The Social Responsibilities of Environmental Groups in Contested Destinations

Multi-party consensus processes involving collaboration among a diverse group of stakeholders have been applied to land-use and environmental policy issues in Canada, but studies of such processes in environmentally sensitive tourism destinations have been lacking. This article focuses on two separate collaborations convened in 1994-5, which offer insights into addressing conflict over use and development in protected areas and other ecologically sensitive tourism destinations. The focus of this study is Banff National Park, Canada, and the communities within and adjacent to the Park.

The study demonstrates that environmental groups can help as well as hinder the interests of local community residents and business interests in the destination domain. In particular, the instrumental use of science based strategies inhibited the development of joint understandings and shared meanings about the practical implications of scientific results to the everyday lives of residents and to the tourism related businesses in the Park. The crisis of modernity that challenges planetary sustainability lends further social responsibility to the role of environmental groups in ecologically sensitive tourism destinations where ‘nature’ is a contested terrain of meaning and understandings. The article concludes with practical and societal implications for ecotourism and nature-based tourism destinations.