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

growth as intrinsically unsustainable, and, therefore, the concept of sustainable
development as inherently ambiguous (Hunter and Green, 1995).
The key point to the world-views outlined above is that sustainable development is
not an objective, value-free concept, or even an idea which can be universally
adopted by all parties involved in the development/conservation debate. The
majority of the literature on tourism development and the environment, appears to
have very little appreciation of this point. Munt (1992), however, recognises that the
concept of sustainable tourism development is prone to flexibility of interpretation,
and in examining the unfolding debate over new forms of alternative tourism and
sustainable development in developing countries, he detects a dichotomy in the
interpretation of sustainable tourism development. It is suggested that the viewpoint
frequently adopted in indebted developing countries emphasises political and
economic imperatives, while other interpretations reflect a 'quintessentially Western
environmentalism' (Munt, 1992, p. 213). It is suggested further that such divergence
may be indicative of a coming crises in attempts to create a 'greenprint' for tourism
in developing countries (Hunter and Green, 1995).
Arguably, the most productive interpretation of sustainable development lies
between the two extremes outlined above. A resource-conservationist, managed
growth world-view (Turner, 1991) could be interpreted as the most pragmatic
doctrine of environmental management, including the management of tourism. While
there are many potential variants which could be included under this philosophical
approach, it is intrinsically a modified or extended growth-orientated view. Although
this standpoint retains an anthropocentric bias, allowance is made for the non­
utilitarian values of intra-generational and inter-generational equity, as adopted by
the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987). In
particular, this world-view involves an environmental stewardship ethic to protect the
interests of future generations, so that they inherit a stock of natural resources no
less (and preferably larger) than that inherited by the current generation. The
forwarding of an equivalent stock of natural resources is sometimes referred to as
the 'constant natural assets rule' (Pearce et ai, 1989). This argument relies on the
belief that the present generation does not 'own' the natural resource base, and so
has no right to deplete the economic and other opportunities afforded by it (Hunter
and Green, 1995).
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