Technical Users Reference List
adaptive management: Adaptive management is a systematic process for continually improving management policies and practices by learning from the outcomes of operational programs.
Akwé:Kon Guidelines: “Guidelines for the conduct of cultural, environmental and social impact assessments regarding developments proposed to take place on, or which are likely to impact on, sacred sites and on lands and waters traditionally occupied or used by indigenous and local communities.”46
The guidelines were developed pursuant to task 9 of the programme of work on Article 8(j) and related provisions and were endorsed by the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity at its seventh meeting, in February 2004.
alien species: A species occurring in an area outside of its historically known natural range as a result of intentional, unintentional or accidental dispersal by human activities, but not an indigenous species that has extended its natural distribution range by natural means of migration or dispersal without human intervention. Also known as exotic, introduced, non-indigenous, or non native species.
audit: Systematic evaluation of an organization’s systems and actions, in order to see if it is doing what it says it will do. It can be carried out by self assessment, by the use of an independent auditor or by a third party verifier. Once an environmental management system has been established, it can be audited on a periodic basis to ensure that it is working properly and that it is doing what it should. Auditing can be used as an internal management tool to improve performance in the tourism industry or to verify compliance with legal requirements.47
biodiversity: The variability among living organisms from all sources, including, ‘inter alia’, terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems, and the ecological complexes of which they are part: this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.48
baseline information: Information collected to provide a standard against which future measurements can be compared.49 Information relating to a specific time or defined area of land or water, from which trends or changes can be assessed.50 A description of existing environmental, social and economic conditions at and surrounding an action.51
biosphere reserves: Established under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, biosphere reserves are a series of protected areas linked through a global network, intended to demonstrate the relationship between conservation and development.
buffer zone: The region adjacent to a protected area or a transition zone between areas managed for different objectives. An area butting a protected area which manages to ensure that the protected areas are not compromised by neighbouring incompatible land use practices.
capacity building: Capacity building encompasses the country’s human, scientific, technological, organizational, institutional and national resource capabilities. A fundamental goal of capacity building is to enhance the ability to evaluate and address the crucial questions related to policy choices and modes of implementation among development options, based on an understanding of environment potentials and limits of socio-cultural and economic needs perceived by the people of the country concerned.52
carrying capacity: The maximum number of people, or individuals of a particular species, that a given area of the environment can sustain without causing environmental, economic or socio-cultural stress or damage. Despite impressive literature in this area, efforts to determine and apply carrying capacity to parks and tourism destinations have often resulted in frustration. The principal difficulty lies in determining how much resource or social impact is too much. The concept of carrying capacity was adapted from range management and was applied to recreation management in the early 1960s. Regarding tourism, carrying capacity is defined as the amount of visitor-related use an area can support while offering a sustained quality of recreation, based on ecological, social, physical and managerial attributes and conditions. The focus is on determining the level of use beyond which impacts exceed acceptable levels specified by evaluative standards. Tourism carrying capacity was later expanded to include development issues and economic and socio-cultural effects on host cultures.53
Carrying capacity includes both descriptive components (e.g., management parameters like the type and extent of use-related impacts) and evaluative components (e.g., value judgements about the acceptability of different levels of impacts). The importance of the evaluative component is often underrated or not made explicit, which masks the subjectivity inherent in the carrying capacity process.54 Subsequent tourism planning and management frameworks were developed for recreation and tourism opportunities, and shift the emphasis from fixed resource capabilities and amount of use to achieving desired conditions.
certification schemes: Set of activities based on rules of procedures and management for the purpose of certifying products in a given category, in conformity with established standards. Certification schemes include ecolabeling programs—programs for which membership criteria are set and a membership fee is paid in return for use of a logo or “seal of compliance”. Compliance requirements vary. There are two types of compliance systems. The first is process-based which have indicators tailored to individual business needs and include progress towards relative standards. The other is performance-based which measures performance against a set of predefined absolute standards. Certification is a hotly debated topic as many questions remain concerning the willingness or interest of the tourism industry to be certified, the fact that there has been little market interest demonstrated in sustainable tourism certification, and the problem of many overlapping schemes.55
co-management: The sharing of authority, responsibility, decision making and benefits between government, private sector, non-governmental organizations and local communities in the management of natural resources.56 Co-management agreements are a vehicle by which the landowner or management authority may enter into an agreement with another organ of state, a local community, an individual or other party to, inter alia: as a means formally import expertise and indigenous knowledge into the management of the protected area. It also serves:
• for apportionment of any income generated from the management of the protected area;
• for benefit sharing between the parties;
• for the co-operative regulation of and setting of visitor densities;
• for the management or use of various attributes of common concern within the protected area;
• for the use of biological cultural resources therein;
• for the development of capacity building and the transfer of expertise;
• for the delegation of powers of the owner or management authority.
