the role of tourism in natural resource management in the okavango ...

waste is being developed or upgraded (if often, rather belatedly) to accommodate
tourism growth, with net benefits for local environmental quality. Hadjivassilis (1990),
for example, focuses on the installation of some 200, largely coastal, small waste­
water treatment plants in Cyprus. These have helped alleviate sewage-treatment
and management problems. Tourism may also encourage the implementation of
improved pollution prevention legislation in some areas (Liu et ai, 1987; Becheri,
1991; Tribe et ai, 2000).
2.11.1.3 Erosion
Tourist activity can, as expressed earlier, result in damage to natural geological
features and river banks, as well as soil erosion resulting from trampling, vegetation
removal, vehicular compaction, etc. The latter issue is considered by Brooke (1990)
in a study which focused on the often complex inter-dependencies between various
components of an ecosystem. The Norfolk Broads is one of England's most popular
holiday destinations particularly for motor boat cruises along the network of inland
freshwater canals, which make up the area. According to Brooke (1990), it is
becoming increasingly impossible to ignore the severe water pollution and bank
erosion problems, which are to some extent inter-linked. Accelerated eutrophication
resulting from water pollution, to which tourism makes a significant contribution, has
caused a decline in the population of emergent and submerged plants along most of
the Broads' waterways. Consequently, this has decreased the resistance of river and
canal banks to erosion from tourists' motor cruisers through boat-wash and
inappropriate mooring. Increased erosion has led to a decrease in reed-bed flora,
and so a cycle of ecological imbalance is complete.
Perversely, erosion of sand from popular resort beaches is causing problems in
some locations due to the siting of buildings and other superstructures constructed
too close to the high-water mark (Hunter and Green, 1995). The erosion of natural
geological features from general pressure caused by visitors can also present
problems, as in the case with Ayers Rock in Australia (Harris and Leiper, 1995).
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