Chapter 6 The environmental impact of tourism

1. Chapter 6The environmental impact of tourism

2. Learning Objectives of this Lecture • To gain an understanding of the physical impacts of tourism on the environment (direct and indirect) • To review strategies and techniques that may be implemented to measure the impacts of tourism on the environment • To gain an appreciation of the difficulties of assessing environmental impacts; and • To examine some real-life examples to encourage the application of theory to practice.

3. The environment and tourism • The environment whether it is natural or artificial, is the most fundamental ingredient of the tourism product. • However, as soon as tourism acticity takes place, the environment is inevitably changed or modified either to facilitate tourism or through the tourism production process. • Environmental preservation and improvement programmes are now an integral part of many development strategies

4. The environmentand tourism • Relatively little search has been undertaken within a standardized framework to analyse tourism’s impact on the environment. • The empirical studies have been very specific case studies – such as the impact of tourism on wildlife, the pollution of water, or on particular coastal areas and mountains. • But the diverse areas studied , the varying methods used to undertake those studies make it difficult to bring findings together in order to assemble a comprehensive framework within which to work.

5. Fundamentals for the Studyof Environmental Impacts of Tourism • In order to study the physical impact of tourim, it is necessary to establish a framework and we need to have an understanding of the following basic issues: • The physical impacts created by tourism activity • What conditions were like before tourism to derive a baseline • An inventory of flora and fauna, together with some unambiguous index of tolerance levels to impacts • The secondary levels of environmental impact associated with tourism activity.

6. Fundamentals for the Studyof Environmental Impacts of Tourism • The environmental impacts associated with tourism development, just like the economic impacts, can be considerd in terms of direct, indirect and induced effects • Again some of the impacts can be positive and some negative • It is not possible to develop tourism without incurring environmental impacts, but it is possible, with correct planning, to manage tourism development in order to minimize the negative impacts while encouraging the positive ones.

7. Environmental Impactsof Tourism • There is a tendency to get exaggerated in the literature – focused on the negative and limited with respect to positive impacts • It is difficult to determine tolerance levels and limits of acceptable change in the environment. • As mentioned before, tourism’s environmental impacts occur at 3 levels, and what examples can be provided for positive and negative environmental impacts at each level?

8. Examples ofPositive Environmental Impacts On the positive side, the direct environmental impacts include the followings; • The preservation/restoration of ancient monuments, sites and historic buildings (the Great Wall-China, the Pyramids) • The creation of national parks and wildlife parks (Yellowstone Park-USA, the Maasai Mara Park-Kenya) • The protection of reefs (Australya) and beaches (Grand Anse-Grenada) • The maintenance of forests and other natural sites (New Forest-UK)

9. Positive Environmental Impacts • Conservation and preservation may be rated highly from the point of view of researchers or even tourists. • However if such actions are not considered to be importance from the host’s point of view, it may be questionable as to whether they can be considered to be positive environmental impacts. • When evaluating the net worth of preservation activities the opportunity costs associated with such activities must also be taken into consideration.

10. Negative impacts • On the negative side, tourism may have direct environmental impacts on the quality of water, air and noise levels. • Sewage disposals into water will add to pollution problems. • Increased usage of internal combustion engine for tourist transportation, oil burning to provide to the power for hotel equipments all add to diminution(diminish) of air quality. • Noise levels may be dramatically increased in urban areas through nightclubs, and other forms of entertainment as well as by increased roads and air trafic

11. Negative Environmental Impacts Physical deterioration of both natural and built environment acn have serious consequences as the followings; • Hunting and fishing impact on the wildlife env. • Sand dunes(hills) can be damaged and eroded by overuse • Vegetation(flora) can be destroyed by walkers • Camp fires may destroy forests. • Ancient monuments may be disfigured and damaged by graffiti, eroded or literally taken away by tourists • The construction of tourism superstructure utilizes real estate and may detract(lessen) from the aesthetics • The improper disposal of litter can detract from the aesthetic quality of the env. and harm wildlife.