codes of conduct & guidelines: Written statements that set out clearly the actions that are or are not appropriate or acceptable in particular circumstances. Codes and guidelines can be used to:
• exercise control, encouraging everyone to abide by a common approach;
• give helpful guidance and improve performance, providing a checklist of actions to follow to achieve objectives.
They provide a mechanism for setting out clear expectations or requirements of tourists, enterprises or other stakeholders, without the back up of laws and regulations. In many circumstances, it may be felt that such non-statutory statements are sufficient to bring about the required approaches, standards or changes in behaviour. Governments may draw up codes and guidelines themselves or may help other stakeholder groups to do so, acting as a broker in this process.
Codes of conduct and guidelines may be reproduced or disseminated in the form of short documents, presented on websites, displayed on notices and promoted through relevant media. Awareness of codes and encouragement to use them may be best achieved by word of mouth and direct distribution to intended users.57
contingency plans: A plan that provides an outline of decisions and measures to be adopted if previously defined circumstances should occur in relation to a specific activity.58 Contingency plans are best divided into two distinct parts. The first should be a descriptive policy document outlining the overall strategy of the plan, while the second should form the operational plan concerned with procedures to be followed when an emergency or unanticipated situation occurs.59
corporate reporting: Allows an enterprise or organization to describe the outcome of its efforts to manage its sustainability impacts and to share this information with stakeholders. Governments can encourage both the use of reporting within the tourism industry and the widening of the scope of its concerns. The use of an agreed set of indicators is an essential part of any reporting activity.
A sustainability reporting framework enables tourism enterprises and organizations to communicate any actions taken to improve economic, environmental, and social performance; the outcomes of such actions and the future strategies for improvement. Reporting can be undertaken at different levels:
• at the level of an individual enterprise or company or across a collection of enterprises trading in a particular tourism segment;
• for a single destination or at a regional or national level.60
cultural impact assessment: The process of evaluating the likely impacts of a proposed development on the way of life of a particular group or community of people, with full involvement of this group or community of people and possibly undertaken by this group or community of people. A cultural impact assessment will generally address the impacts, both beneficial and adverse, of a proposed development that may affect, for example, the values, belief systems, customary laws, language(s), customs, economy, relationships with the local environment and particular species, social organization and traditions of the affected community. cultural heritage impact assessment: The process of evaluating the likely impacts, both beneficial and adverse, of a proposed development on the physical manifestations of a community’s cultural heritage including sites, structures, and remains of archaeological, architectural, historical, religious, spiritual, cultural, ecological or aesthetic value or significance.
Decommissioning: Decontamination and dismantlement of retired, bankrupt, abandoned, contaminated facilities and removal and/or disposal of the resulting wastes61 and the rehabilitation to a state equivalent natural state to that prior construction.
Ecological sensitive zones: An area where public use and development is restricted in order to enhance and protect the native community and natural process over and above any other uses (including recreational) that might be contemplated.62
ecosystem approach: A strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way. Thus, the application of the ecosystem approach will help to reach a balance of the three objectives of the Convention: conservation; sustainable use; and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of biological diversity and genetic resources.
It is based on recognizing the potential gains from adaptive, intersectoral management, as it is usually necessary to understand and manage the ecosystem in an economic context, and on the application of appropriate scientific methodologies focused on levels of biological organization, which encompass the essential processes, functions and interactions among organisms and their environment. It recognizes that humans, with their cultural diversity, are an integral component of many ecosystems.63
The Ecosystem Approach can be applied to the management of tourism and biodiversity by virtue of the important recognition that tourism is dependent upon healthy functioning ecosystems and must appropriately internalize both the costs and benefits of said ecosystems in the evaluation of the costs of operations for the business.
