Tourism and Recreation

Tourism can be a great benefit to a community. It is a source of income, and if done well can have limited impact on the natural environment.  It is often held up by environmentalists as an economic reason to protect the natural beauty of an area.

At the same time, however, tourism and recreation can cause environmental problems of their own.  Roads into wilderness can cause erosion, bring hunters and other resource users into otherwise isolated areas and make it easy for waste to be illegally dumped, away from the eyes and ears of government.  Some point to “eco-tourism” as a solution to these problems, but the fact remains that tourism – if it is too intensive or located in a sensitive area – can bring problems.

This page is one of two in this Guide looking at issues of tourism.  The other – the Tourism Potential page – looks at how the values of natural beauty, or public access to wilderness, can be protected.  This page, on the other hand, looks at how the harm caused by inappropriate tourism is regulated by government.  The two will touch on related issues, and you may wish to read both pages if you are interested in issues around tourism. 

Controlling Access to Wilderness

Access to wilderness areas, while appreciated by hikers, backcountry skiers, and others seeking to get back to nature, can cause a significant disruption to wildlife and other environmental features.  Not only do roads disrupt wildlife migration and local hydrology, but an influx of people further disrupt otherwise undisturbed habitat.  Consequently, in some places it may be appropriate to limit public access to sensitive environmental areas. 

Forest roads often open up previously undisturbed areas of the province.  Consequently, the Forest and Range Practices Act creates requirements around making roads difficult to pass, and eventually putting the roads “to bed” (removing the roads and rehabilitating the original landscape as far as possible).  The Act also prohibits individuals from constructing roads or trails on Crown land without the permission of the Ministry of Forests. 

Public access issues can also be addressed through Sustainable Resource Management Planning, through which the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management can set enforceable objectives related to limiting, or enhancing, public access to an area. 

Use of Parks

Parks are the number one way in which government (of all levels) sets aside land for public recreation and tourism.  However, over-use of parks, like uncontrolled access to wilderness, can degrade the environment of the park and/or undermine very features of the area that tourists are looking for.  The parks regulated by each level of government are handled differently:

·         Federal parks are regulated by the Canada National Park Act;

·         Provincial parks are regulated by the Park Act; and

·         Municipal parks may be regulated through different means.

However, both the federal and provincial legislation allows government to designate certain areas within a park as off-limits to the public, and to restrict certain activities.  Municipalities could accomplish the same thing through by-laws under the Local Government Act. 

Other tools

There are a variety of land-use designations that governments can put in place that can restrict different types of use, including tourism.  Notable among these are protected areas designations which do not exist to promote recreation, but to protect wildlife, such as Ecological Reserves. 

There may also be restrictions on tourism associated with particular values that society wants to protect (for example, regulations under the federal Canada Shipping Act creates rules for sewage disposal by pleasure boaters and Cruise Ships.)  Different types of tourism are too diverse to include a comprehensive list of laws that might apply to tourism.  Read up about particular environmental values to find out about particular laws that might apply to a type of tourism. 

However, for the most part tourism is viewed as a benign industry, and is not as highly regulated as many other industries. 

Related Guide Pages:

·         Tourism Potential

For more information about Tourism and Recreation:

·         Cruise Control: Regulating Cruise Ship Pollution on the Pacific Coast of Canada – A report by West Coast Environmental Law on the laws around the operation of cruise ships.

·         BC Wilderness Tourism Association website – A website of an industry group that attempts to address some of the concerns around the impacts of tourism on wilderness.