Tourism Segment  -- Dialogue Starter Papers

Coastal Impact of Tourism

Prepared by the UN CSD NGO Steering Committee.
Co-ordinated by Joanne Wesnigk, German Forum on Environment and Development
and Athie  Martin, The Caribbean Conservation Association
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Contents:

  1. Problems
  2. Solutions
  3. Institutional Actions
  4. Possible Partnerships

1. Problems

The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development in 1999 will address both Oceans and Seas and the review of SIDS. It therefore is recognising that,

"The survival of small island developing States is firmly rooted in their human resources and cultural heritage, which are their most significant assets; those assets are under severe stress and all efforts must be taken to ensure the central position of people in the process of sustainable development."

With these words, the Report of the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States identifies the single most important issue to be borne in mind as we address the challenge of survival and development for our islands.

Article 25 of the Programme of Action from the United Nations Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) focuses our attention on another significant consideration:

"Sustainable development in small island developing States depends largely on coastal and marine resources, because their small land area means that those States are effectively COASTAL ENTITIES"

Tourism is one of many anthropogenic activities with a special focus on coastal areas. The two most popular locations for holiday makers are the mountains and the coast. The coastal area or zone, as it is often called, is hard to define, as the area where fresh and salt waters mix contains many complex, diverse and productive ecosystems on- and offshore interacting with each other. New concepts including the whole watershed area seem to be the best approach, especially when aquatic pollution problems are considered. Most problems are related to conflicts between different uses and access restrictions. Tourism leads to increased traffic flow and overcrowding in already densely populated areas. Up to 130 tourists have been calculated per inhabitant in the most popular coastal regions. Therefore tourism adds substantially to the following pressures:

Additional typical tourism impacts are socio-economic conflicts as property and general costs of living are increasing and small communities can be overrun by summer guests, changing the social structure significantly. Foreign customs and expectations can create conflicts and a deterioration of cultural and regional values.

2. Solutions

A major focus should be on the integration of tourism planning and operation of tourist facilities into local planning instruments. Local agenda 21 can play a key role here in ensuring the involvement of all stakeholders. Ideally this would be done in the context of integrated costal area management (ICAM). This instrument bridges sectoral approaches in order to avoid or mitigate user conflicts and it ideally takes into account ecosystem features and physical, not man-made borders. New tourism developments should be planned together with municipal, industrial, agri./aquacultural and nature protection activities to allow for multiple complementary uses and to segregate conflicting activities. Area development plans should inform sector plans which should be incorporated into a coordinated national development plan. All planning should be accompanied by widespread public information dissemination and provide opportunity for discussion leading to integrated coastal zone management. The tourism development strategy should protect local culture, respect local traditions and promote local ownership and management of programs and projects so as to foster community stewardship of the natural resource base. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on a strategic level as well as for projects is an invaluable tool for this stage. Criteria for planning and EIA should be: During the operation of tourism facilities several instruments can be applied to enable sustainable development. The details have to be developed according to the use and together with the local community, the facility operator and local NGOs. Local Agenda 21 could play an important role here. They will be different for a diving site than for a big hotel complex. Modern instruments, which should be and partly are already applied in the tourism industry are: However, all these efforts will be in vain, unless carrying capacity limits can be agreed upon in a dialogue and on a case-by-case basis. These limits have to follow sustainability criteria and have to come out of discussions on the development objectives and the natural and cultural values to be protected. They can be tiered in respect to nature use, number of beds and other facilities for guests, and amount of property to be sold to foreigners. (But management efforts for sustainable development cannot allow an ever increasing growth, which will destroy and, in fact already has, the resources the guests have come to see and experience.) To diminish conflicts a better use of facilities over the year, instead of only in a short season of two to three months should be aimed at.

These limits have to be probably most strict for "nature use". Here the introduction and implementation of ranger and guide systems together with limits regarding the number of visitors can lead to increased awareness and control at the same time. As a simple example may serve the different approaches to beach litter. Instead of excessive beach cleaning of all organic matter a plastic litter clean-up by volunteers plus hands-on teaching on the biota originally inhabiting the beach and its natural detritus like algae and wood could reinstate an appreciation of nature.

We also believe that the recommendations for action at the national, regional and international levels have been detailed in the SIDS Program of Action (1994), at the CTO Conference on Eco-tourism in Dominica (1997) and more recently in the CEP Technical Report No. 38(1997) need to be implemented.
 

3. Institutional Actions

Actions on several levels are necessary. First and foremost the historically grown sectoral approach to managing coastal issues relating to tourism and other uses has to be changed substantially. Under the lead of one coastal agency, all stakeholders, especially local people and NGOs, but also sectoral agencies, small and medium enterprises and industry representatives should meet regularly to promote sustainable development of their coastal area.

The planning process and the operation of tourism developments should reflect the country's commitment to the guidelines set out in international accords such as Agenda 21 and the SIDS Program of Action. Depending on the region this could mean enhancing human resource development including public awareness building and training; institutional strengthening and networking. Lessons learned in one community should be accessible to others.

This will start the ICAM process, which is a goal-directed planning and decision- making process. ICAM leads to inter-agency and inter-sectoral collaboration, resulting in operational decision-making with strong public participation and feed-back mechanisms. ICAM could mean in practice:

In the long term a development plan should be devised and discussed thoroughly in order to achieve a common understanding on the objectives and necessary restrictions. As all coastal areas contain particularly sensitive sites, environmental protection has to feature strongly in this planning process, with representatives from government nature protection agencies and NGOs having an equal standing with all other participants. Depending on the nature of the coastline, regional and intergovernmental collaboration may be necessary in addition to local initiatives. For some issues such as the reduction of pollution and especially eutrophication co-operation on a larger regional scale is necessary. Maybe the Baltic Sea States, consisting of very poor and rich states (can serve as example) which are co-ordinating their fight against pollution under the Helsinki Convention, funding projects in neighbouring countries according to a list of hot spots. They have just finished the development of a joint Agenda 21 for the development of the Baltic region, including tourism. Generally national plans should be converted into area development plans which would provide the local context within which enterprise-level proposals can be evaluated. All these plans should inform and be incorporated into wider regional plans.

As integrated processes take time, tourism umbrella organisations should start with voluntary self restraint, until locally adapted objectives have been reached. In the north, which bears the brunt of worldwide tourism, a development of quality tourism should be the focus for the future instead of an increase in quantity. The term quality should include ecological and social carrying capacities at the same time as being economically sustainable. In the south tourism development objectives should be developed according to the local needs. A specially developed Code of Conduct, taking into account inter alia the Coastal Code of Conduct by EUCC and the Berlin Declaration on Biological Diversity and Sustainable Tourism, could lead the way. Environmental management should become a standard of operation as well as social accountability thus leading to sustainable development.
 

4. Possible Partnerships

Additionally to those partners mentioned above, there is a major role for environmental and social NGOs to play. The involvement of local initiatives, heritage and nature protection organisations and agencies can lead to a balanced ICAM process in the spirit of the Agenda 21.

Umbrella organisations, such as scuba diving, boating, and yachting associations should develop and promote the application of codes of conduct focussing on environmental and sustainability issues in their respective fields.

The Convention on Biological Diversity contains an ecosystem approach which is consistent with the ICAM logic. Its experts could sensibly focus on questions of nature use and ecological carrying capacities for sensitive sites in order to obtain harmonized worldwide standards with legal standing.

 The instruments and strategies are all already developed, now is the time to utilise and combine them in local dialogue processes.

 
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