Ecosystem services: Processes and functions of natural ecosystems that sustain life and are critical to human welfare.64
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): Process of evaluating the likely environmental impacts of a proposed project or development, taking into account inter-related socio-economic, cultural and human-health impacts, both beneficial and adverse. Although legislation and practice vary around the world, the fundamental components of an environmental impact assessment would necessarily involve the following stages:
(i) Screening to determine which projects or developments require a full or partial impact assessment study;
(ii) Scoping to identify which potential impacts are relevant to assess, and to derive terms of reference for the impact assessment;
(iii) Impact assessment to predict and identify the likely environmental impacts of a proposed project or development taking into account inter-related consequences of the project proposal, and the socio-economic impacts;
(iv) Identifying mitigation measures (including not proceeding with the development, finding alternative designs or sites which avoid the impacts, incorporating safeguards in the design of the project, or providing compensation for adverse impacts);
(v) Deciding whether to approve the project or not;
and (vi) Monitoring and evaluating the development activities, predicted impacts and proposed mitigation measures to ensure that unpredicted impacts or failed mitigation measures are identified and addressed in a timely fashion.65
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): The Global Reporting Initiative was launched in 1997 as a joint initiative of the U.S. NGO Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) and United Nations Environment Programme with the goal of enhancing the quality, rigour, and utility of sustainability reporting. The initiative has enjoyed the active support and engagement of representatives from business, non-profit advocacy groups, accounting bodies, investor organisations, trade unions, and other constituencies, who have worked to build a consensus around a set of reporting guidelines with the aim of achieving worldwide acceptance.
There are numerous ways to use the GRI Guidelines. An organisation may choose to simply use them for informal reference or to apply the Guidelines in an incremental fashion. Alternatively, an organisation may decide to report based on the more demanding level of “in accordance”. This level of reporting relies on transparency to balance the need for flexibility in reporting with the goal of enhancing comparability across reporters. GRI welcomes all reporting organisations, whether beginners or advanced, as users of the Guidelines.66 The GRI has published biodiversity indicators for the tourism sector,67 they are:
• EN6. Location and size of land owned, leased, or managed in biodiversity-rich habitats.
• EN23. Total amount of land owned, leased, or managed for production activities or extractive use.
• EN24. Amount of impermeable surface as a percentage of land purchased or leased.
• EN7. Description of the major impacts on biodiversity associated with activities and/or products and services in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments.
• EN25. Impacts of activities and operations on protected and sensitive areas (e.g. IUCN protected area categories 1–4, world heritage sites, and biosphere reserves).
• EN26. Changes to natural habitats resulting from activities and operations and percentage of habitat protected or restored.
• EN27. Objectives, programmes, and targets for protecting and restoring native ecosystems and species in degraded areas.
• EN28. Number of IUCN Red List species with habitats in areas affected by operations.
• EN29. Business units currently operating or planning operations in or around protected or sensitive areas.
Guidelines (as Voluntary Compliance Measure): (see Codes of Conduct & Guidelines)
Habitat: The place or type of site where an organism or population naturally occurs.68 The structural environments where an organism lives for all or part of its life, including environments once occupied (continuously, periodically, or occasionally) by an organism or group of organisms that have the potential to be reinstated.69
Hotspot: Areas characterized by having exceptional levels of plant endemism and by serious levels of habitat loss. To qualify as a hotspot, a region must meet two strict criteria: it must contain at least 1,500 species of vascular plants (> 0.5 percent of the world’s total) as endemics, and it has to have lost at least 70 percent of its original habitat.70
Impact Assessment: Impact assessment is a process of reviewing and evaluating the impact of any activity (such as construction of tourist facilities: hotels, lodges, public beaches, or highways), on environmental, socio-economic, and cultural conditions. The only legal tool currently applied in practice for assessing the negative environmental impacts of concrete projects is environmental impact assessment (EIA).
Indigenous and Local Community Impact Assessment: There are special guidelines for impact assessments for indigenous and local communities. They are:
1. Require the proponent to submit a notification, and to undertake public consultation about the proposed tourism development or activities;
2. Identify indigenous and local communities and relevant stakeholders likely to be affected by the proposed development;
3. Establish effective mechanisms for indigenous and local community participation, including for the participation of women, the youth, the elderly and other vulnerable groups, in the impact assessment processes;
4. Establish an agreed process for recording the views and concerns of the members of the indigenous or local community whose interests are likely to be impacted by a proposed development; 5. Establish a process whereby local and indigenous communities may have the option to accept or oppose a proposed development that may impact on their community;
6. Identify and provide sufficient human, financial, technical and legal resources for effective indigenous and local community participation in all phases of impact assessment procedures;
7. Establishment of an environmental management or monitoring plan (EMP), including contingency plans regarding possible adverse cultural, environmental and social impacts resulting from a proposed development;
8. Identification of actors responsible for liability, redress, insurance and compensation;
9. Conclusion, as appropriate, of agreements, or action plans, on mutually agreed terms, between the proponent of the proposed development and the affected indigenous and local communities, for the implementation of measures to prevent or mitigate any negative impacts of the proposed development;
10. Establishment of a review and appeals process.71
Impact Management Plan: A plan designed to set out the mitigation and emergency response measures, monitoring, reporting, management and administrative mechanisms and structures that will be put in place during the various stages of implementing projects, including construction, commissioning, operation and decommissioning.
