A Trend Analysis of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Practice in Nigeria and its Implication to Tourism Development.
ABSTRACT
This research work is a trend analysis/longitudinal study of EIA practice in Nigeria and its implication to tourism development. It must be noted that EIA is way into its second decade in the country; hence, the work will assess how tourism industry has benefitted thus far vis-à-vis other sectors in the country.
For easy apprehension, the work is divided into five chapters. Chapter one discusses the preliminary issues in research, namely: statement of the problem, the research questions, the objectives, the methodology, the significance and the limitations of the study.
Chapter two deals with the literature review. This includes the theoretical and the empirical literature as well as the theoretical orientation. The background information was discussed under chapter three while the data was presented and analyzed under chapter four. Finally, the last chapter deals with the summary, recommendations for the way forward and conclusion.
INTRODUCTION
The environment is important in attracting tourism flows with their attendant economic effects. Conservation of valued environmental features can help in balancing and maintaining tourism visitation and tourism’s contribution to the economy.
Tourists, however, can also ‘love the environment to death’, impairing the very thing that attracts them and bringing about its deterioration and destruction. For this reason, satisfactorily resolving this problem is important to the tourist industry, especially given a limited supply of pristine environments and with tourist demand expected to grow in the future (Dwyer et al 2010).
Tourism as an industry affects the environment through the interplay with natural (oceans, wildlife habitats, coral reefs etc), human (values, cultural activities etc) and built (ancient ruins, historic towns, monuments, theme parks etc) resources.
It is a two-edged sword, however, with the potential for both positive and negative impacts. Hence, with it you can cook your food, and it can also burn down your house when mismanaged. The maintenance of tourism as a dynamic rather than a static industry depends to a large extent upon the adoption of a strategic approach to planning and development.
The success of such an approach is largely dependent upon a systematic and structured analysis of the broad environmental factors affecting tourism demand as an essential part of the planning process (Theobalt 2001). The world is changing and experiencing shifts in social values that affect the way we act as individuals, businesses and governments.
It has been noted that part of the change is an increasing recognition that past growth, and development have led to some serious negative impacts on the environment. Some of them are glaring (shrinking water supplies, homeless garbages), while others seems to be concealed but really constituting nuisance (like the depletion of ozone layer, loss of diversity and global warming) (Murphy and Price 2001).
REFERENCES
Abutu, A (2012). Enforcing environmental impact assessment in Nigeria. Daily Trust newspaper, 2nd February.
Agbonlahor, S & Ukhurebor, A (2006). ”Tourism and national development”. In Issues in Tourism Planning and Development. Okpoko, P. U (ed.). Enugu, Nsukka: Afro Orbis Publishing Company Ltd.
Anago, I (2002). Environmental impact assessment as a tool for sustainable development: The Nigeria experience. Washington, D.C., U.S.A: Fig xxii International Congress.
Ashamu, F (2007). Basic principles and practices of tourism. Lagos: Media Ace Publisher.
Canter, L (1996). Environmental impact assessment (2nd edition). New York: McGraw Publishers Limited.
Chinua, A (1983). The trouble with Nigeria. Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishing Company Ltd.
StudentsandScholarship Team.
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