environmental impact assessment in sustainable tourism

Environment Impact Assessments tools vital for sustainable tourism development

Sustainable tourism development, as defined by the World Tourism Organization, is tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social, and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities.  The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the leading regional agency for the protection of the environment in the Pacific, has contributed to strengthening sustainable tourism development in the Pacific by developmening various environmental planning and assessment tools, which were highlighted during the second day of the 10th Pacific Island Conference on Nature Conservation and Protected Areas.  SPREP Environmental Planning Adviser, Mr Jope Davetanivalu, presented the sustainable tourism planning tools during a session on “Sustainable and Regenerative Tourism in the Pacific – Tools for Making Progress”.  He outlined why these tools are important for sustainable tourism development.  “The objective of environment assessment is to prevent and mitigate undue harm that can be caused to people and their environment in the development process,” Mr Davetanivalu said.  Mr Davetanivalu’s presentation focused on one tool in particular, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Guidelines for Coastal Tourism Development in Pacific Island Countries and Territories.  “In 2018, a partnership between SPREP and the Pacific Tourism Organisation, with its Member countries and partners, endorsed these guidelines.  The purpose of the guidelines is to help increase awareness and understanding of the EIA process across the Pacific region’s tourism sector. It also aims to promote best practice EIA for coastal tourism development, while assisting national and regional authorities with promoting and facilitating a biodiversity-inclusive EIA process in marine and coastal areas. “This is vital because there have been a lot of impacts of coastal tourism developments such as coastal erosion, destruction of ecosystems such as mangroves, and solid waste pollution due to poor planning and assessment. These impacts are unhealthy for our biodiversity,” Mr Davetanivalu said.  Strengthened partnerships and relationships amongst important stakeholders such as government agencies and tourism developers will be formed through these Guidelines that will encourage them to comply with national EIA regulatory requirements. It also supports sustainable and resilient development that protects the environmental, social and cultural assets of coastal environments, which provide a foundation for tourism and livelihoods in our region.  “The Guidelines provide tourism operators and developers with tools and prompts on things to consider to make their developments more sustainable. They are used by SPREP and SPTO members to raise capacities of the tourism industry on how to make decisions on future tourism developments,” added Mr Davetanivalu.  He also revealed that the Environment Assessment Guidelines have been used by a few of the region’s tertiary institutions to train future regulators and decision makers in the area of environment assessment and planning.  “As we continue to build and strengthen our island resilience to the impacts of climate change and sea level rise, the Guidelines provides us with an important tool to assist us in making sound planning and informed decisions towards sustainable and regenerative tourism development,” he concluded.  The “Sustainable and Regenerative Tourism in the Pacific – Tools for Making Progress” session was held on 25 November, 2020. The 10th Pacific Island Conference on Nature Conservation and Protected Areas is being held virtually from 24 – 27 November 2020. It is being organised by the Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, and hosted by the Government of New Caledonia.  For more information on the conference, please visit www.pacificnatureconference.com .  For more information on the Environmental Impact Assessment Guidelines for Coastal Tourism Developments in Pacific Island Countries and Territories, please contact Mr Jope Davetanivalu at [email protected] .   

Exploring the application of environmental impact assessment to tourism and recreation in protected areas: a systematic literature review

• Published: 09 February 2024

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• Gabriela Francisco Pegler   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6147-6983 1 ,
• Clara Carvalho de Lemos 2 &
• Victor Eduardo Lima Ranieri 1  

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Over the years, concerns regarding the effects of tourism and recreational activities on protected areas have been consistently raised. The establishment of recreation ecology dates as far back as the 1920s and 1930s, marking efforts to address these concerns. Throughout the development of this field, a variety of tools and procedures were proposed for managing and monitoring the impacts of recreation, such as the recreation opportunity spectrum, limits of acceptable change, visitor activity management process, visitor impact management (VIM), visitor experience and resource protection, and the protected area VIM. In addition to these tools, environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a valuable approach for informing decision-making processes and predicting the environmental consequences of activities that may cause significant environmental degradation, thus aligning tourism and recreation with the goals of preserving protected areas. The purpose of this paper is to identify and critically discuss how environmental impact assessment is contributing to improving decision-making and management of public use in protected areas, with a focus on methodological approaches, the extent of its application and reported outcomes. To achieve this, we conducted a systematic literature review and established a preliminary connection between the methodologies for evaluating and monitoring the impacts of public use proposed in the reviewed articles and EIA. Our findings indicate that EIA can contribute in four main ways: firstly, by being applied prior to the implementation of the activity, secondly, by using methods to identify and predict impacts, thirdly, by applying monitoring procedures, and finally, by providing tiered steps to facilitate better decision-making.

