Linking Culture and the Environment

R.J. Payne et al. 95
and tourists. Where tourists are seen by local people to be very different from
themselves (i.e. in activity preference, in income or in attitudes towards
nature) or to benefit from opportunities or rights unavailable to them, distrust
and even animosity may develop towards tourists. People on the north shore
recognized that it might be a considerable challenge to balance the demands
of the tourism industry with their existing (local) lifestyles. More specifically,
residents expressed concern that where facilities were developed in existing
lakeshore communities, those facilities should be available to both tourists
and local people alike. They also hoped that local people would garner the
largest portion of economic benefits from tourism, expressing opposition to
large-scale, transnational commercial tourism enterprises which would drain
those benefits out of the region.
A significant component in this theme concerns the potential for conflict.
While local people value hunting, fishing and camping, there is some recognition
that tourists may prefer other, less consumptive forms of activity.
Several people pointed to the potential for conflict between, for example,
kayakers and power boaters. When one set of activities is identified with
tourists and another different set with local people, the result may be negative
host–tourist interactions.
Another dimension of this theme comprises the feeling among local
people that tourists cause environmental degradation. Garbage and human
waste near known campsites were attributed to existing tourists who possess
neither the knowledge nor the sensitivity to act more appropriately.
A final element under this theme expresses a fear among local people
that the Lake Superior shoreline and/or the islands will be rendered inaccessible
to them because of private, tourist-orientated development. Local
people feel strongly that they do not want to become second-class citizens in
their own region and province.
Tourism’s environmental impacts
A second major issue reflects the belief held by residents that increased tourism,
of any sort, will cause unwanted environmental degradation. Local people
have little doubt that large-scale tourism developments are sure to be
accompanied by negative environmental effects. However, they recognize
that even their preferred smaller-scale versions of tourism development
could cause some environmental degradation. As examples, people in the
forums pointed out the following environmental effects:
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conspicuous human waste associated with relatively low-impact camping
on several of the islands;
accumulations of garbage at similar sites;
fouling of (drinking) water in-take areas with effluent from boats; and
loss of fish habitat when tourism facilities are constructed in the shore
zone.
Local people were adamant that tourism developments ought not to despoil
the natural beauty and integrity of the region. Some felt that any tourism development
ought to be required to undergo an environmental impact assessment;