Ecotourism – A Way of Life

I just was reading about this and I thought I must share it on my blog. Being a great traveler myself I realized that there are many things that we do while on a travel and not quite realiseing it could sometimes be detrimental to the environment. Thus let us known what ecotourism is all about. This is a way of tourism which focuses on an attempt to save the ecological degradation in the world.. This gives the tourists change to understand how we as human beings influence could start appreciating the habitats around us.

There are ways of making ecotourism a responsible venture. Such informative programs like eco tourism would improve the integrity amongst the ignorant locals and help us to be able to completely evaluate the factors which would help in promoting ecological safety. Efficient energy, recycling capacity, and conservation of water are some of the ways we could enhance tourism and environment besides also creating a facility for the locals to be financially responsible.

Ecotourism encourages a person to visit areas which are in the urban environments in remote areas of dense forest growth. In the year 1990, The TIES or The International Ecotourism Society defines ecotourism as a journey to natural regions which not only saves the environment but also improves the condition of the locals.

There are benefits of ecotourism like the process of conserving the biological diversity of the region. The cultural diversity is also protected and conserved with the help of ecotourism. Besides there are ways of using the biodiversity around with proper sustainability and this is possible by employing the locals. If we share the benefits that are available through eco tourism on the social front then economic facility is also seemingly improved with the help of the local communities. There are specially trained people who are well informed in this subject and they participate in such endeavors. Ecotourism enterprises are managed well and they are trained to spread the awareness of such ventures.

Sharing of socio-economic benefits with local communities and indigenous peoples by having their informed consent and participation in the management of ecotourism enterprises. These ventures include minimizing the effect that tourism has on environment besides of course ensuring that we don’t waste the local flora and fauna and make good use of them.

Ecotourism also ensures that there is a lot of support that the local people get financially. The places where the ecotourism activities are held are benefited well and the locals enjoy the learning process. Travelers are taught to give a lot of importance to the local cultures. In the process a lot of processes like mass construction of hotels or other buildings etc are reduced in areas where the environmental protection is fragile.

Thus ecotourism is not just an activity; it is an ongoing process where in the entire national economy is benefited. Taking the cases of countries like Nepal, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Madagascar etc and also states like Kerala and Madhya Pradesh are here the contention of ecotourism shows a great portion of the economic activity around.

But is very unfortunate that the concept of the word ecotourism is not understood well by many. It is today in fact being used as a prop for tourism that is connected with Mother nature. It is also seen that in the department of Jungle Tourism, there are many methods that are adopted under the heading of ecotourism. Builders often place a hotel on a green surrounding and cause a lot of damage to the environment. Ecotourism is a way of life where travelers would be aware of the fragility of Mother nature. People should get sensitive to the ill effects caused on the environment. There are many tourism ventures which under the name of “eco friendly”  “save environment” and “eco friendly” etc manage to pull through a hidden personal venture. So people should be aware they don’t fall prey to this.

This brings us to wonder how this name came about. Well, in the year 1983, there was a person Hector Lascurain, who was then the Director General of Standards and Technology of SEDUE.  He was also the President of PRONATURA which was a group which popularized the wetland protection which was the land of the American Flamingo. But there are

cases where people believe that it was coined in 1965 itself.

Whatever the origin be, today ecotourism is a kind of responsible act, where there is a changed perspective for the tourist and he is environmentally more aware. He gets this desire to want to explore the environment more and thus giving tourism and environment an identity and making the tourist educationally active. Thus this is based on the vagaries of nature and is about managing sustainability of the regions and areas, also to know how conservation can be enhanced. It is about educating the tourist and making himself sufficient with the knowledge of environment. Today ecotoruism has a lot many heads. It could be nature tourism, bio tourism or even a low impact kind of tour and an ecologically aware tour.

However as with other cases, it has been seen that there is a lot of detrimental lows on eco tourism. It is seen that many projects on such things as eco tourism are not managed well. Communities are facing different kinds of impacts which are detrimental and are negative too. As in the case of South Africa, there are a lot of negative impacts like people are being forced to leave home which is not at all a right way of giving fundamental rights. Then there are those hazards to the environment here which actually are more than the benefits that we get out of them.  There are many problems which affect an area socially. Ecotourism programs take away the contribution that other projects could give to solve these problems. It is seen that in many cases ecotourism causes a lot of conflicting views and sometimes is not as good to meet up to benefitting the community.

Thus it is seen that these days anything related to eco is becoming popular. So exactly what is true ecotourism.  Eco Tourism and Adventure Travel are two words which are greatly getting popular. Besides terms like Cultural Tourism, Green Travel and Sustainable Tourism and other such terms are also very common these days. Thus as per the Ecotourism Society it is said that ecotourism is the way of travelling responsibly to areas where the environment is protected and the local people are benefitted. But it should be understood that going to a rainforest is not ecotourism. But if that trip is actually going to benefit the people there or the environment then it is ecotourism. If we go river rafting and it helps to finance the loss of water. Or if it spreads awareness then it is ecotourism. So if you are a true eco tourist then you would change the conservation value and environmental benefits of the places you visit.

Again adventure travel is not travelling to a place and having adventure. This kind of travel includes a lot of risk and is not the normal travel category. Supposing someone goes for a dugout canoe journey in the Amazon basin, then the difficulties involved in this travel is an adventure travel. But a trip to Germany or London wouldn’t be classified as adventure travel even if you feel it was an adventure.

In adventure again a tourist goes for soft adventures and hard adventures. Soft adventures are less risky, but are more comfortable in areas of accommodation. These are not as exerting physically. Hard adventures are those that have a lot of physical exertion like mountain climbing, river expeditions etc.

Then we have the sustainable tourism where the tour would neither affect the enjoyment of the people who come here in future, nor would the resources there be depleted. Supposing for example a group of tourists go to a place and disrupt the mating ability of the animals there then they have violated the ecotourism rule. Now if there is a school for kayaking in a free river then this is a sustainable visit. But if someone wants to hunt for big games in Alaska, it surely is not sustainable tourism.

Thus whether it is green tourism, cultural tourism, environmental tourism, the crux of the fact remains that there are ideas which have gone into the ideal of pursing the activities of tourism towards the benefit of the environment. It is important that we try to preserve the places that we visit and if we do not then we are spoiling the benefit of ecotourism. We should enjoy but not at the expense of spoiling the nature. Whether is an adventure travel or a multi sport facility it should not hamper the environment.

Thus ecotourism is a way of life which we should follow.