Original scientific paper
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: ITS MEANING, PERCEPTION, AND IMPLEMENTATION The Case of Ecotourism in Croatia
Velimir PRAVDIĆ
Abstract
A critical review of open literature and of institutional reports is
given on the current discourse on 'sustainable development'
(SD), and to its ascendant term 'sustainability' (SB). Results of the
Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development,
which reiterated its commitment to Agenda 21, did show the
differences between the developed North, who favors
environmental issues, and the less developed South, whose
primary problems are development and equity in resource use.
One of the major problems is also absence of a clear distinction
between science and policy advice, which results in politicization
of science. In the second part of the paper the environmental
issues are discussed for the concept of 'sustainable tourism' and
for 'ecotourism', a development activity considered of prime
importance for economic advancement of Croatia, in particular
for its Adriatic coastal regions. Croatia's tourist industry has not
established complex monitoring services, nor adopted a useful
determination of the carrying capacity, not even for the major
Adriatic islands, or some National parks. As a substitute there
are some attempts to institutionalize environmental impact
assessment, although maintenance of environmental quality
seems of more importance for the tourist market. The extension
into the future of the present form of management, promoted as
'sustainable', concentrating mainly on profit making, would result
in environmental degradation and loss of market value of the
Croatian tourist locations.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
19483
URI
Publication date:
31.8.2003.
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