12. Examples ofNegative Environmental Impacts • The erosion of paths to the Pyramids at Giza –Egypt by the camels used to transprt tourists • The dynamiting of Balaclava Bay (Mauritus) to provide a beachfor tourist use • The littering of Base Camp on Mount Everest- Nepal, by tourists and the erosion of the pathway to this site.

13. Negative Environmental Impacts • The building of high rise hotels on beach fontages is an environmental impact of tourism that achieves headline status. • Tourism activites can put scarce natural resources such as water, under severe pressure. • Tourists tend to be far more extravagant with their use of water than they are at home. • Tourism is responsible for high levels of air and noise pollution through the transportation networks and leisure activities. • For ex. Air transportation is claimed to be a significant factor in global warming and tourism is responsible for the vast majority of intarnational transport.

14. EnvironmentalImpact Assessment - EIA An EIA will examine: • environmental auditing procedures • limitations to natural resources • environmental problems and conflicts that may affect project viability • possible detrimental(harmful) effects to people, flora and fauna, soil, water, air, peace and quiet, landscapes, cultural sites, etc. that are either within the proposed project area or will be affected by it.

15. Motivations forundertaking EIAs • to determine a development’s impact upon a specific ecology • to determine the financial costs of environmental correction • to compare alternative developments in order to allocate resources • to raise the profile of environmental issues.

16. EIA Process Figure 6.1 The environmental impact assessment process

17. Early EIAs are Important at the Development Stage Because… • It is easier to avoid environmental damage by either modifying or rejecting developments than it is to rectify(correct) environmental damage once a project has been implemented; • projects that rely heavily upon areas of outstanding beauty may become non-viable if such developments degrade the environment.

18. Environmental Indicators There is a wide range of EI’s that can be used. However few countries have investigated data collection procedures to monitor these environmental variables (indicators). The criteria for indicator selection are that they should; • Provide a representative picture of conditions or society’s response • Be simple, easy to interpret and able to show trends over time. • Be responsive to to changes in the environmentand related human activities • Provide a basis for international comparisons • Be either national in scope or applicable to regional environmental issues of national significance • Have a threshold or reference value against which to compare it.

19. Environmental Indicators If we take look at the basic necessary characteristics of the indicators, they should be; • Objective • Measurable • Transparent • Unambiguous (unclear) and they should also have their strengths and Weaknesses

20. Environmental Auditingand EIAs – the Difference • environmental audits are generally voluntary in nature while EIAs tend to be written into the legislature and required as part of the planning approval process • environmental audits are part of an ongoing process – even a sense of attitude – rather than the one-off EIA studies • environmental audits are concerned with performance and focus on how well a process is functioning. In this sense the environmental audit should become part of the organisational structure of private and public sector bodies alike.

21. Environmental Audits - Aspects • An assessment of the system, how it functions and the implications of its operation. • A rigorous(hard) testing of the system to see how its performance compares with some optimal ideal or benchmark performance. • The certification of the results from the above comparisons.

22. Environmental Action Plans • Examples can be found at global, regional, national and sub-national levels • Generally implemented in order to enhance the net effects of tourist activities and move towards some consideration of environmental sustainability

23. Environmental Impact Statements • Similar to EIAs and are often the outcome of an EIA • Studies that estimate the potential or expected environmental impacts of proposed actions or developments

24. Environmental Management Systems • An environmental review – base line impact studies that produce environmental inventories of the businesses’ activities and functions. • An environmental policy – a publicly stated set of identifiable and achievable objectives. • The design of an implementation and environmental system – setting out the mechanisms by which the objectives will be pursued. • An environmental audit – which can be used to measure the business’s actual performance against its declared objectives.

25. Conclusion • Environmental impacts are not unique to tourism • Tourism receives a disproportional share of criticism for its negative environmental impacts • Environmental impacts manifest themselves at the direct, indirect and induced levels • No single unified framework available yet, but • Impacts should be studied within a single framework that integrates environmental with other types of impacts