TOURISM AND THE ENVIRONMENT: IT’S TIME!

Executive summary The 21st Century on planet earth has bought with it a complexity of human caused environmental problems. Habitat clearing and fragmentation, soil loss, pollution, and human predation of species have caused many species to become extinct or endangered. Global warming is impacting the natural and modified world. It is a confirmed reality, with melting ice caps and glaciers, heat waves in Europe, increased annual average temperature, extreme summer temperatures and dryness in Australia, coral reef bleaching and more regular severe storm events are forecast. Ecosystem services, the basic life support systems of the earth that contribute to clean air, clean water and biodiversity are being impacted increasingly by a growing human population and further impacts to environments are forecast by scientists. Protected areas provide for the conservation of ecosystem services, and a global response by governments over the last 11 years has seen an expansion of these areas to achieve protection of 11 % of the land surface of the planet. But this is not enough. Serious global environmental problems need to be reduced through concerted efforts that deal with the causes of such problems. Environmental management actions by governments, industry