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The Government of Vanuatu approached SPREP in 2001 to consider providing technical and advisory assistance in assessing the aggregated issues of land use change, rural development, catchment management and cumulative infrastructure and coastal degradation in the Mele catchment, immediately northwest of the municipality of Port Vila, Efate, Vanuatu.

The development of ecotourism accompanied a growing interest in the natural environment and a reaction to negative effects resulting from mass tourism. Tourism in natural areas has increased in popularity, particularly with the ever-increasing global focus on environmental awareness. Ecotourism has developed in response to mass tourism, as mass tourism destinations were beginning to show signs of degradation resulting from over-use. Therefore, ecotourism was seen as a sustainable alternative, and also a means of interest to all tourists wishing to see natural areas that were remote and exotic. However, the problem has arisen that these ecotourism operations are not as sustainable as once thought. The purpose of this paper is to assess the sustainability of small-scale community ecotourism using academic literature and the specific case study of Niue, in the South Pacific, drawn from six weeks of social science research in Niue during mid-1998.