tourism and environmental conservation: conflict...

Tourism and Environmental Conservation Conflict Coexistence or Symbiosis

by

GERARDO BUDOWSKI PhD(Yale)

Director-General ad interim International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN)1110 Morges Switzerland future address Forestry Sciences Department

Centro Tropical de Investigation y Ensenanza (CATIE) Turrialba Costa Rica

INTRODUCTION

This paper deals with the idea that three differentrelationships can exist between those promotingtourism and those advocating conservation of NatureThese relationships are particularly important whentourism is partly or totally based on values derivedfrom Nature and its resources

1) Tourism and Nature conservation can be inconflict particularly when the presence of tourism andwhat it implies is detrimental to Nature and its re-sources The result is that conservationists see such arelationship with at least some degree of unhappinessmdashnot to put it more stronglymdashand naturally they

often fight back with all kinds of interdictions or otherrestrictions

2) There can be coexistence when the two campsmdashthe tourist industry and those promoting the cause ofconservation of Naturemdashestablish relatively littlecontact This can be because neither tourism norconservation is well developed in an area or because ofadministrative barriers or very widely because of theignorance of each concerning the others field How-ever this situation of coexistence rarely remains staticparticularly as an increase of tourism is apt to inducesubstantial changes so that this stage is followed eitherby a mutually satisfactory relationship (symbiosis) orby conflict (if things go the wrong way)

3) Finally there is the state of symbiosis in whichtourism and conservationists are organized in such away that both their disciplines derive benefits from therelationship From the conservationists point of viewthis means that while natural assets are conserved asfar as possible in their original condition or evolvetowards an even more satisfactory condition anincreasing number of people derive wider benefitsfrom Nature and natural resourcesmdashwhether in aphysical aesthetic cultural scientific or educationalsense Of course there are economic advantages tooSuch mutual support between tourism and conserva-

tion can and should contribute to the realization thatconservation of Nature can indeed be a useful tool forachieving a better quality of life

All three types of interaction and their variationsexist as numerous examples throughout the worldclearly show Unfortunately for the majority of casesat present the relationship between tourism andconservation is usually one of coexistence movingtowards conflictmdashmainly because of an increase intourism and the shrinking of natural areas Could it bethat provided the objectives and ways of operating arewell understood on both sides such relations wouldeventually lead to a symbiotic relationship Obviouslythe attainment of such a goal should be attempted

In recent years there has been virtually an explosionof tourism concerned with wildlife wildlife areasscenic beauty based on natural resources and so onIt is not the purpose here to analyse the various reasonsbehind such a growth They include more leisure timeincreased interest of a larger and larger proportion ofthe widely-increasing human population who are nowconditioned to enjoy these values and variouseconomic factors such as better salaries improvementof communications cheaper group-travel and expand-ed and improved accommodation facilities The fact isthat such increased tourism is taking place throughoutthe world and is unavoidably affecting the resourcesupon which it is based To a considerable extent it hastaken by surprise the organizations dealing with theadministration and management of natural areas sothat they are ill-prepared to withstand its impact

The net result has been a widespread degradation orreduction in the assets of Nature and with it oftourism Many of the places visited by tourists supportfragile ecosystems that cannot endure heavy distur-bance (eg Jubenville 1974 Usher et al 1974) Aftersaturation point is reached or when a critical thresh-old is passed rapid degradation seems inevitableExamples can be found where different types of wildlifedisappear because of increasing human presence noiseor other influence where roads are built to reach spe-cific areas and in doing so destroy their intrinsic scenic

27Environmental Conservation Vol 3 No 1 Spring 1976mdashcopy 1976 The Foundation for Environmental ConservationmdashPrinted in Switzerland

httpswwwcambridgeorgcoreterms httpsdoiorg101017S0376892900017707Downloaded from httpswwwcambridgeorgcore University of Basel Library on 11 Jul 2017 at 125812 subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use available at

28 Environmental Conservation

value or cause ecological disturbance or all too oftenwhere debris and rubbish is dropped by people who arenot conditioned to behave as befits the circumstancesMore subtle and therefore often ignored are theeffects of increased tourism on various human popula-tions living near the natural areas that are being visitedThe sudden arrival of different cultures can be extrem-ely detrimental to the local human resource oftenchanging cultural and economic patterns in unfor-tunate ways This has been largely documented formany places inter alia by Parker (1972) Baines(1975)and Crittendon (1975) Moreover tourism oftenchanges basic land-use patterns and conflicts withtraditional attitudes towards natural resources (egSwift 1972)