Incremental costing:The additional development costs required to pay for global, as opposed to strictly national, environmental benefits.72
Land-use planning: A planning process to ensure optimal and sustainable use of the landscape from which defendable decisions may be made for land transformation purposes.
Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC): Developed by the U.S. Forest Service to identify recreation and tourism opportunities and assess human use—impact relationships in order to provide managers with specific steps to determine acceptable conditions and identify management strategies to achieve desired resource and social conditions. This framework does not discard the concept of carrying capacity, but rather shifts the emphasis to achieving desired conditions.73 The LAC process identifies appropriate and acceptable resource and social conditions and the actions needed to protect or achieve those conditions.
This system is entirely designed to balance the interests of users of the resource and management and cannot be used effectively if neither side is willing to compromise on their approaches.
The final product is a strategic and tactical plan for the area based on defined limits of acceptable change for each opportunity class, with indicators of change that can be used to monitor ecological and social conditions. The process focuses on issues and concerns that guide subsequent data collection and analysis.74
Mitigation: Steps taken to avoid or minimise negative environmental impacts. Mitigation can include: avoiding the impact by not taking a certain action; minimising impacts by limiting the degree or magnitude of the action; rectifying the impact by repairing or restoring the affected environment; reducing the impact by protective steps required with the action; and compensating for the impact by replacing or providing substitute resources.75
Monitoring: Intermittent (regular or irregular) surveillance to ascertain the extent of compliance with a predetermined standard or degree of deviation from an expected norm.76
Multi-stakeholder process (MSP): At all levels, organizations and networks are experimenting with MSPs, which can be defined as “processes which aim to bring together all major stakeholders in a new form of communication, decision-finding (and possibly decision-making) on a particular issue. They are also based on recognition of the importance of achieving equity and accountability in communication between stake-holders, involving equitable representation of three or more stakeholder groups and their views. They are based on democratic principles of transparency and participation and aim to develop partnerships and strengthen networks between stakeholders. MSPs cover a wide spectrum of structures and levels of engagement. They can comprise dialogues on policy or grow into consensus-building, decision- making, and implementation of practical solutions. The exact nature of any such process will depend on the issues, its objectives, participants, scope, time lines, etc.”77
National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs): Pursuant to Article 6 (General measures for conservation and sustainable use) of the Convention on Biological Diversity, each Contracting Party shall, in accordance with its particular conditions and capabilities:
(a) Develop national strategies, plans or programmes for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity or adapt for this purpose existing strategies, plans or programmes which shall reflect, inter alia, the measures set out in this Convention relevant to the Contracting Party concerned;
and (b) Integrate, as far as possible and as appropriate, the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity into relevant sectoral or crosssectoral plans, programmes and policies.
The Article creates an obligation for national biodiversity planning. The development and adoption of a national biodiversity strategy is thus a cornerstone to implementation of the Convention by Parties. A national strategy will reflect how the country intends to fulfil the objectives of the Convention in light of specific national circumstances, and the related action plans will constitute the sequence of steps to be taken to meet these goals.
Notification: A programmatic mechanism for evaluation purposes and for alerting interested parties that an event has occurred or will occur, or to request a specific action. Proposers of tourism projects, including government agencies, should provide full and timely advance notice to all stakeholders who may be affected, including indigenous and local communities, of proposed developments.78
Participatory Planning Process: A multi-stakeholder process normally coordinated by governments at the national level. May also be undertaken by local government, and should ensure strong involvement of indigenous and local communities throughout the management and decision-making process. Each stakeholder organization should have a committee representative to act on their behalf. Those responsible for development and activities are en couraged to consult with and involve all relevant stakeholders and especially those who are or may be affected by such developments and activities.
