ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE AUSTRALIAN ALPS

Considerable development has taken place in the Australian Alps, parti cularly over the last 10-15 years, to provide accommodation and recrea tional facilities for an increasing number of visitors to the mountain s. This development has not been without some impacts on the natural e nvironment but to date these have not been quantified in the context o f ecologically sustainable development. Ecotourism in the high mountai n environments is also being actively promoted and this all increase t he demand for accommodation and infrastructure, which may lead to furt her impacts in the very sensitive and significant Alps catchments. Sev eral examples of environmental impacts are discussed and a ''catchment model'' approach to determining ecologically sustainable development is presented. This model provides a mechanism to quantify the carrying capacities of the ecosystems and the levels of acceptable impacts whi ch proposed developments and recreational use may impose on the ecosys tems of alpine catchments.