Clearly steps need to be taken to avoid a cata-strophic situation Adequate administrative arrange-ments will have to be established but all interestedparties must be made aware of the inherent dangersthat a policy of laisser-faire can lead to Those whohandle tourism must be adequately educated to re-cognize the dangers and equally conservationiststhroughout the world should be made to understandthat tourism rather than being stopped must be betterplanned and controlled

THE CHALLENGE OF CONSERVATION

Conservation was defined during the IUCN GeneralAssembly at New Delhi in 1969 as management of theresources of the environmentmdashair water soil miner-als and living species including Manmdashso as to achievethe highest sustainable quality of human life (In thiscontext management includes surveys research legis-lation administration preservation utilization andimplies suitable education and training)

This is a long step from the former restrictiveapproach centred on preservation which has too oftenbeen confused with privilege for the rich and educatedUnderstandably this has been resented by the poorand hungry Conservationists have often had to wagea lonely fight against changes affecting wild areas andin doing so have been identified as conservative oropposing progress Thankfully this old concept ofconservation is fading out rather rapidlymdashand none toosoon Preservation remains of course an essential toolfor conservation programmes and its application incombination with other conservation measures cansuccessfully lead to progress and development in parti-cular as wildlife and wild areas can be made to pro-duce

MUST TOURISM BE DETRIMENTAL TO CONSERVATION

The answer to this question is more often than notnegativemdashprovided appropriate steps are taken The

classic case is of course that of degradation of alimited resource by a large number of tourists leadingto many kinds of deteriorationmdashsuch as physicaldamage poor waste-disposal vandalism and so on(Jubenville 1974 Usher et ah 1974) Instances are toowell known to require further comment Otherfactors however which usually pass unrecognizedseem to be much more importantmdashincluding the con-struction of buildings and roads and other facilitiesfor tourist visitation in natural areas

The policy of building hotels restaurants road sys-tems andor even viewing-points in a natural areawhich may be immediately favourable to the develop-ment of tourism has recently been heavily criticizedat various meetings The decision to interfere with thephysical setting of a natural area is extremely compli-cated and should not be undertaken lightly As ageneral rule it is felt that most natural areas maintaintheir greatest values if they are left untouched If this isnot possible in and around most natural areas that aremanaged as such particularly in national parks carefulzoning should be instituted and rigidly maintained(Fig 1)

This usually means that a few areas are accessible tothe general public while the majority remain as uii-disturbed as possible although if circumstances per-mit access may be allowed on foot But some areasmust remain completely protected and become strictreserves The location and construction of hotels androads needs very careful planning and should involveconsultations with ecologists and the people whomanage the parks The latter people should obviouslyhave a clear understanding of the present and futurerequirements of tourists

Past experience particularly in those countries wheretourism based on Nature has increased dramaticallyclearly shows that most former projections of touristimpacts were inaccurate all too often there had beenno assessment because the value of keeping naturalareas as much as possible in their natural state was notrecognized Now the situation has changed and insome parks of the USA for example buildings thathad been erected for tourist accommodation are beingtorn down motor traffic is being restricted and theimpact of tourism is being reduced or otherwisecontrolled The intention is not so much to limit theflow of visitors as to redistribute them in space andtime

As a general rule it is found most advisable tohave hotels and recreation centres situated outside thenatural area and to provide some kind of an informa-tion and interpretation centre at the entrance How-ever there are exceptions in some places for instancein some of the large game-parks in East Africa it hasbeen found necessary to have the hotel just within thepark so that the park authorities can better control the


Budowski Tourism and Environmental Conservation Conflict Coexistence or Symbiosis 29

FIG 1 Visitors to Isla Plaza in the Galapagos archipelago looking at seals and birds The photograph was taken when visitorswere still permitted to move around critical areas without any restrictions For the past few years visitors have had to be accompanied

by a guide and stay on certain trails as a result of the negative impact on the animals Photo Dr Myron D Sutton

management of the hotel and its guests The otherundesirable extreme is where the hotel is built close tothe main attraction of the park