In order to ensure coordination between levels of decision-making, inter- and intra-departmental and inter-organizational structure and processes should be established to encourage full participation in the whole process and guide policy development and implementation.79
Precautionary approach: A method that takes into consideration the following: where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.80
Precautionary principle: A standard that takes into consideration the following: where there is a threat of significant reduction or loss of biological diversity, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to avoid or minimize such a threat.81
Prior informed consent (PIC): Consent based upon an educated/informed understanding of an issue. PIC is required for accessing genetic resources or the associated knowledge held by communities living in the locality.82
Protected Area: A legally established land or water area under either public or private ownership that is regulated and managed to achieve specific conservation objectives.83
Protected Areas Visitor Impact Management (PAVIM): Framework that recognizes management constraints, but like LAC, also incorporates impact problem analyses, the flexibility of multiple strategy selection and public involvement. PAVIM identifies management opportunities and visitor impact problems, includes a problem analysis step employing an expert panel to replace indicators, monitoring and standards, and results in the selection, implementation, and evaluation of visitor impact management actions.84 It has been developed for less-resourced destinations, which may not have the same degree of human resource skills, time, technical expertise, funds, or other resources, than in more developed locations. In contrast to frameworks such as LAC and ROS, it is quick and cost-effective to implement, yet has substantially the same benefits.
Protected landscape: Natural or man-made areas which have been reserved for conservation, scientific, educational and/or recreational purposes.
Ramsar sites: Wetlands of international importance designated under the Convention on Wetlands, an intergovernmental treaty which provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. There are presently 1626 wetland sites, totalling 145.6 million hectares, designated for inclusion in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance.85
Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS): Developed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management in response to concerns about growing recreational demands and increasing conflict over use of scarce resources, and to a desire for an integrated and comprehensive approach to natural resource planning. The framework comprises six land classes (primitive to urban), seven setting indicators of the experience, and the parameters and guidelines for management. ROS maps need to be related to the physical and biophysical characteristics of each area.
An ROS is a mix of outdoor settings based on remoteness, area size, and evidence of humans, which allows for a variety of recreation activities and experiences. The descriptions used to classify the settings are on a continuum and are described as: rural, roaded resource, semi-primitive motorized, semi-primitive non- motorized, and primitive.86
Resource management objectives are approved as part of integrated resource management plans, reflecting the desired Recreation Opportunity Spectrum setting to provide for specific types of recreation opportunities and experiences. ROS links supply with demand and can be readily integrated with other processes, such as the LAC process. It ensures that a range of recreation opportunities are made available on a site.87 The end product is a definition of the opportunity for experience in each setting, the indicators of the experience, and the parameters and guidelines for management.
Recreation Opportunity Zones: An opportunity zone provides a qualitative description of the kinds of resource and social conditions acceptable for that class and the type of management activity considered appropriate. Opportunity zones are not on-the-ground allocations, nor are they derived from specific conditions found within the area. They are hypothetical descriptions of the range of conditions that managers consider likely to be maintained or restored in the area. The designation of opportunity zones often follows the basic Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS) system.
SMART: An acronym to describe objectives, targets and actions that have the characteristics of being Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-Oriented, Time-fixed (eg. a process that has a clear start and finish date).88
Scoping: The process of developing the objectives for a project, timelines, organization structure, and potential risks. Scoping the potential impacts of tourism development in biodiversity areas requires special iterative measures that review the potential impacts of the project and the variety of mitigation measures that might be appropriate to address these impacts. The steps that should be taken to scope the impacts of tourism range from describing the project, the biophysical changes and ecosystems, to defining mitigation and/or compensation measures to avoid, minimize or compensate the expected impacts. The final steps involve providing information on the severity of the impacts.89
Social Impact Assessment (SIA): SIA is a process of evaluating the potential impacts, both beneficial and adverse, of a proposed development that may affect the rights, which have an economic, social, cultural, civic and political dimension, as well as the well-being, vitality and viability, of an affected community. In other words, it is the quality of life of a community as measured in terms of various socio-economic indicators, such as income distribution, physical and social integrity and protection of individuals and communities, employment levels and opportunities, health and welfare, education, and availability and standards of housing and accommodation, infrastructure, and services.90
Strategic environmental assessment (SEA): A process of evaluating the likely environmental impacts of proposed policies, plans or programmes to ensure that they are fully included and addressed at an early stage of decision-making, together with economic, social and cultural considerations.
