Linking Culture and the Environment

R.J. Payne et al. 81
economic, social and ecological dimensions. It is this term, with all of its meaning
and breadth, which is adopted for the remainder of this chapter.
The Rio conference on Environment and Development in 1992 focused
attention on implementing sustainability. One of the important outcomes of
the Rio conference, Agenda 21, speaks of the necessity to integrate sustainability
considerations into natural resource decision making:
Its successful implementation is first and foremost the responsibility of
Governments. National strategies, plans, policies and processes are
crucial in achieving this. . . . Other international, regional and subregional
organizations are also called upon to contribute to this effort. The broadest
public participation and the active involvement of the non-governmental
organizations and other groups should also be encouraged.
(United Nations Development Programme, 1992, chapter 1.3)
Although Agenda 21 recognizes that all sectors must play a role in achieving
sustainability, the role of government is understood to be the backdrop
against which contributions will be made.
This more practical interpretation of sustainability is related to a number
of initiatives to define and to monitor sustainability, some of which are applicable
to tourism:
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codes of conduct;
best practices management;
ISO 14000 environmental management standards;
sustainability indicators; and
bioregional governance.
Codes of conduct are found in a variety of tourism settings and are the specific
behaviour guidelines that are based on principles to which individuals
and/or companies are expected to adhere (see Fennell and Malloy, 2007). The
UN Environment Programme (UNEP) published one of the first international
reports to review voluntary environmental codes of conduct for tourism
being used in a number of countries (UNEP, 1995; see also Mason and
Mowforth, 1995). For example, codes of conduct for both tourism operators
and tourists have been advocated by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
through its initiative to develop principles to link Arctic tourism and conservation
(Johnston and Mason, 1997; WWF, 1998). These codes include guidelines
for behaviour related to the wildlife and landscape, as well as to local
people. The importance of minimizing negative social and cultural impacts
and of involving local people in tourism development to some extent is
emphasized in most codes of conduct for tourism operators.
Another initiative with implications for tourism and sustainability
focuses on best practices management. Sustainability is not necessarily a goal
in best practice management: goals are as diverse as the activities to which
the best practices initiative is applied. The reasoning for the best practices
approach is straightforward: find examples of excellence in management and
use them as exemplars to improve management elsewhere in that sector.
Harris and Leiper (1995) present a best practices approach to sustainable
tourism in Australia. The authors surveyed large and small tourism operations