More important perhaps is the decision as to whoshould manage the park Because of the upsurge oftourism and the glamour it holds there has been atendency particularly in some developing countriesto entrust the management of natural areas with apotential for tourism to the authorities who deal withtourism This can be fatal because the people who arethus left in charge are rarely qualified to understanddelicate ecological relationships or to administer parksand nature reserves in such a manner that they canfulfil the purposes for which they were createdNational parks for instance have been created princi-pally to preserve unique and exceptional featureswhereas other areas not connected with nationalparks have often been established for the primarypurpose of promoting tourism IUCN has recently hadthe opportunity to intervene in a number of cases to getthis simple message acrossmdashnamely that nationalparks and equivalent reserves should not be entrustedsolely to those promoting tourism

THE SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP

Obviously tourism and conservation can benefitmutually from each other Tourism helps by lendingsupport to those conservation programmes which willdevelop educational scientific and recreationalresources with the objective that they in turn willattract more and different kinds of tourists There areas yet only a few cases where this has actually beenachieved but the potential is very great

A good case is the various tours organized in theGalapagos Islands Here the tourists are accompaniedby highly qualified guides so that they may enjoy andprofit from their trip yet are prevented from causingmore than a minimum of disturbance to the veryinteresting yet highly vulnerable local fauna and flora(Fig 1) Both the tourists and the tourist companiesare contributing financially towards the EcuadorianGovernment-Charles Darwin Foundation conserva-tion programme The Foundation has established itslaboratories on one of the islands and has under-taken scientific research on the fauna flora andgeology of the archipelago This is more than a



simple question of providing money the tours peoplegive financial and moral support that is directed to-wards the right type of action and in part towardsmaking tourism as compatible as possible with conser-vation aims

Many more places could mutually benefit from sucha relationship Perhaps the project which IUCN is atpresent involved in called The Green Book (ofOutstanding and Endangered Landscapes) will help inthis respect The Green Book will take the form of aloose-leaf book identifying and describing outstandingand endangered landscapes which are not or are onlypartially protected

In many countries tourism can be aimed at attract-ing university teachers and specialists in for instancebirds plant ecology or systematic botany In CostaRica it has been estimated that such a trend it bringingthe country about one million dollars annually whichis considerable considering that the human populationis less than two millions and the annual budget is small(Fig 2)

PROMISING LINES OF ACTION

There can be no doubt that the next few years willwitness an acceleration of the dwindling of resourcesthat are susceptible to be managed for tourism conse-quently at the present stage it is most important to tryto foresee future needs Planning the management ofnatural resources for national and international tour-ism must receive high priority particularly in develop-ing countries where there are heavy population pres-sures on resources as well as critical trade deficits Ofcourse what is needed is the lifting of nature conserva-tion to a much higher level of significance in the plan-ning and development process of many countries

This would be a radical change from the past wheneconomic and social factors gave food production andindustrialization a top rating and there was littleconcern for natural resources But times are changingand the amazing growth of tourism as a money earnerhas brought about considerable adjustments alreadyand seems destined to bring about far more in thefuture

TOURISM CAN SUCCESSFULLY INVEST IN CONSERVATION

The most promising ways in which tourism caninvest in conservation appear to be the followingmdashnotnecessarily listed in order of importance as they areapplicable in varying degrees in different countries orregions(a) As a general guideline the tourist industry should

support conservation organizations financially asan investment to further its own interests thoughsometimes it may be necessary to attach conditionsto such financial aid It is quite clear that financialcontributions will be particularly productive if

FIG 2 Cloud-forest in Volcan Poas National Park close toSan Jose Costa Rica The cloud-forest is a very fragile eco-system and visits by the ever-increasing number of tourists (closeto 100000 in 1974) are being restricted by carefully managed andsupervised schemes along trails Photo Dr Gerardo Budowski

they are made to those organizations whether theybe governmental or private that fully comprehendthe mutually beneficial relationship between con-servation and tourism

(b) There is a dire need to create parks reserves andother protected areas to meet the growing require-ments of the tourist industry This demands alarge amount of research and planning forexample to locate and create a system of nationalparks and equivalent reserves for each countryHowever at this stage little coordination seemsto have been achieved with the tourist industryeven if it is possibly the principal consumer

(c) Much greater cooperation is needed between thetourist authorities and the national parks andwildlife authorities regarding the planning of sitesand the construction of hotels and related facilitiesmdashparticularly access roads

(d) Tourist authorities should actively contribute tothe efforts made by conservation groups in thepreparation of guidelines for tourist groups innatural areas the adoption of a code of ethicsand other forms of bringing the right messageacross to the consumers

(e) Support should be provided to make tours andother tourist facilities connected with natural



areas available to schools university students andsimilar groups at specially reduced rates

