Limits to acceptable change and ecological footprint

1. SUSTAINABLE
TOURISM
TOOLS:LIMITS TO
ACCEPTABLE CHANGE
(LAC) & ECOLOGICAL
FOOTPRINT

2. Sustainable development
"Sustainable development is development
that meets the needs of the present,
without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.“

3. Sustainable tourism
“ Environmentally responsible travel and visitations
to natural areas in order to enjoy and appreciate
nature in a way that promote conservation has a
low visitor impacts and provide for beneficially
active socio economic involvement of local
people” - World conservation union 1996

4. Why sustainable practices are
important
• Any development during which natural resources
get depleted faster than their renewal.
• This leads to environment degradation, global
climate changes, increase in the occurrence of
various diseases etc.
• Overexploitation of ground water without
reaching it.
• Draining marshes for constructing buildings.
• Polluting air, water and soil by different means.

5. 1.LIMITS TO ACCEPTABLE
CHANGE(LAC)
• A process which requires managers to:
–define desired resource conditions and
–take actions to maintain or achieve
those conditions
It does not prevent changes but instead
minimizes them.

6. DEFINITION
Limits of acceptable change are defined as the
variation that is considered acceptable in a
particular component or process of the ecological
character of the wetland, without indicating change
in ecological character that may lead to a reduction
or loss of the criteria for which the site was Ramsar
listed (modified from definition adopted by Phillips
2006).

7. Factors to be considered while
implementing the LAC
• Assess the likely impact of an activity on the
destination
• Agree in advance what degree of change will
be tolerated
• Monitor the industry(resort) on a regular and
systematic basis
• Decide what actions will be taken if toleration
standards are exceeded.

8. Management improvements come
with LAC
1.LAC recognizes that any human interference with a
natural system will change it for ever- ‘Agent of
Change’.
2.Recognition that the environment is not simply a
resource base or physical setting ; it includes
economic and social conditions plus political and
managerial inputs.
3.This framework encapsulates the four functions of
management – leadership, planning, organizing &
control

9. LAC Planning Process
1.Define issues and concerns – leadership
-economic ,social, environmental, political/institutional
constraints
2.Define and describe opportunity classes – leadership
-resource , social, managerial
3.Select indicators of resource and social conditions –
Planning
-economic , social, environmental, political
4.Identify existing resource and social conditions –
Planning
-current status of indicators, standards database

10. 5.Specify opportunity class standards – Planning
- acceptable, observable, measure limits
6.Identify alternative opportunity class allocations –
Organization
- type of use, location, timing
7.Identify management actions – Organization
-direct, indirect
8.Evaluate and select alternative management actions –
controlling
-costs Vs benefits, consensus building, Management
capability
9.Implement and monitor – controlling
-compare against standards, adjust management
strategies accordingly

11. Ecological Footprint-Meaning:
The impact of a
person or
community on the
environment,
expressed as the
amount of land
required to sustain
their use of natural
resources.
It represents the
amount of biologically
productive land and sea
area necessary to
supply the resources a
human population cons
umes, and to mitigate
associated waste.

12. Ecological Footprint - Definition
An accounting tool that enables us to
estimate the resource consumption and
waste assimilation requirements of a
defined human population (resort)in
terms of corresponding productive land
area
- Wackernagel and REES,1996

13. ADVANTAGES OF THE ECOLOGICAL
FOOTPRINT
• The Footprint is very good at answering a question that
other indicators don’t: “Are we living within the
biological capacity of the planet?”
• The Ecological Footprint can provide an initial answer
to this question and encourages us to understand that
the environment has limits, which makes it quite
unique.
• The potential for the Ecological Footprint to
communicate the idea of global sustainability is also
very powerful.
• Footprint can help to identify unsustainable trends
which can create opportunities for more sustainable
management of resources and the challenges we face
in the future.

14. example
Kingfisher Bay Resort and Village, Fraser Island.
Resort accommodation and boarded paths such as
these were classified as consumed land, while
most of the surrounding vegetation was classified
as significantly disturbed (thinned) land. A portion
of a cleared walking track area that was classified
as replaced (cleared) land. The KBRV shop and
access road was classified as consumed land.
key contributing factors to its ecological footprint
•on-site methane emissions arising from the wastewater treatment plant,
electricity supply, water transport and on-site fuel use impacts.