S

Social impact assessment (SIA)
An assessment of the impact on people and society of major development projects: social impact assessment is often a weak point in environmental impact assessments. Social impacts are defined as those changes in social relations between members of a community, society or institution, resulting from external change.
Stakeholders

Individuals who have a vested interest in development, including community members; environmental, social, and community NGOs; natural resource, planning, and government officials; hotel owners, tour operators, guides, transportation providers, and representatives from other related services in the private sector.

Stakeholders

The individuals and organizations that are considered, consulted and potentially involved in developing policy, strategy, initiatives and decision-making.

Strategic planning
A dynamic and issue-orientated process to help the individual/organization to take control of significant and desirable potential futures. Strategic planning is the process of deciding what the future of the operation should be, and what strategies should be followed in order to make that future happen.
Sustainability
This is advanced through the magical transmutation of the term ‘ecological sustainable development’ into ‘economically sustainable development’ through the substitution of the letter E in the acronym ‘ESD’. It is an indication of the latitude with which the concept of sustainability can be interpreted. Thus, the concept of sustainability is both contested and deployed, often, for profoundly different reasons.
SustainableAble to be carried out without damaging the long-term health and integrity of natural and cultural environments.
Sustainable development
Defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in 1987 as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. Environmental protection and management is central to sustainable development.
Sustainable Ecotourism Development (SED)

Development of ecotourism, which meets the needs and aspirations of the current generation without compromising the ability to meet the needs of future generations.