, Paris, 1980. currency and provider of employment, any inclusion of environmental



factors in project design needs to be sufficiently rigorous to meet the demands of economic and financial analyses.

Environmental studies have often not met this need satisfactorily. The use of techniques such as environmental impact assessment and assessment of carrying capacity have, despite considerable difficulties, focused attention on some avoidable conflicts.’ At the same time, environmental appraisal of projects has often projected environmental issues into a position of conflict with development. More sustainable development may be gained from an acceptance that development can take place in harmony with the environment, the people who inhabit it and who value it. New developments always take place in a geographical setting. They draw upon resources and people from other locations and so affect not only the development location itself, but also others. Tourism in particular has widespread geographical effects.

Environmental impact assessment has often not taken sufficient notice of the wider implications of development. As an example, consider the case of a coastal resort in a semi-arid area - beaches, attractive landscape and land are available. How will the new resort’s demands for water be met? Is there already any indication of a problem? Do local women, for example, have to walk further for water? Drawing water from local aquifers may well bring about salination, especially if wells are also being used to irrigate local horticulture. Using inland sources may require dams. What effects may this have on farming communities in the reservoir area, on fish stocks, on stream hydrology? Could an alternative design of resort reduce the pressures on its hinterland? Are there areas of land which are valued by the local communities, or only by the wider international community? Why are they so valued? A better appreciation of the geography of places undergoing development is needed - not only the ecological features, but also an appreciation of the geographical patterns of economic and social activities and the spatial expressidn of the community’s values.

Development, of course, involves money, and perhaps the most difficult issue for much development assessment has been the problem of valuing the environment in a way which allows it to be integrated in the financial and economic models which prevail in development planning. For instance great attention has been given to the plight of whales trapped in the Arctic ice. Probably $1 million per whale was expended. Arguably, the natural ecological processes whereby polar bears draw upon this unexpected bounty were interfered with, but there is no doubt that the present values of North American society set a price. Put into a more clearly tourism-related context, how can we price the potential changes in the nature and quality of a beach and the adjacent sea which result from construction of a resort on the coastline of a tropical country? If the resort is constructed on an eroding shoreline, coast protection works will not be absent for long. How will clearance of land for the resort affect local streams and soil erosion, and how will this affect the beach? Sediment budgets describe the quantities of sediment entering, leaving and retained in the beach. It is not difficult to assess the cost of replacing or retaining the beach.

‘WTO, Risks of saturation or tourism car- There are many similar means by which costs can be established, eg rying capacity overload in holiday destina- the costs of firewood and its volume in a rural market or the time taken tions, MO, Madrid, 1981; and UNEP, ‘Carrying capacity for tourist activities’, In-

to collect water. Environmental accounting, ie the description of the

dustry and Environment, Vol 9, 1986, amounts and rates of change of environmental features, can be accom- pp 2-26. panied by assessment of the costs of keeping the environmental budget



‘Eg G. Hartshorn, et al. Costa Rica Coun- try- Environmental P&i/e, Trejos, San Jose, 1983; and Overseas Develooment Administration, Manual of Environrhental Appraisal, ODA, London, 1989. “‘D. Pearce, A. Markandya and E.B. Bar- bier, Blueprint for a green economy, Earth- scan Publications, London, 1989.

in balance and also the costs of allowing it to run into either surplus or deficit. Environmental accountancy is not easy. The appropriate data are often absent, sparse or unreliable, but this is not a good reason for failing even to attempt to provide answers to the question ‘What will happen if . . .?‘. If the environment is to be valued and the expectations of the faiths mentioned earlier are to be achieved, environmental scientists have a responsibility not only to provide information which can help developers achieve better designs for development, but also to recognize that the values which are given to particular parts of the environment vary from place to place. There is a need to provide appropriate information for non-specialists, so that decision makers are alerted to possible conditions which may militate against sustainable development.

Conclusion

There appear to be six steps which can be taken, perhaps falteringly, to bring us closer to the goal of sustainability:

better understanding of the values attached to people’s environ- ments; more complete information about places, local values and their sensitivity to outside influences; much greater attention must be given to the regional effects of any development - environmental profiles and manuals of guidance are available and provide useful pointers for developers;’ the growing discipline of environmental economics should be ap- plied to the assessment, monitoring and evaluation of developments in tourism as much as to any other sector of the economy;” improved measurements of environmental factors which are sufficiently simple but rigorous to contribute to the process of environmental accounting are needed; tourism developers should recognize that projects should engender long-lasting environmental quality and should be designed so that they are not so threatened by environmental change that their attempts to control it bring about worse effects. Developers should aim at a balanced economy where tourism is not the sole element.

If tourism is to play a constructive role in the maintenance and enhancement of the environment in the developing world, where many of the worst excesses of the so-called developed world have not yet been seen, it needs to consider the values which developers, host communities and tourists alike place on the environment. The tourism industry has a responsibility to ensure that the conditions in which the host community lives do not deteriorate as a result of the development of tourism. Recognition of the local sense of stewardship is important. It can be argued, of course, that tourism brings financial benefits to the communities which it touches, but what are the costs? How carefully do we consider the effects, especially in the long term? These effects should be taken into account so that the returns from tourism are sustained and the communities who replace their way of life with tourism are not made dependent upon the fickleness of the tourist. Above all, tourists can be encouraged to understand and value the environmental heritage and its importance to future generations, for what we enjoy today is often the result of past care for the landscape.


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Tourism, environment and development: Values, sustainability and stewardship