Environmental Impacts of Tourism on the Australian Alps Protected Areas

Abstract

This article examines the judgments of staff from protected area agencies responsible for managing tourism and its environmental impacts in the largest area of snow country in Australia. In surveys, staff identified as having major responsibility for tourism management in the Australian Alps protected areas consider that tourism has important negative environmental impacts; the impacts of ski resorts on adjacent natural areas are often more important than impacts of more general tourism activities further away from ski resorts; the most important environmental impacts were on water quality; native fauna was adversely affected through tourism activities that resulted in increased numbers of feral animals and habitat reduction and fragmentation; there was a wide range of adverse impacts from tourism on vegetation; air quality was affected, particularly around the ski resorts, but it was a less important issue than impacts on water, fauna, and flora. The judgments of protected area managers as to the importance of environmental issues arising from tourism use of the Australian Alps protected areas correspond well with the documented impacts in research papers and management reports.