() The tourist industry should assist in the establish-ment and maintenance of interpretation andinformation centres connected with national parksand other natural areas Again it is the initialeffort and the training of the necessary personnelwhich are needed most urgently at present

(g) Tourist authorities might assist in preparing andediting publications that explain the naturalresources and their attributes to the general publicThese should help tourists to understand the ecolo-gical functioning of natural parks the reasons whyzoning and long-term planning are essential andwhy some areas must be closed to the public

(h) Tourism can play a role in supporting educationand training activities that deal with the tourism-conservation relationship For example coursesmight be offered for the guides who take tourists toparticular areas and also for wardens and parkpersonnel connected with tourist activities Manyschools for park administrators are desperately inneed of such support

CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY

A new and promising field has appeared as a result ofthe increased tourist industry based on natural re-sources though too often such expansion has beenachieved without due planning and has taken manypeople by surprise Conservationists and their organi-zations have often reacted adversely to this invasion

but this need not be so There are many reasons andexamples which prove that a change of attitude leadingto a symbiotic relationship between tourism andconservation in the wide sense can offer a very largevariety of advantages and benefitsmdashphysical culturalethical and economicmdashto a country

A tourist industry can expect a brilliant future basedon natural assets of the environment provided dueconsideration is given to the ecological principles whichmust guide resource-use The alliance of those respon-sible for tourism with ecologists and conservationists isa natural one that should contribute greatly todevelopmentmdashthe right kind of development involvingthe right kind of changemdashleading to a better quality oflife for all concerned

References

BAINES G B K (1975) The environmental demands of tourismin coastal Fiji Paper presented to the May 1975 WaiganiSeminar on The Melanesian Environment Change andDevelopment Port Moresby Papua 14 pp (mimeogr)

CRITTENDON ANN (1975) Tourisms terrible toll InternationalWildlife 5 (2) pp 4-12

JUBENVILLE Alan (1974) Conservation organizations andwilderness usemdasha time for policy appraisal EnvironmentalConservation 1 (2) pp 93-9 4 figs

PARKER Ian (1972) The other side of the coin African WildlifeLeadership Foundation News 1 (1) pp 2-6

SWIFT Jeremy (1972) What future for African national parksNew Scientist 55 pp 192mdash4

USHER Michael B PITT Michael amp BOER George de (1974)Recreational pressures in the summer months on a naturereserve on the Yorkshire coast England EnvironmentalConservation 1 (1) pp 43-9 4 figs

The Natural Landmarks Program of the United States

The United States National Park Service is currentlyengaged in the identification evaluation and registrationof outstanding portions of Americas land and waters asNatural Landmarks These are areas having geological orecological values of national significance and often representecosystems reflecting an image of how the country appearedprior to the advent of European settlers The objectivesof this programme are to foster the preservation of theseoutstanding sites to enhance their scientific and educationalvalue and to strengthen the publics cultural appreciationand conservation awareness of Americas heritage of natu-ral history

The identification and evaluation of sites are based onvarious themes or categories which describe almost allthe natural environments or phenomena found in the UnitedStates Examples are deserts volcanoes streams marineenvironments and tundra Some areas contain overlappingthemes whereas others may represent only one themeUnique or magnificent scenery is often a quality of a NaturalLandmark but is not essential Rare species of flora orfauna or concentrations of wildlife may be present Inevery case the area must reflect integrity by being undefiledand a true essentially unspoiled example of Nature Twocases of existing Registered Natural Landmarks are Cork-screw Swamp Sanctuary in Florida and Shishaldin Volcanoin Alaska

Natural landmark studies are based on natural regionsand are largely physiographic in origin More than thirtysuch natural regions have been listed by the National ParkService (Fig 1) Studies have been completed in five ofthesemdashthe Atlantic Coastal Plain the Arctic Lowland(Alaska) the Great Plains the Wyoming Basin and theSouth Pacific Bordermdashand are under way in eleven othersThe remaining natural regions will be scheduled for studywithin the next two years

Only areas having exceptional value are recommendedby each regions study team as being potentially eligible forinclusion in the National Registry of Natural LandmarksOutstanding sites are then visited by competent fieldpersonnel and a written evaluation is made of each Thesereports are reviewed by the National Park Services regionaloffices and its Science Center (see below) Sites that appearto qualify as natural landmarks are then presented to theSecretary of the Interiors Advisory Board for recommen-dation and ultimately the Secretarys approval To date330 sites have been officially listed The projected numberafter all the natural-region studies have been completed andfield-evaluated is between 2000 and 3000

