Environmental Justice and Sustainable : The Missing Cultural Link

Blanca Camargo, Katy Lane, and Tazim Jamal

Introduction THE SAN FRANCISCO PEAKS IN ARIZONA ARE SACRED TO THIRTEEN INDIGENOUS NATIONS. These peaks provided a birthplace for many creation stories. They are also home to plants, soil, and pure water used for healing and ceremonies. A nearby facility, the Arizona Snow- bowl Resort, also utilizes these same peaks for snow skiers. Due to global warming, the resort has experienced a decrease in revenue. As a result, resort management developed a plan to convert sewage water to 1.5 million gallons of snow per day, allowing the resort to stay open despite the warming weather. The Native Americans in this area are very opposed to contam- inated snow being used on the peaks, as it would hinder their cultural practices and beliefs. The tribal nations also live off the land the resort is threatening to contaminate. This is one of countless examples where cultural justice is embedded in the issue of sustainable devel- opment. Tribal nations that have used the mountains for centuries have come into conflict with a local business using the mountains for financial gain (Vocal Nation 2007). Unlike other examples that could be Although calls for envi- mentioned, this case has a good ending for ronmental conservation and socio-econom- the preservation of the tribal nations’ cul- ic well-being (WTO 2004), it does not tures. After the U.S. District Court ruled in clearly address the issues and challenges favor of the Arizona Snowbowl Resort in related to the fair distribution of costs and 2006, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals benefits of development among stakehold- reversed the decision in March 2007 by rul- ers. For instance, with respect to the distri- ing in favor of the “Save the Peaks Coali- bution of environmental costs and benefits, tion.” The Navajo nation’s president, Joe it says little about how to ensure that they Shirley,Jr., shared his sentiment on the final are distributed equitably between social ruling: “This goes towards preserving our groups, particularly those that may be dis- ways of life, preserving my prayer, my advantaged due to race, class, or gender. sacred song, my sacred sites, my mother: Environmental justice principles offer valu- the San Francisco Peaks” (Arizona Native able guidance here, but the concept itself Scene 2007). has received little attention in sustainable But what about the multitudes of other tourism discourse. Only a few studies have cultural issues that are important to cultural addressed issues of inequity across diverse , a concept that appears to be groups when it comes to the distribution of poorly addressed in discussions of sustain- environmental benefits or negative impacts able development and sustainable tourism? due to tourism development (Akama 1999; 70 The George Wright Forum

