University of Aarhus ECOTOURISM AS A WAY TO PROTECT ...

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Ecotourism as a sustainable way to protect nature One of the ecotourism milestones is to protect pristine and fragile ecosystems. But how can ecotourism contribute to protect the nature This could be done by funding and by managing and promoting ecotourism correctly. One thing is regulation of the number of tourists. This is every individual aspect from one national park to another, and it is very difficult to put a general ceiling on the visitor number. This should be done on local, regional or national levels, and not on an international level. Still there should be some control by the government or else there is a possibility that the number of tourists will increase, because tourism is often a very capitalistic industry which often tries to evade the rules where possible. This was, for instance, the situation on the Galapagos. The government had made some limitation on the number of boats, but boat owners got around this limitation by adding more berths to the boats and some bought permits from owners of smaller boats. In that way they increased the number of tourist without adding more boats. A way to decrease the number of tourists is to increase the cots, for instance by increasing the entrance fees. Most people will pay more money if they get a special and unique experience, and if they know they are participating in conserving the National Park. Tourists should leave no footprint when they visit national parks. This is very difficult to practise in reality, because the tourist will always have a direct or indirect impact on the nature. Directly, tourists can affect the environment simply by their presence, as the example with the cheetah shows. And they can have an influence on the animals’ behaviour, if animals get used to being fed by humans. They can also affect the vegetation on the most visited places. The cost will be soil erosion and loss of vegetation (Roe, 1997). 72
Ecotourism as a sustainable way to protect nature Indirectly, tourists can infect animals, as the example with the gorilla shows, and they can introduce alien species. Alien species can be regulated by a quarantine system, eradication and inspection of ships, vehicles and tourists, as they do on the Galapagos Islands. These regulations demand a good capital and a well managed national park, and this is often not the situation in developing countries. The footprint also depends on the number of tourists and how the tourists are distributed in an area. It is important to distribute the tourist to minimise the impact on nature or else the most visited places will get depleted. It is also important that the tourists get “educated” by guides. They will then get an ecological background, and they will be told how to behave and the consequences and impact on nature by avoiding certain behaviours, such as throwing garbage, feeding, touching or disturbing animals or plants. It can be difficult to educate tourists if the guides or working staff themselves do not respect the rules, as for instance on Galapagos Islands where tour boats dump organic and inorganic waste in the marine reserve, and floating hotels discharge their sewage and organic kitchen wastes in the ocean. There is a tendency that accommodations become more and more luxurious. Is that the idea of ecotourism If accommodations become more luxurious it will mean a higher consumption of resources such as food, water and energy. This is not environmental friendly. It will also attract another kind of clientele, which may search for other adventure, such as “sea, sun and sand”. From this point of view, ecotourism should focus on environmentally sustainable ways to build the accommodations. You can call ecotourism in question if you look at how tourists are transported from destination to destination. Tourists travel overseas more than ever and huge amounts of fuel are consumed. This contributes to an increasing 73
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