When a site is finally approved the owner of the areawhether private or public is invited to apply for a certificateand a bronze plaque is installed which designates the siteas a Registered Natural Landmark The owner must agree



value or cause ecological disturbance or all too oftenwhere debris and rubbish is dropped by people who arenot conditioned to behave as befits the circumstancesMore subtle and therefore often ignored are theeffects of increased tourism on various human popula-tions living near the natural areas that are being visitedThe sudden arrival of different cultures can be extrem-ely detrimental to the local human resource oftenchanging cultural and economic patterns in unfor-tunate ways This has been largely documented formany places inter alia by Parker (1972) Baines(1975)and Crittendon (1975) Moreover tourism oftenchanges basic land-use patterns and conflicts withtraditional attitudes towards natural resources (egSwift 1972)

Clearly steps need to be taken to avoid a cata-strophic situation Adequate administrative arrange-ments will have to be established but all interestedparties must be made aware of the inherent dangersthat a policy of laisser-faire can lead to Those whohandle tourism must be adequately educated to re-cognize the dangers and equally conservationiststhroughout the world should be made to understandthat tourism rather than being stopped must be betterplanned and controlled

THE CHALLENGE OF CONSERVATION

Conservation was defined during the IUCN GeneralAssembly at New Delhi in 1969 as management of theresources of the environmentmdashair water soil miner-als and living species including Manmdashso as to achievethe highest sustainable quality of human life (In thiscontext management includes surveys research legis-lation administration preservation utilization andimplies suitable education and training)

This is a long step from the former restrictiveapproach centred on preservation which has too oftenbeen confused with privilege for the rich and educatedUnderstandably this has been resented by the poorand hungry Conservationists have often had to wagea lonely fight against changes affecting wild areas andin doing so have been identified as conservative oropposing progress Thankfully this old concept ofconservation is fading out rather rapidlymdashand none toosoon Preservation remains of course an essential toolfor conservation programmes and its application incombination with other conservation measures cansuccessfully lead to progress and development in parti-cular as wildlife and wild areas can be made to pro-duce

MUST TOURISM BE DETRIMENTAL TO CONSERVATION

The answer to this question is more often than notnegativemdashprovided appropriate steps are taken The

classic case is of course that of degradation of alimited resource by a large number of tourists leadingto many kinds of deteriorationmdashsuch as physicaldamage poor waste-disposal vandalism and so on(Jubenville 1974 Usher et ah 1974) Instances are toowell known to require further comment Otherfactors however which usually pass unrecognizedseem to be much more importantmdashincluding the con-struction of buildings and roads and other facilitiesfor tourist visitation in natural areas

The policy of building hotels restaurants road sys-tems andor even viewing-points in a natural areawhich may be immediately favourable to the develop-ment of tourism has recently been heavily criticizedat various meetings The decision to interfere with thephysical setting of a natural area is extremely compli-cated and should not be undertaken lightly As ageneral rule it is felt that most natural areas maintaintheir greatest values if they are left untouched If this isnot possible in and around most natural areas that aremanaged as such particularly in national parks carefulzoning should be instituted and rigidly maintained(Fig 1)

This usually means that a few areas are accessible tothe general public while the majority remain as uii-disturbed as possible although if circumstances per-mit access may be allowed on foot But some areasmust remain completely protected and become strictreserves The location and construction of hotels androads needs very careful planning and should involveconsultations with ecologists and the people whomanage the parks The latter people should obviouslyhave a clear understanding of the present and futurerequirements of tourists

Past experience particularly in those countries wheretourism based on Nature has increased dramaticallyclearly shows that most former projections of touristimpacts were inaccurate all too often there had beenno assessment because the value of keeping naturalareas as much as possible in their natural state was notrecognized Now the situation has changed and insome parks of the USA for example buildings thathad been erected for tourist accommodation are beingtorn down motor traffic is being restricted and theimpact of tourism is being reduced or otherwisecontrolled The intention is not so much to limit theflow of visitors as to redistribute them in space andtime

As a general rule it is found most advisable tohave hotels and recreation centres situated outside thenatural area and to provide some kind of an informa-tion and interpretation centre at the entrance How-ever there are exceptions in some places for instancein some of the large game-parks in East Africa it hasbeen found necessary to have the hotel just within thepark so that the park authorities can better control the





































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tourism and environmental conservation: conflict...

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