Geisler and Lesoalo 2000; Floyd and John- We start by discussing environmental son 2002). Lee and Jamal (in press) there- justice in the context of sustainable tourism. fore argue for the inclusion of an environ- This is followed by the integrated (EJ–ST– mental justice framework in tourism studies CS) framework that we propose. Examples to better address environmental impacts of of relationships between humans and their tourism development—for instance, equi- biophysical world are forwarded, which table access to natural resources and envi- also help to illustrate the importance of in- ronments among social groups and commu- corporating “cultural justice,” “cultural nities. equity,” “cultural discrimination,” and “cul- These efforts are laudable, but contin- tural racism” into the overall framework. ue to miss a valuable dimension: culture. Finally, we argue for the need to develop Culture is integral to many forms of tourism indicators that can serve as guidelines to (e.g., cultural tourism, festival tourism, protect or nurture these cultural relation- indigenous tourism, agri-tourism) and the ships and offer related insights for policy study of cultural impacts is an important and practice in ecotourism and manage- area that focuses on aspects such as com- ment of natural/protected areas. modification, authenticity, interpretation, cultural survival, and heritage issues. But Environmental justice and sustainable the topics of cultural justice and cultural tourism equity are insufficiently addressed by In the context of tourism, increasing tourism researchers, and important issues attention is being directed toward the sus- revolving around the culture of nature (e.g., tainability of destinations and their re- human–environmental relationships) are sources as travel and tourism continues to barely addressed in tourism studies. This grow in many domestic and international paper argues for incorporating “cultural markets. The report of the World Commis- sustainability” (CS) into the environmental sion on Environment and Development justice–sustainable tourism (EJ-ST) frame- (WCED, also known as the Brundtland work that was recently proposed by Lee and Commission), Our Common Future Jamal (in press). Rather than attempt to (WCED 1987), was a major force in direct- develop a fully fledged conceptualization of ing governments and businesses to embrace cultural sustainability, we focus this paper the discourse of . on developing an important dimension of it: Although it attempted to reconcile (“bal- cultural justice in relation to tourism in nat- ance”) economic development with grow- ural areas. The outline we lay out below ing concerns over global environmental may be especially helpful in situations impacts, little reference was made in the where environmental conservation and WCED report to tourism and only a few sociocultural well-being need to be ad- token references acknowledged the needs of dressed. Our paper makes an important indigenous communities. In 1992, the contribution by specifically addressing tan- United Nations Conference on Environ- gible and intangible human–environmental ment and Development (also known as the relationships as an important aspect of cul- Earth Summit or the Rio Summit) focused tural sustainability and cultural justice in on developing Agenda 21, a strategy to aid natural area destinations. the public and private sector in the imple- Volume 24 • Number 3 (2007) 71 mentation of sustainable development. Sub- diverse social and cultural groups in the sequent initiatives, such as the Globe 90 communities. Lee and Jamal (in press) iden- conference in Vancouver and Agenda 21 for tified a small number of studies that relate to Travel and Tourism (WTO 1997), drew on issues of environmental justice in the con- the WCED report and Agenda 21 to intro- text of recreation and tourism, for example: duce a new development paradigm for tour- ism: sustainable tourism. The World Tour- • Inequalities for certain socioeconomic ism Organization (WTO) provides the fol- and racial groups with respect to the lowing explanation: distribution of federally managed tourism sites in the southern Appala- Sustainable tourism development chians region, USA (Floyd and John- meets the needs of present tourists and son 2002); host regions while protecting and • Greater water usage by tourists than enhancing opportunity for the future. local residents in the Bay Islands, Hon- It is envisaged as leading to manage- druas (Stonich 1998); ment of all resources in such a way that • Exclusion of Maasai and other local economic, social, and aesthetic needs residents from protected parks in Ken- can be fulfilled while maintaining cul- ya (Akama 1999); tural integrity, essential ecological • State appropriation of indigenous and processes, biological diversity, and life native lands and exclusion of relocated support systems (WTO 1997:30). residents from enjoying the recreation- Since the emergence of this new con- al benefits once available to them in cept, sustainable tourism, research on the conservation parks and reserves in environmental and socioeconomic impacts South Africa (Geisler and Lesoalo, of tourism on different types of destinations 2000). has increased. Yet even though equity is a grounding principle of sustainable develop- Hence, Lee and Jamal argue that it is ment and sustainable tourism, very little essential to incorporate an environmental research has been conducted to examine justice framework into planning for sustain- tourism-related impacts across different able tourism and ecotourism (Figure 1). social groups within a destination area. Such a framework “provides important Even in the environmental justice literature direction and guidance for addressing itself, little attention has been devoted to injustices related to human–environmental research on the distribution of environmen- relationships, particularly with respect to tal impacts among tourism stakeholders disadvantaged, low-income, and minority (residents) and between the social groups communities” (Lee and Jamal in press). We within them. Injustices commonly appear summarize below some key concepts relat- as economic issues that affect community ed to environmental justice that offer a valu- labor and natural habits, the most powerful able addition to sustainable tourism dis- elements of social well-being (Ross 1998), course. More importantly, we adapt these but it is also important to note the effects of further below in our preliminary attempt to tourism development on other aspects of introduce the notion of “cultural justice” in social well-being, particularly among relation to tourism in natural areas. 72 The George Wright Forum

Figure 1. An environmental justice–sustainable tourism framework (source: Lee and Jamal, in press).

Environmental justice principles burdens fall on low-income people and eth- The environmental justice movement nic minorities. In the literature, environ- gained momentum in the 1970s in the Uni- mental justice sometimes tends to refer ted States, driven by concerns about local more narrowly to matters of procedural jus- health hazards brought on by toxic waste tice, or the process by which environmental dumps, nuclear facilities, waste incinera- decisions are made about the use and distri- tors, and mining operations. Environmental bution of environmental goods among justice is primarily concerned with the diverse groups and individuals who may be degree to which environmental risks and discriminated against due to factors such as Volume 24 • Number 3 (2007) 73

