Achieving a Sustainable Relationship Between Common Pool Resources and Tourism: The Role of Environmental Ethics

Tourism is dependent upon natural resources, many of which display the characteristics of Common Pool Resources (CPRs), where the exclusion of users is impractical and their exploitation by one person can reduce the benefit for another. Concern about the ‘over-use’of CPRs was expressed by Hardin (1968) in his seminal essay ‘Tragedy of the Commons’. In an overlooked part of his thesis he suggested a moral shift in human behaviour as the simplest way to avoid over-use. The post-Hardin period has seen the emergence of environmental ethics as a recognised field of applied ethics. Utilising this theoretical framework, the influence of an environmental ethic upon the behaviour of tourism stakeholders is analysed. It is suggested that although the presence of a conservation ethic is resulting in a move to resource conserving behaviour (RCB), there is a lack of recognition of the intrinsic value of nature. It is argued that this recognition may be necessary for the ultimate sustainability of CPRs and that the adoption of a conservation ethic may be the first step in an evolutionary development of an environmental ethic for the tourism market.