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This work was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES—Brazil). The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available on request from the corresponding authors.

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Pegler, G.F., de Lemos, C.C. & Ranieri, V.E.L. Exploring the application of environmental impact assessment to tourism and recreation in protected areas: a systematic literature review. Environ Dev Sustain (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-024-04532-6

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How Environmental Impact Assessments Promote Sound Tourism Investments

An evaluation of possible project impacts helps preserve culturally and environmentally important sites and protect nearby communities.

Tourism has the potential to contribute to economic growth and generate substantial foreign exchange earnings. In many countries in Asia and the Pacific, tourism ranked high in government’s development plans , especially for those rich in tourism assets but lacking in manufacturing ability.

However, tourism development can also have adverse effects unless the proper measures are in place to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth.

Tourism assets include protected areas, such as cultural heritage sites. Because these sites are crowd-drawers and with national or international mandates to maintain or secure their value, managing them demands clear policies and careful development planning. These sites are mostly centuries-old and require extra caution when building structures or introducing improvements near them.

Tourism investments or projects that concern heritage sites, therefore, must be assessed properly to avoid or minimize any adverse impacts not only to these sites but to their surrounding communities as well. Facilities and service enhancement components of projects should also be evaluated.  

Conducting an environmental impact assessment can help decision makers identify, predict, evaluate, and mitigate adverse environmental impacts and consequences of development projects or activities prior to major decisions and commitments.

A project funded by a government or international financial institution requires appraisal of its technical feasibility and financial and economic viability. In the wake of the damages caused by unregulated growth and rising public awareness, the assessment of potential environmental and social consequences was added since the late 1960s to feasibility studies. This is mainly through the environmental impact assessment.

Proponents must look at the environmental consequences and compare feasible alternatives that may reduce these consequences. The discussion on alternatives is described by academia as the “heart” of the environmental impact assessment process. All reasonable alternatives must be considered, including “no action.” At the end of the process, the authorities decide whether the project can go ahead, the conditions for it, and the measures that must be taken to reduce the residual adverse effects.

An environmental impact assessment has three objectives:

• Aid investment decision-making—specifically whether to finance or reject a proposed project.
• Optimize and inform project design by comparing alternatives and modifying components. Or design to minimize or avoid altogether the negative consequences from the outset.
• Mitigate the residual impacts by developing and implementing actions, like in the form of an environmental management plan.

In most countries and international financial institutions, project proposals are first screened to quickly judge their environmental impacts. Subsequently, they are classified as having low, medium, or high impact, which require different levels of intensity for assessment and management.

• Minimal-low impact projects need no further assessment.
• Assessment for medium-impact projects focuses on informing and optimizing the project design.
• Assessing high-impact projects is critical to the investment decision. Projects can be vetoed on account of the dire social–environmental consequences revealed by the environmental impact assessment.

A proposed Asian Development Bank (ADB) project in Cambodia demonstrates how an environmental impact assessment process can optimize the design of a tourism investment.

Two project areas

In northern Preah Vihear province, 11 kilometers south of the famous Preah Vihear temple, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, the local government proposed expanding and dredging a lake in front of the new tourism center near the project village. During the project discussions, environmental experts cautioned against its adverse impacts on ecology and water resources management. Instead, they suggested to fund only a small improvement around the lake, such as a garbage clean-up, and focus on village sanitation and waste management—which are indispensable for tourism and improves the wellbeing of communities. Lake and riverside investments were reduced to a simpler landing, walk paths, and viewing platform with budget saved to finance sanitation investment and basic solid waste management. Public toilets and standard latrines with septic tanks for homestay pilots were also suggested and considered by both project areas. 

