ABSTRACT
Awareness that tourism development has the potential to negatively transform natural environments and disturb the ecological balance has resulted in a range of proactive and reactive initiatives to mitigate these impacts. The increasing demand to visit remoter and more peripheral places of the world containing some of the most unique and biologically diverse ecosystems accentuates the requirement for the environmental planning and management of tourism. This has led to a variety of stakeholders, including governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), local communities, donor agencies and the private sector, having a role to play in directing the planning and management of tourism towards a positive interaction with the natural environment. O'Riordan's hierarchy indicates that action on nature conservation is to happen after national security and economic development priorities. This is reflected in tourism development policy, which until being influenced by sustainability had traditionally emphasised solely economic goals, such as employment creation and regional development, whilst treating nature in an instrumental fashion.