SEA covers a wider range of activities or a wider area and often over a longer time span than the environmental impact assessment of projects. SEA might be applied to an entire sector (such as a national policy on energy, for example) or to a geographical area (for example, in the context of a regional development scheme). SEA does not replace or reduce the need for project-level environmental impact assessment (although in some cases it can), but it can help to streamline and focus the incorporation of environmental concerns (including biodiversity) into the decision-making process, often making project-level EIA a more effective process. SEA is commonly understood as being proactive and sustainability-driven, whilst EIA is often described as being largely reactive.91
Stakeholder Participation Processes: Decision making procedures which include stakeholders can take three forms:
1. Where information is provided to stakeholders to understand their rights and responsibilities, or to understand the issue, alternatives and solutions that the process will address.
2. The consultation process, where stakeholders raise concerns and comment on the merits or potential impacts of a proposal or activity before a final decision is made. The responsibility for decision making is, however, retained by the proponent or the authority.
3. The collaborative process of shared decision-making in which all stakeholders constructively explore their differences and develop a joint strategy for action.
Collaboration assumes progressive negotiation through dialogue, the provision of relevant information, collectively defined vision objectives and goals, and the willingness and commitment to find a solution acceptable to a clear majority of parties. In so doing, it actively seeks a ‘win-win’ solution. Empowerment is a key desired outcome of a collaborative stakeholder participation process. It is reached when the responsibility and accountability for the outcome has been successfully shared by the decision-making authority with the stakeholders.
Sustainable development: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.92 Also considered a collection of methods to create and sustain development which seeks to relieve poverty, create equitable standards of living, satisfy the basic needs of all peoples, produce sustainable economic growth and establish sustainable political practices all while taking the steps necessary to avoid irreversible damages to natural capital in the long term in turn for short term benefits by reconciling development projects with the regenerative capacity of the natural environment.93
Sustainable tourism: Tourism “envisaged as leading to profitable management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled with maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity, and life support systems”.94 Sustainable tourism, in the context of development, has been defined as, “all forms of tourism development, management and activity, which maintain the environmental, social and economic integrity and well being of natural, built and cultural resources in perpetuity” (FNNPE, 1993).
In the years since the concept of sustainable tourism was first defined, a general consensus has formed on the basic objectives and targets. Sustainable tourism should: contribute to the conservation of biodiversity and cultural diversity; contribute to the well being of local communities and indigenous people; include an interpretation/learning experience; involve responsible action on the part of tourists and tourism industry; be appropriate in scale; require the lowest possible consumption of non-renewable resources; respect physical and social carrying capacities; involve minimal repatriation of earned revenue; be locally owned and operated (through local participation, ownership and business opportunities, particularly for rural people).95
Stakeholders: Individuals who are either inheritors or have a vested interest in development, including community members; environmental, social, and community NGOs; natural resource, planning, and government officials; hotel owners, tour operators, guides, transportation providers, and representatives from other related services in the private sector.
Tourism Optimization Management Model (TOMM): Developed in Kangaroo Island, Australia, in response to some of the limitations of the LAC approach. TOMM does not concentrate on impacts or setting limits for use, but instead emphasises optimal and sustainable outcomes for tourism and the community, and sets acceptable ranges within which they should occur. TOMM focuses on an integrated approach to tourism management. It explicitly serves a multitude of stakeholders within a region, operating over a range of protected area and private land tenures. Its optimal conditions approach to desired outcomes cover the broad spectrum of the economic, market opportunity, ecological/biodiversity, experiential and socio-cultural factors, and thus reflects the entire tourism system. As a result, TOMM contrasts with the LAC and VIMM systems, which tend to focus on one specific aspect of a tourism system.96
Traditional knowledge: Refers to the traditional knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. A cumulative body of knowledge and beliefs handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living things (including humans) with one another and with their environment. Traditional knowledge is an attribute of societies with historical continuity in resource use practices.97
Transboundary impact: Any significant adverse effect on the environment that occurs across the borders of different states whose physical origin is situated wholly or in part within an area under the jurisdiction of a Party, within an area under the jurisdiction of another Party. Such effects on the environment include effects on human health and safety, flora, fauna, soil, air, water, climate, landscape and historical monuments or other physical structures or the interaction among these factors; they also include effects on the cultural heritage or socio-economic conditions resulting from alterations to those factors.98
Visitor Experience Resource Protection (VERP): Created by the U.S. National Park Service in order to deal with carrying capacity in terms of the quality of the resources and the quality of the visitor experience. It contains a prescription for desired future resource and social conditions, defining what levels of use are appropriate, where, when and why.
