Ecotourism: innovation and exploitation

Some of the world's greatest natural treasures are in the developing world. Perhaps this is partially because of its status as developing rather than industrialized. For these reasons, most temperate tourism takes place in the developing world, generally in or around the tropics. Simply put, ever since air conditioning, people want to live in, or at least visit, the warmer climes; think the ridiculous growth in Southern California, Arizona or Florida here in the states.

Tourism is also tied into places of interest, and often these tropical have fantastic natural attractions, be it diving, birding or jungle-trekking.

However, in many places across the globe industrialization is coming fast. Inherent to development, inherent to growth is the expansion of cities and civilization. Amazonian rainforest is logged, soy beans are planted. Burma's famous forests are logged as well.

Many of those who venture to exotic, tropical locales don't want to contribute to any further environmental impact. Enter ecotourism, short for ecological tourism, a way of sustainable travel to minimize the ecological, and anthropological, impact of the visit. The United Nations declared 2002 as the international year of ecotourism.

Many ecotourism events have taken place throughout the world this year, from Madison, Wisc., to Melbourne, Australia, to Nairobi, Kenya. The various ecotourism societies see themselves as not only businesses groups, but also political and environmental activists.

This year saw the Global Ecotourism Conference in Oslo, Norway. The conference based many of its observations compared to the benchmarks of the 2002 international year of ecotourism. Five years later, many of the world's natural areas remain under threat, and others under greater threat. According to the Oslo statement, world tourism has grown by 23 percent in five years and expects to double be 2020.

I was able to embark on an ecologically-friendly adventure this past summer, as my family and I went down to Belize for SCUBA diving. What I saw there was a grassroots take on ecotourism. The pleasant little island we stayed at, Caye Coulker, has seen sustained development in the past 10 years, including the first three and four-story buildings. Residents were generally opposed, in my experience.

Development has disturbed many native species, including the incredibly fragile seahorses, stressed by increasing boat traffic. I met a Rasta who has taken to being their ranger, as he has set up a tiny seahorse reserve on the quiet side of the island.

Ecotourism, at least in theory, is a wonderful thing. However, tourism still has its critics.

Ole Kamauro, writing for East African Business Week, brings up the negative cultural impact of the creation of parks and reserves in Africa. 70 percent of parks in east Africa are on the land of the Maasai, a semi-nomadic pastoral people. The parks, a good thing for the welfare of wildlife, may not be good for indigenous African culture.

Tourism has commodified parts of the Maasai lifestyle, Kamauro writes, “Traditionally, land was not a commodity for exchange like money or livestock. With the introduction of tourism it has become possible to trade land for money and this has created destitution and poverty, pitting members of the same clan against one another.”

Odds are that the forces tourism are not going to relent. It is the duty of the nations to step in and regulate tourism business, and to provide more nuanced legislation, to preserve pastoral culture, which should go hand in hand with the goals of ecotourism. When developed correctly, ecotourism can do great things for a country.

Karen Angel of the New York Times had an excellent article last month regarding the rise of ecotourism in previously war-torn countries. The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development plans on investing $9.5 million in upgrades on hotels around Lake Kavu, Rwanda, according to the article.

Vietnam's tourism accounts for nearly a third of its gross domestic product. Laos recently hosted an ecotourism conference for countries in the Mekong River region of Southeast Asia.

Portions of tourism proceeds go to villagers in Rwanda, giving incentive to stop poaching wildlife, cutting down trees and draining water from national parks, Angel writes. According to her, no gorillas have been poached in Rwanda since 2003. With proper consideration, no cultures will be poached either.