gender, ethnicity, or income level. Table 1 (EJ) and sustainable tourism (ST) frame- below shows key terms relating to environ- work. mental justice. An environmental justice framework Applying a EJ–ST–CS approach can help tourism destinations by identifying to natural area destinations and monitoring potential environmental Cultural sustainability has been de- injustices or inequities, and ensuring equi- scribed as the ability of people or a group of table distribution of environmental costs people to retain or adapt elements of their and benefits as well as fair procedures and culture that distinguish them from other policies for decision-making and participa- people (Mowforth and Munt 1998). This tion. Unfortunately,both environmental jus- definition is also far from complete, lacking tice and sustainable tourism lack a well- reference to the equitable distribution of developed concept of cultural sustainability cultural costs and benefits among different (CS), in spite of several calls to integrate this cultural groups as well as long-term sustain- into sustainable tourism discourses and into ability and intra- and inter-generational cul- approaches for managing cultural conflicts tural equity (to follow the Brundtland Com- emerging in natural/protected areas (Craik mission’s definition of “sustainable devel- 1995; Robinson 1999; Weaver 2005; WTO opment” and the WTO adaptation of this 1995). We propose to rectify this long- concept to tourism). Cultural sustainability, standing omission by approaching cultural among other things, needs to address the sustainability from the perspective of “cul- relationships between people and their bio- tural justice,” which we argue below is a physical world. This is especially pertinent vital addition to the environmental justice in the context of natural/protected areas,

Table 1. Environmental justice for tourism (source: Lee & Jamal, in press).

74 The George Wright Forum though clearly one cannot ignore this in al sustainability in natural area destinations. urban settings (where urban parks, green- It means attending to cultural impacts on ways, gardens, arboretums, and other green low-income, marginalized groups, and spaces offer opportunities for outdoor diverse populations (ethnic, gender, etc.) recreation and leisure). These relationships and communities within the natural area. It can be tangible (e.g., worship of fire, ritual- requires, among other things, two impor- istic journeys and practices at burial sites, tant actions: (1) factoring human–environ- ritualistic preparation of food gathered from mental relationships and other potential the forest/sea), intangible (e.g., mystical, cultural changes into the overall framework, spiritual, identity, sense of belonging, col- and (2) ensuring effective participatory lective memory), or both tangible and intan- processes at the destination so those who gible ,such as myths and fables that become stand to be affected by the development tangible when invoked in conversation can make an informed decision on develop- (auditory) but remain intangible in collec- ment projects and proposals (Jamal et al. tive memory until performative engagement 2006:165). In other words, an important occurs. As Jamal, Borges, and Stronza step to ensuring cultural sustainability in (2006) point out, human–environmental natural area destinations is active involve- relationships constitute a phenomenologi- ment in planning and decision-making by cal existentiality that contributes to a sense those whose ecological–cultural goods and of cultural identity and personal as well as relations are being affected by tourism ini- collective belonging. Figure 2 illustrates tiatives. Adapting environmental justice some types of human–environmental rela- principles towards cultural sustainability tionships that may be present in natural/ principles offers a useful start towards protected areas. It is not meant to be a addressing issues of cultural justice and definitive list, but is a good reminder that equity in natural area destinations. For the people relate to their biophysical environ- purpose of this paper, we have adapted ment in ways that are not always easily iden- these cultural dimensions to direct attention tifiable or measurable in quantitative terms. to the often-ignored aspect of the sustain- Inequities in the treatment of ecocul- ability of ecocultural goods and human– tural goods and (human–environmental) environmental relationships. The prefix relationships in natural/protected area des- “eco” is added to the cultural dimensions tinations are noted in tourism studies. below to emphasize the natural area con- Examples include ecotourists being allowed text; they can be applied to ecotourism and to enjoy natural areas and obtain rich learn- tourism in protected areas, as well as other ing experiences while residents are restrict- nature-based settings: ed from accessing the areas and performing their cultural practices, tourism develop- • Ecocultural justice, the active involve- ment taking place on sacred burial sites, or ment of low-income and minority people being evicted from their ancestral groups in decision-making related to lands to make way for national parks. their ecocultural goods and (their Environmental justice principles are espe- human–environmental) relationships. cially helpful to draw upon in order to • Ecocultural equity, the fair (equitable) address issues of cultural justice and cultur- distribution of tourism impacts on the Volume 24 • Number 3 (2007) 75

Figure 2. Human–environmental relationships (cultural).

ecocultural goods and relationships groups from conducting their tradi- among different cultural groups. tional (ecocultural) practices by tour- • Ecocultural discrimination, dispropor- ism initiatives, laws, policies, etc. tionate (adverse) impacts on ecocultur- (Specific discrimination due to race al relationships and goods of minority has to be shown.) groups. • Ecocultural racism, the exclusion or Clearly, much work is needed to devel- prevention of minority and indigenous op a fully integrated EJ-ST-CS framework.