The second one is near Phnom Da temple in Angkor Borei district, Takeo province, 80 km southeast of Phnom Penh. This district Phnom Da temple is one of these and is on the UNSECO’s tentative World Heritage list. The project intends to support high-value agriculture to strengthen the tourism–agriculture linkage and to supplement income during the low season. The environmental impact assessment flagged the potential pollution and health and safety issues associated with conventional commercial agriculture. It narrowed down activities to eco-farming, specifying the provision of water-saving equipment and trainings on safe cultivation and veterinary practices. Following the Ministry of Agriculture’s suggestion, pest and disease control to minimize chemical usage were integrated in the training plan.

How it protects cultural heritage

Originally, new stairways and viewing platforms were proposed close to the monuments in both project areas. This proposal was dropped as the Heritage Department of the Ministry of Cultural and Fine Arts (MOCFA) and UNESCO’s National Office in Cambodia, during the consultation, indicated that such could affect the integrity and authenticity of physical cultural resources.

For the second project area, the local cultural department also proposed placing a simple staircase and platform at a small archeological excavation site. According to the heritage protection law of Cambodia, light structures that are more than 30 meters from the cultural property boundary are allowed. The MOCFA considered the platform and railing as light structure and supported the investment. However, building the structure near the excavation site entails the transportation of construction materials and equipment and generates noise and vibration, which may structurally weaken the nearby heritage sites. These are typical residual impacts that the EIA process has identified and aimed to address (i.e. third objective) through developing mitigation measures.

The environmental impact assessment was the basis for the mitigation measures that formed the physical cultural resource management plan—also a part of an environmental management plan. This plan specifies measures during design, construction, and operation phases. It stipulates the maximum height of buildings (two stories) and construction materials selection. It requires that heavy machinery and equipment should be avoided, and the use of manual construction and transportation methods are preferred to the extent possible. It is incorporated into the bidding documents. During implementation, a physical cultural resource conservation expert with engineering experience will be recruited to plan and supervise all work related to this.

In addition to the usual maintenance and supervision measures, the management plan specifies measures to prevent and control fire risks and electric hazard, drawing on the experience of recent projects in other countries.

Climate change risk assessment is part of the environmental impact assessment process for ADB. Two-thirds of the project village in this district is flooded during raining season, and climate change is expected to make the situation worse. Extra caution in the location and choice of technologies for some project structures, such as underground septic tanks to avoid inundation and related health hazards, was recommended.

Meaningful consultation begins with full disclosure of information.

Following the completion of the assessment, the entire draft, including the environmental management plan, was translated into Khmer and disclosed at both project areas and among key stakeholders.

To allow sufficient time for the stakeholders to digest the information, the last and most comprehensive round of consultation was conducted about a month after the disclosure.

Key stakeholders, such as the Ministry of Environment, reviewed and provided written comments. The final assessment, specifically the management plan, incorporated all comments to facilitate domestic environmental compliance.

Overtourism is a major cause for deterioration of heritage sites. This might not be an issue for Cambodia in the short term given its small population and the time it will take for international tourism to recover because of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Nonetheless, the environmental management plan recommended to identify the maximum number of tourists allowed per day or year through a survey and data collection during operation for rational planning of tourism development and expansion of public utilities and services.

With a $3 million investment, the project can support the basic sorting and collection of solid wastes, but not the downstream garbage disposal. The environmental impact assessment suggested that garbage disposal in both project areas is primitive, with no public funding for proper disposal facilities in the foreseeable future. This is a common challenge in rural Asia. Tourism development however demands decent sanitation and hygiene conditions, including sewage, excreta, and garbage management. As tourism in the project areas develops, further work is needed to identify suitable sanitation technologies that are compliant to basic standards, cost-effective, and easy to build, operate, and maintain by local people.

Asian Development Bank (ADB). Cambodia: Community-Based Tourism COVID-19 Recovery Project.

A. Pedersen.2002. Managing Tourism at World Heritage Sites: A Practical Manual for World Heritage Site Managers. Paris, France: UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA). Principles of Environmental Impact Assessment Best Practices.

M. Helble and A. Fink. 2020.  Reviving Tourism Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic . Manila: Asian Development Bank.