The VERP framework was conceived and designed to be part of the USNPS’s general management planning process, to bring both management planning and operational planning together as one exercise. The emphasis is on strategic decisions pertaining to carrying capacity based on quality resource values and quality visitor experiences. The product is a series of prescriptive management zones defining desired future conditions with indicators and standards.
Seven factors are considered in the planning process: park purpose statements, statements of park significance, primary interpretation themes, resource values, constraints and sensitivities, visitor experience opportunities, resource attributes for visitor use, and management zones.
VERP draws on the talents of a team and is guided by policy and the park purpose statement. It guides resource analysis through the use of statements of significance and sensitivity, and visitor opportunity analysis is guided by statements defining important elements of the visitor experience.99
Visitor Impact Management (VIM): Developed by researchers working for the USNPS and Conservation Association, and for use by the USNPS. The process addresses three basic issues relating to impact: problem conditions; potential causal factors; and potential management strategies.
Standards are established for each indicator based on the management objectives that specify acceptable limits or appropriate levels for the impact. The process provides for a balanced use of scientific and judgmental considerations. It places heavy emphasis on understanding causal factors to identify management strategies. The process also provides a classification of management strategies and a matrix for evaluating them.
This is a flexible process parallel to LAC that can be applied in a wide variety of settings. It employs a similar methodology to assess and identify existing impacts and particularly the causes. This process has also been incorporated into the VERP system.100
World Heritage Site: A specific site (such as a forest, mountain range, lake, desert, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated for the international World Heritage program by UNESCO. The program aims to catalogue, name, and preserve sites of outstanding importance, either cultural or natural, to the common heritage of humankind. Listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund under certain conditions. As of April 2005, a total of 788 sites have been included in the World Heritage List with 611 cultural, 154 natural and 23 mixed properties in 134 States Parties.101
Zoning: Division of an area into sub-areas, called zones. Seeks to regulate land uses by separating them based on incompatibility, or allowing like/compatible uses to co-exist. A basic principle of tourism zoning is the conservation of specific environmental features such as wetlands, archaeological and historic sites, important stands of vegetation and unusual geological features. This is related to the maintenance of visual diversity. The achievement of successful functional groupings of resort facilities and activities, such as accommodation, commercial and cultural facilities, and recreation facilities in suitable areas is also important. Buffer zones containing mixtures of tourism facilities and less fragile environmental preservation requirements may also be designated.102
46 Pronounced {agway-goo}. A holistic Mohawk term meaning “everything in creation” provided by the Kahnawake community located near Montreal (Canada), where the guidelines were negotiated. Akwe: Kon Guidelines. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2004.
47 Making Tourism More Sustainable. A Guide for Policy Makers. UNEP. UNWTO 2005.
48 United Nations Earth Summit, 1992.
49 Forestry Glossary, British Columbia (Canada): http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/library/documents/glossary/B.htm
50 Australia State of the Environment Report 2001 (Theme Report).
51 Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.
52 UN Conference on Environment and Development, 1992.
53 T.A Farrell and J.L. Marion (2002), “The Protected Area Visitor Impact Management (PAVIM) Framework: A Simplified Process for Making Management Decisions”, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, vol. 10, no.1, 2002.
54 T.A Farrell and J.L. Marion (2002), “The Protected Area Visitor Impact Management (PAVIM) Framework: A Simplified Process for Making Management Decisions”, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, vol. 10, no.1, 2002.
55 Feasibility and market study for a European Eco-label for tourist accommodations, Commissioned by the European Commission; WWF-UK. 2000. Tourism Certification: An analysis of Green Globe 21 and other tourism certification programmes. A report by Synergy for WWF-UK X. Font and M. Epler Wood, Sustainable Tourism Certification Marketing and its Contribution to SME Market Access, CABI International, In Press
56 World Resources Institute (WRI). Biodiversity Glossary.
57 Making Tourism More Sustainable. A Guide for Policy Makers. UNEP. UNWTO 2005.
58 Office of Government Commerce (OGC), United Kingdom: http://www.ogc.gov.uk/sdtoolkit/reference/documentation/p37_ contingency.html
59 International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited (ITOPF).
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