Author(s)

V. Duvat

Abstract

This contribution will expose and discuss the environmental impacts of tourism on the coral reef environment through the analysis of case studies of Indian Ocean and Caribbean Island Developing States. The objective is to demonstrate that the situation of islands and archipelagos is complex and diverse as numerous factors influence both the nature and extent of tourism environmental impacts and as tourism development produces contradictory impacts on the coastal environment. As a consequence, diagnosis must be moderate and gross generalization avoided. The first part of this paper will expose the major physical constraints that such countries have to face in order to achieve economic growth, as the reduction of these constraints largely determines the adverse environmental impacts of coastal development. Secondly, we will present the most common negative impacts of tourism-related projects and tourism activities on the coral reef environment. Then, we will demonstrate that tourism development has often played a major role in the setting up of coastal planning and environment preservation in various ways. Finally, we will sum up the main drivers of tourism environmental impacts. Keywords: tourism environmental impacts, coral reef environment, Small Island Developing States, environmental degradation. 1 Introduction The sustainability of tourist island states both depends, on the one hand, on their physical and human development capacities, and on the other hand, on the ability

Keywords

tourism environmental impacts, coral reef environment, Small Island Developing States, environmental degradation