Ask the Experts

Once an ADB safeguard reviewer, Xin Ren now works on environmental issues in rural sector. Prior to ADB, she worked at World Bank on environment in diverse sectors. She also worked at UNEP and in the People’s Republic of China on waste management and clean production, and at UNFCCC on climate change.

Leonard has worked in the agriculture, energy, and transportation sectors, covering sovereign lending and project-finance. He conducts integrated financial and economic analysis to identify risks and mitigation measures, inform financial structuring, and confirm project viability.

The Asian Development Bank is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region. Its main instruments for helping its developing member countries are policy dialogue, loans, equity investments, guarantees, grants, and technical assistance.

View the discussion thread.

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The views expressed on this website are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or its Board of Governors or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. By making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area, or by using the term “country” in this document, ADB does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area.

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Towards sustainable tourism: EIA of natural environment in Sawa lake using RIAM method

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Salih Zahraa , Abaas Zaynab; Towards sustainable tourism: EIA of natural environment in Sawa lake using RIAM method. AIP Conf. Proc. 22 August 2023; 2793 (1): 060003. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0163350

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Sustainable tourism is included in all sustainable development goals directly and indirectly as a significant aspect of achieving sustainability. Therefore, when planning any project, it becomes necessary to conduct an environmental impact assessment (EIA) to increase the preservation of natural and built environments. One of these processes is the rapid impact assessment matrix (RIAM). Accordingly, the research used RIAM as an integrative tool to measure the potentialities of Sawa Lake to promote sustainable tourism. This method includes social and economic components in addition to environmental and physical elements and the possibility of future modification and re-assessment. The research found multiple positive and negative effects of the site and suggested some mitigating factors to move towards the chance of developing sustainable tourism.

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Ecotourism or ecological concerns? Tracing the impact of economic policy uncertainty and natural resources on tourism-driven ecological footprints

Affiliations.

• 1 Institute of Energy Policy and Research, Putrajaya Campus Universiti Tenaga Nasional, 43000, Kajang, Malaysia. [email protected].
• 2 School of Hotel Management, Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management, SOA Deemed To Be University, Odisha, India, 751030.
• 3 Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, Delhi, India, 110007.
• 4 Institute of Energy Policy and Research, Putrajaya Campus, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, 43000, Kajang, Malaysia.
• 5 Humanities and Social Sciences, SOA University, Odisha, India, 751030.
• PMID: 38630401
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-024-33244-7

The influence of tourism development and economic policy uncertainties on environmental sustainability is substantial. Promoting responsible tourism and using sustainable tourism practises, like offering eco-friendly lodging, is a key part of protecting natural habitats and lowering carbon footprints. Hence, this study tries to examine the relationship between tourism development, economic policy uncertainty, renewable energy, and natural resources on the ecological footprint of India during 1990-2022. This study applies a novel dynamic ARDL simulation approach for long-run and short-run analyses. The study also employs frequency-domain causality to check the causal relationship between the variables. The result reveals that tourism has a positive effect on the ecological footprint. Similarly, economic policy uncertainty has a positive and significant effect on the ecological footprint in India during the sample period. Additionally, natural resource rent shows a positive effect on the ecological footprint or deteriorating environmental quality in the short and long run in the sample period. However, renewable energy consumption indicates a negative effect on the ecological footprint. The results reveal that TDI and EPU have rejected the null hypothesis of no Granger cause in the long, medium, and short term. While renewable energy has a causal relationship with ecological footprints in both the long run and medium run, it is imperative for India to adopt measures that facilitate the advancement of sustainable tourism, with a particular focus on promoting environmentally friendly lodging options, enhancing public transportation systems, and implementing effective waste management strategies.

Keywords: Ecological footprint; Natural resources; Renewable energy; Tourism sustainability; Uncertainty.

© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Kalbarri locals fight planned Murchison Hydrogen Renewables Project saying it will ruin 'natural beauty'

As Australia and the world chase a target of net zero global emissions, a new renewable technology is at the forefront — green hydrogen.

But a small, coastal town in Western Australia's Midwest is pushing back against a planned green hydrogen production plant nearby, with some locals saying it will destroy the region's natural beauty and serenity.

