The Unfenced Desert Towards a strategy for eco ... - Nwrc.gov.sa

♦ Unforseen or uncontrollable circumstances locally or regionally, such as
unexpectedly wet or windy weather, even hurricanes, floods, droughts, or outbreaks
of disease or of civil or cross-border disturbance; anything that may prompt potential
tourists to seek alternative destinations.
♦ Fashion, for as Child (1995: 220) writes: “Tourism is a fickle mistress.”
The presence of more technologically advanced, or foreign, often Western, visitors may
influence local lifestyles, and lead to changes in the use of local products; degradation of
living standards, e.g. increased drug and alcohol abuse by tourist workers brought in to
the Santa Cruz Bay development, Mexico (Long 1991); and degradation of traditional
values or religious and cultural standards; e.g. in the Rolwaling Valley in Nepal tourism
induced changes as a result of increased trekking have lead to disintegration of social life
in mountain communities due to increased orientation of young people to the outside
world, decreased relevance of old-people’s experience, and reduced willingness by young
people to attend traditional festivals (Baumgartner 1991).
These negative impacts on protected areas will be exacerbated where the reserve lacks
funds, lacks staff, lacks expertise, and above all lacks the necessary planning framework
within which to address these deficiencies and is therefore unable to harness benefits for
the protected area or for local communities.
At the regional, local and park level the lack of strategic planning becomes critical since
economic impacts of well planned tourism can be significant on local communities, but
the environmental and social impacts of poorly regulated tourist development may be
devastating.
Failure of central government to account for local tourism-related development needs
has sometimes resulted in action by regional or local groups, or independent national
NGOS to organise and plan tourist development along sustainable lines. Sometimes
these efforts may stimulate government action; e.g., regional concern over the negative
impacts of tourism in the Annapurna area lead to the formation of the NGO based
Annapurna Conservation Area Project in 1986, which aims to minimise impacts of
trekking and maximise benefits to local communities (Gurung 1992). These efforts have
been supported by special legislation that allows ACAP to retain revenue from visitor
fees, revenue that in other cases would go to the general Treasury (Wells 1994).
Elsewhere regulatory initiatives may be less readily accepted by central government. The
high profile Campfire programme in Zimbabwe aims to regulate use of wildlife,
including trophy hunting, to maximise community involvement in the planning and
management of, and financial gain from tourism; however such community involvement
is not easily accepted by a government which has retained ownership of communal lands
(McIvor 1994).
A number of studies have set out the necessary components for the formulation of
national, regional and local tourism plans, indicating the importance of the following
(after Boo 1990; Preister 1991; Singh 1991; Lawrence 1994; Ceballos-Lascurain 1996;
Roe et al. 1997).
♦ Identification of information needs and resources.
♦ Clarity of aims and objectives, i.e. how and where should tourism be developed.
♦ Multi-disciplinary information gathering to assess tourist attitudes and the potential
impacts, scale, types, location and benefits of current and future tourism, to identify
primary attractions and to set appropriate parameters for planning policy.
♦ Analysis, including consideration of tourist markets and global trends, a review of
legislative and financial aspects, and setting of carrying capacity guidelines.
♦ Plan and policy formulation, with:
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