Linking Culture and the Environment

R.N. Moisey and S.F. McCool 289
what futures are plausible and desirable and the pathways to them. In terms
of tourism development, there are many options leading to multiple future
conditions. Public involvement provides the ‘reality check’ in terms of outcomes
while the role of science is to provide information about causes and
effects, trade-offs and consequences in the decision-making process.
In most cases, competing goals, lack of scientific agreement on cause–
effect relationships and agreement on the degree of acceptable change or
impact characterize tourism planning in a modern context. These wicked
situ ations call for more inclusive and integrative planning processes where
emphasis is placed on mutual learning and consensus building. Planning for
sustainability requires minimizing ecological and social impacts while maximizing
economic and social benefits. But development implies impacts,
which implies trade-offs. Developing appropriate organizing frameworks
to understand these underlying relationships will ultimately lead to more
sustainable decisions.
Several authors in this text (e.g. Leung, Dawson and Ioannides) propose a
variety of planning frameworks or tools that diminish some of the uncertainties
involved in sustainable tourism planning. For example, Leung, Marion
and Farrell (Chapter 2) suggest that the ecological impacts of tourism in
remote areas can be quantified based on recreation ecology research. Dawson’s
(Chapter 3) discussion of the Tourism Opportunity Spectrum illustrates how
a variety of tourism development options can be evaluated in terms of
sustainability.
The potential impacts of tourism development imply trade-offs between
participants, present and future generations, and where likely impacts will
accrue. Collaborative rather than traditional planning styles increase the likelihood
of fair and equitable decisions as they relate to current participants.
Decisions in a collaborative context are born by all affected parties. All those
directly impacted, and to some degree indirectly impacted, should have collaborative
input into forming development goals. Spenceley (Chapter 12)
illustrates the importance of incorporating and giving priority to the needs of
those traditionally left out of tourism development plans. Trau and Bushell
(Chapter 15) provide an example of how indigenous values are incorporated
into managing both the natural resources and the nature-based tourism industry.
But the important question remains: how should the benefits of tourism be
weighed against its costs? And how should these trade-offs be negotiated?
Sustainability implies the protection of future generations’ interests. But,
the advocacy of these interests is dependent upon decision makers in the
present. By ascribing to the goals of sustainability, those in the present implicitly
assume an understanding of the goals, needs, preferences, resources and
relationship between these that may exist in the future. This most likely is not
the case. Explicitly incorporating future opportunities is one of the strengths
of planning for sustainability over more traditional planning approaches that
ignore future costs and benefits or minimizes them through the use of discount
rates. Uncertainty in planning is unavoidable, but should not limit
planning horizons. Yet, we are confronted with the question of who best represents
future generations.