The Murchison Hydrogen Renewables Project would see the construction of large-scale facilities, as well as hundreds of wind turbines and thousands of hectares of solar panels to power them.

The project would be built just north of Kalbarri, a town about six hours north of Perth, where the local economy depends on tourists who are attracted by its picturesque landscape and laid-back vibe.

What's the catch?

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and it can be used as a fuel — but there is a catch.

On Earth, hydrogen does not naturally exist as a pure element, meaning technology is required to isolate the hydrogen from whatever other element it is attached to.

The most common way to do this is to split hydrogen from oxygen in water through a process called electrolysis, in which an electric current is passed through water, splitting the two elements and allowing them to be collected.

This process is often powered by fossil fuels, and is extremely polluting.

The difference with "green hydrogen" is the electrolysis process is instead powered by renewable energy such as wind and solar, meaning there are no greenhouse gas emissions.

Untapped potential

Liam Wagner, an energy economist and associate professor in sustainable energy systems at Curtin University, says Australia is in a unique position to capitalise on the push towards green hydrogen.

"Australia has the highest incidence of solar power — so photons, hitting our continent — of any other continent," he said.

 "And we have an enormous potential to install solar electricity generation. And one way to obviously use and store the electricity that would generate is via either hydrogen or ammonia.

"We could be, again, an energy superpower, we could be exporting more energy in terms of joules than we do for LNG and coal combined.

"The potential is absolutely enormous."

The perfect spot?

The Murchison Green Hydrogen (MGH) backed project would see the construction of an electrolysis plant, desalination factory, an ammonia conversion plant, and marine export facilities.

More than 500 wind turbines and up to 10,000 hectares of solar panels would also be constructed to power the buildings.

MGH chief executive Shohan Seneviratne said Kalbarri's natural characteristics of wind and solar energy potential, as well as its coastal location, made it a perfect site for the project as all these attributes were essential. 

It has access to sea water which which will be desalinated and used in the electrolysis process, with the water also providing a means for exporting the green ammonia overseas via ship.

"The combination of these factors makes the location an ideal location for the production of green hydrogen," Mr Seneviratne said.

Construction could start mid-way through 2026, pending planning and environmental approval.

The project will be reviewed by the Western Australia Environmental Protection Authority before a recommendation is made to the state government.

There are eight total submissions as part of the review process, and the project will also undergo a four-week public consultation period.

Community concern

However, a local group named Keep Kalbarri Beautiful is opposing the project, saying it would ruin the environment and natural beauty of the area.

Wind turbines would be visible from major tourist points, and residents are concerned about the town's water supply during the construction period.

An online petition to stop heavy industry development has garnered more than 3,000 signatures so far.

The group's leader, Mick Mcintyre, said there was no place in the world like Kalbarri.

"Kalbarri has got this brand of nature that is raw and you are not going to get it anywhere else," he said.

Mr Mcintyre said the project would take up a "massive" tract of land that is otherwise pristine coast.

"I'm all for green energy and all that sort of stuff and there has to be a way forward somehow, but to do it in places where you have got pristine beauty?" he said.

"Why would we want to destroy that in one fell swoop? It just doesn't make sense."

Mr Seneviratne said MGH was working with community members, but conceded some of their concerns — like visible wind turbines — could not be avoided.

"We are in the development phase of the project and in line with that, we are able to take in feedback from the community into our development and design decision-making process," he said.

 "Will that eliminate all of those things? That's unlikely to happen.

"However, our primary aim is to ensure that community have accurate and up-to-date information about the project on which they're basing their views."

MGH said the project would create an estimated 3,000 jobs during construction, with 450 ongoing local roles.

Striking the right balance

Dr Wagner says consultation and parties working together is the key.

"It's extremely important for proponents of these types of facilities to engage with community and to ensure that people in the community understand the benefits to them, and the benefits to the country and the rest of the world, in this case," he said.

"If people, particularly the proponents, don't engage with them, that's why they find it difficult to accept a new industry moving in.

"The infrastructure, I think should be built in parallel with community development and … the proponent's manufacturing side, and I think that there needs to be all the co-benefits built in to these types of projects."

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