Slide 6.1 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors Chapter 6 The environmental impact of tourism

Slide 6.2 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors 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.

Slide 6.3 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors 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

Slide 6.4 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors 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. The environment and tourism

Slide 6.5 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors Fundamentals for the Study of 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.

Slide 6.6 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors 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. Fundamentals for the Study of Environmental Impacts of Tourism

Slide 6.7 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors Environmental Impacts of 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?

Slide 6.8 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors Examples of Positive 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)

Slide 6.9 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors 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. Positive Environmental Impacts

Slide 6.10 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors 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

Slide 6.11 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors 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.

Slide 6.12 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors 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. Examples of Negative Environmental Impacts

Slide 6.13 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors 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. Negative Environmental Impacts

Slide 6.14 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors Environmental Impact Assessment - Environmental Impact 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.

Slide 6.15 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors Motivations for undertaking 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.

Slide 6.16 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors EIA Process Figure 6.1 The environmental impact assessment process

Slide 6.17 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors 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.

Slide 6.18 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors 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.

Slide 6.19 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors 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

Slide 6.20 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors Environmental Auditing and 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.

Slide 6.21 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors Environmental Audits - Aspects 1.An assessment of the system, how it functions and the implications of its operation. 2.A rigorous(hard) testing of the system to see how its performance compares with some optimal ideal or benchmark performance. 3.The certification of the results from the above comparisons.

Slide 6.22 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors 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

Slide 6.23 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors 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

Slide 6.24 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors Environmental Management Systems 1.An environmental review 1.An environmental review – base line impact studies that produce environmental inventories of the businesses’ activities and functions. 2.An environmental policy 2.An environmental policy – a publicly stated set of identifiable and achievable objectives. 3.The design of an implementation and environmental system 3.The design of an implementation and environmental system – setting out the mechanisms by which the objectives will be pursued. 4.An environmental audit 4.An environmental audit – which can be used to measure the business’s actual performance against its declared objectives.

Slide 6.25 Cooper et al: Tourism: Principles and Practice, 3e Pearson Education Limited 2005, © retained by authors 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