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In addition, indicators are required to mon- protected areas is a crucial research agenda. itor key items related to environmental jus- A cultural justice approach as described tice and its cultural sustainability counter- above may assist in creating policies, laws, parts (cultural justice, ecocultural justice). and regulations to protect diverse ethnic, The World Tourism Organization (1995), low-income, and minority groups from for example, provided a set of core indica- inequitable treatment in development and tors of sustainable tourism, none of which conservation initiatives related to natural included a cultural dimension. James area destinations. (2004) encouraged the development of local sustainable tourism indicators, but Implications for future research and only to address economic, environmental, practice and social impacts. Sustainable tourism A more robust incorporation of cultur- indicators were also developed by Craik al sustainability into an environmental jus- (1995), Choi and Sirakaya (2005, 2006), tice–sustainable tourism framework for nat- and Ko (2005). Like the World Tourism ural area destinations has important impli- Organization’s later (2004) set of indica- cations for the tourism industry.For tors, the ones developed by such experts tourism planners, this new framework can have addressed social issues such as prosti- be applied toward developing codes of con- tution, crime, health, etc., but have tended duct, as well as certification and accredita- to equate social impact with cultural im- tion programs for ecotourism and sustain- pacts. Hence, such cultural issues as able tourism development. For policy-mak- changes in ethnic identity and place- ers, an environmental justice-oriented belonging tend to get ignored. In almost framework that includes cultural justice as every instance, researchers working on sus- part of cultural sustainability can help to tainable tourism indicators and ecotourism address matters of procedural justice (e.g., indicators fail to take into account intangi- fair participation of cultural resource own- ble cultural dimensions or the cultural link ers, protection of cultural rights, self-deter- between humans and their natural sur- mination, participatory democracy,co-man- roundings (as noted in Jamal et al. 2006). agement) and issues of distributive justice Their argument is supported by Font and (e.g., equitable distribution of costs and Harris’s (2004) review of five ecotourism benefits from the use of cultural resources programs in which only two (out of 12) for tourism, access to sacred sites, etc.). For social standard criteria had cultural signifi- local residents, active participation in the cance: respect for customary/legal rights of development of the cultural sustainability access by locals to natural resources, and framework and cultural indicators is cru- contribution to tourist education regarding cial, as is their direct participation in devel- cultural issues. Table 2 provides an account opment and conservation initiatives. It can of cultural indicators for sustainable tour- help them to have control over which ism that have been proposed by several aspects of their culture and their ecocultur- sources. al goods they would like to share, and how Developing robust indicators to moni- best to maintain those human–environmen- tor culturally related changes in natural/ tal relationships that they value (hence facil-

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Table 2. Cultural indicators. itating cultural survival as well). Awareness sustainable tourism. Second, cultural im- of, and support for, conservation may also pacts and relationships are difficult to iden- increase. tify or measure—many are intangible and Conceptualizing cultural sustainability, changes occur over a long period of time. however, presents several challenges. First, This contributes further to an already com- as noted earlier, researchers frequently do plex domain. Third, very little attention has not distinguish between cultural and social been paid to systematically identifying and impacts, and tend to focus primarily on examining issues related to cultural justice social issues (while sometimes calling them in tourism. In the case of natural area desti- “cultural”). This makes it more difficult to nations, future research should focus on call attention to ensuring that cultural sus- developing robust quantitative and qualita- tainability is properly incorporated into tive indicators and monitoring schemes that 78 The George Wright Forum

can track changes in ecocultural goods and physical space, but rather the interconnect- human–environmental relationships due to ed physical, symbolic, spiritual, and social tourism. Land does not just represent a identities of human cultures (Wilson 2003).

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Blanca Camargo, Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M Uni- versity, 2261 TAMU, 212 Francis Hall, College Station, Texas 77843-2261; bcamar- [email protected] Katy Lane, Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University, 2261 TAMU, 212 Francis Hall, College Station, Texas 77843-2261; katylane@ tamu.edu Tazim Jamal, Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M Univer- sity, 2261 TAMU, 212 Francis Hall, College Station, Texas 77843-2261; tjamal@ tamu.edu

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