ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how tourism has negative and positive consequences for the natural environment and, through a reciprocal relationship, how tourism itself can be threatened by human-induced changes in the environment. It then analyzes the ethical relationship between tourism and the natural environment. The chapter explores tourism that is a phenomenon of human agency, how the tourism-environment relationship manifests itself will be reflective of how stakeholders value nature. Coastal wetlands, an ecosystem that covers 6 per cent of the earth's surface and is significant for its biodiversity, carbon storing qualities and flood control capabilities, may also be placed under pressure from tourism development. The extent that an environmental ethic has or has not permeated into the consumer market for tourism is debatable. Given the growth of green and responsible consumerism it would seem logical to expect evidence of this trend within the tourism market.
