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Mountains and tourism — a precarious balance
In an increasingly industrialized world, blighted by stress, noise and pollution, mountains beckon as an oasis of spiritual calm and peace, a place to commune with Nature and to rediscover the simple pleasures of life. More than 50 million tourists visit mountain regions each year, attracted by their majestic beauty, by the many sporting activities they offer and by the traditional and often colourful lifestyles of their people.
Yet the sheer numbers of people now flocking to the mountains to spend their leisure time poses a growing threat to the very qualities which draw visitors to these regions.
Tourism is now the world’s largest growth industry, with annual earnings of more than US$500 billion and annual increases of an average 9 percent over the past 16 years. And mountain regions account for a sizeable slice of the cake — some 15 to 20 percent of total turnover. Together with cities and coasts, mountains have become the world’s top tourist destinations.
Globally, revenue from mountain tourism is now put at a figure of between US$70 and $90 billion per year. Such is the growth that earnings from tourism have become a primary source of revenue for many mountain areas.
Yet although tourism brings in cash in the short term — an attractive prospect given that mountain dwellers are among the world’s poorest — in the longer term it often causes irreparable damage to the communities who should be gaining from it.
Tourism has undoubtedly brought considerable benefits to many upland regions. The main advantage has been the additional income it has offered to hard-pressed communities, for whom earning a living is complicated by the remote setting, difficult terrain and often harsh climate. In Europe, many Alpine valleys have gained access to the outside world thanks to communication and transportation links brought by tourism. Young people have been persuaded to stay, instead of joining the exodus to the cities.
“Tourism brings job creation, higher income levels and better service levels to small mountain communities,” said Dr. Paul Messerli of the University of Berne’s Geographical Institute, who has studied the impact of tourism on mountains. “It can also result in a more open-minded, innovative community.”
For a growing number of developing countries, revenue from mountain tourism represents a major source of foreign exchange. Sport-based mountain tourism, in particular, has seen rapid growth in the past 30 years, expanding from the traditional regions of Europe and North America to largely untouched mountain areas, including parts of central Asia, the Himalayas, Karakorum, the Caucasus, the Andes and even Antarctica.
But experience has shown that the price can be high. Development throws ecosystems out of kilter, and mountains — the world’s richest source of biodiversity — are more fragile than most. Many animals and plants that live in mountain regions are found nowhere else.
Trees felled to make way for ski slopes or other developments for visitors provide shelter to a whole range of species and are an important bulwark against soil erosion.
“Mass tourism causes a great deal of visual damage to the landscape,” said Thomas Hofer, Forestry Officer for Sustainable Mountain Development at the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome and a member of the Coordination Unit for the International Year of Mountains. “You have to build ski lifts, which in summer look very ugly, the grass is destroyed by winter sports and ski runs cut through forested areas. The weekend traffic to some ski resorts can cause massive air pollution.”
More than 120 million people visit the Alps each year, described by the environmental pressure group Alp Action as “the world’s most saturated tourist region”. Most of them travel by car or bus.
In mountain regions of the developing world, cutting trees for fuelwood and waste management have emerged as key problems as visitors seek new and unspoilt destinations.
Ironically, tourism — which accounts for an estimated 50 percent of all traffic movements worldwide — also contributes to climate change, which poses a special threat to mountain tourism. Glaciers are already showing signs of receding in mountains around the world and changing snowfall patterns can have a damaging effect on the tourist industry, as witnessed dramatically this season in Europe. It has been calculated that in Switzerland, a 2 degree C rise in temperature would result in an annual drop of US$1.7 billion in winter sports revenue.
Rises in temperature increase the risk of mudflows, avalanches and landslides. Changes in the timing and intensity of the monsoon in South Asia — a phenomenon which has already started to make itself felt — could have serious consequences for people dependent on tourism in the mountains of this region.
By virtue of their isolation, mountain dwellers have a rich cultural heritage, based on traditional practices stretching back over generations. Yet tourism can threaten this way of life. Outside influences on social behaviour, the introduction of new diseases and the breakdown of cultural inhibitions can have disastrous consequences for small mountain communities.
Yet managed sensitively, tourism can provide opportunities for mountain people to maintain their specific identity and to inform and educate tourists about their heritage. Not least, it can instill a new sense of pride in their own homeland and a desire to preserve it for future generations.
The secret of balancing the needs of mountain dwellers and tourists lies in good planning and in making sure local people are involved at every stage, say experts. Often, the development of tourism in mountain areas is concentrated in the hands of outsiders, with little of the profits going to the communities themselves. This is especially true of the developing countries and emerging economies, where foreign capital is often used.
Like many in the field, Hofer sees great potential in encouraging visitors to learn about the places they are visiting. “It makes them sensitive to the issues. It is a question of education,” he observed.
The strategy has been tried with some success in Nepal, where growing numbers of trekkers — around half a million each year — are seriously compromising the mountain environment. Some visitors now attend an introduction on local culture, animals and plants and how to respect them. The scheme has shown signs of mitigating the negative effects of so many tourists, and especially on cutting back the quantities of garbage many of them leave behind.
In other parts of the world, initiatives to lessen the impact of tourism have had similarly promising results:
- At Kanchanjunga National Park in Sikkim, India, the promotion of an ethic of responsible tourism has helped cut the use of fuelwood by 25 percent, while local revenues from tourism have risen by a similar figure.
- In Peru's Huascaran National Park, problems caused by the more than 150,000 visitors a year have been countered by a plan which seeks to limit environmental damage and involve mountain communities. Llamas have been reintroduced to carry trekking equipment, with the aim of strengthening local participation and preserving the park's fragile grasslands.
- In Australia's Uluru-Kata National Park, efforts to deter tourists from climbing Ayer's Rock, sacred to the local Anangu community, have been helped by a scheme to introduce visitors to the area and teach them about the mountain's cultural and spiritual significance.
“Mountains and tourism needn’t be mutually exclusive,” said Dr. Messerli. “I would even say mountain tourism is something that is necessary. But it has to be a question of balance.”
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