Evaluating the quality of Environmental Impact Assessment Reports (EIARs) for tourism developments in protected areas: The Kruger to Canyons Biosphere case study

There has been little empirical investigation of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) performance towards safeguarding conservation and promoting responsible tourism within protected areas. This paper examines the quality of EIA Reports (EIARs) prepared for tourism developments in the world-renowned Kruger to Canyons (K2C) Biosphere Reserve, one of the largest in Africa. An adapted version of the internationally recognised Lee and Colley report review package was used. The review results indicate that the EIARs are, overall, of satisfactory quality and that the reports provide adequate information to support the incorporation of sustainable and responsible tourism principles in decision-making. However, inadequacies are observed in certain review areas, namely public participation, provision for mitigation and monitoring, and content of non-technical summaries. Notably, the analytical review areas (e.g. impact assessment) perform better than the descriptive ones (e.g. presentation of assessment results), which contrasts with review findings reported in the international literature. This research provides important insights and contributes to advancing review frameworks and to ongoing debates around the potential of EIA to foster environmental protection and sustainability within protected areas.