The value of independent Environmental Control Officers in responsible tourism : a Kruger National Park perspective

Abstract

Sustainable development has been realised as a way of practicing sustainability in protecting the environment, economy and the society from negative impacts. In order to curb damage to the natural environment, regulatory measures have been put in place. These include, the principles of responsible tourism incorporated into the SANS 1162 and Environmental Impact Assessments (hereafter EIAs) for specific geographic areas as provided for in the National Environmental Management Act (hereafter NEMA). In 2001, South African National Parks (SANParks) introduced the concept of lodges on 'private concessions' (privately-owned tourist lodges on state land) to bring social and economic benefits to the Kruger National Park (KNP) and the surrounding community. The environmental mandate and responsibilities of SANParks within the KNP in northeastern South Africa had to be incorporated into the private concessions' initiative, in accordance with the Responsible Tourism Guidelines (DEAT, 2002:3). Independent environmental control officers (ECOs) were appointed as per environmental authorisation (EA) to monitor compliance with EIA follow-up as prescribed by EA conditions and SANParks arrangements. However, it is not known how effective these independent ECOs are in ensuring sustainability. Consequently, this research's aim was to gain a sound understanding of the intended function and effectiveness of ECOs who conduct EIA follow-ups at private concessions in the KNP with a view to promoting sustainable development and responsible tourism. In light of the above, the research questions that guided this study were: Firstly, what is the role of EIA follow-up and ECOs in relation to responsible tourism in KNP? Secondly, how and to what extent do independent ECOs add value to tourism development projects in the KNP? A literature review was conducted to answer the first question. To answer the second question, the researcher conducted face-to-face and telephonic structured interviews (using questionnaires) with both SANParks personnel and concession staff at selected KNP concession projects. Thematic data analysis was performed to identify themes in the responses. There was sufficient evidence that ECOs added value in promoting responsible tourism in KNP by conducting bi-annual audits and checking for compliance through EIA follow-up. The results revealed that the majority of the respondents agreed

that the ECOs did add value by ensuring that EIA follow-ups was done in the KNP to promote responsible tourism. This indicates that independent ECOs are effective as verifiers of EIA implementation and EIA follow-up, thus ensuring that there is environmental compliance. These results were based on the assessment, evaluation, judgement and scoring of the respondents on those aspects that were under the scrutiny of the ECOs. The main limitation of this study was that it is not generalisable to other contexts, because the mandate given to KNP ECOs is site-specific. Therefore, while future researchers might refer to this study as one assessment of the value of ECOs, further studies need to be done on their effectiveness in other contexts in which the ECOs are required to fulfil differing mandates. Although there were some limitations, it was recommended that future involvement of ECOs on EIA follow-up in responsible tourism should include namely, the economic, social and environmental aspects in order to achieve the objectives of sustainable development.