Thesis title: “The development of community-based ecotourism - lumes

32economic benefits will be generated for the local community (questions 1,2,3), neitherhow these benefits will be distributed among the local population (question 5). Thisimplies that the economic aspect of sustainability of the discussed plan might alsoneed to be revised in order to integrate more concrete and substantial proposals onimproving the economic well-being of the local community. More thoughts andproposals on how the WWF plan for ecotourism development in Zagori could beimproved in practice will follow.Zagori, as mentioned already earlier, is an area of great ecological and culturalvalue due to its distinct geomorphologic features, its high biological diversity and itsunique cultural elements. Notwithstanding, these exceptional characteristics of Zagoristill remain largely undiscovered by the average visitor who lacks special knowledge.Thus, the tourists’ perception of the natural and cultural beauty of the area is notrepresentative of its overall value. The local WWF office has the potential and theexpertise to help enhance the visitors’ understanding of the area, by improving therole of the already existing information center located in Papigo. Moreover, the deepknowledge of local residents concerning the natural environment and culturalelements of their area (such as local customs, traditions, myths etc.) should be utilizedfor improving the visitors’ understanding and appreciation of Zagori. For instance,local people could start leading guided tours for visitors both inside and outside thebuilt environment, in order to explain important points of the history, culture andnature of Zagori, which would otherwise remain undiscovered by most tourists.In addition, a kind of local certification could complement the idea ofestablishing the suggested “network of communities of Chamois biotopes”, bycreating a local logo/label depicting the Balkan Chamois. The adoption of this logo bythe aforementioned network would help identify the Balkan Chamois with thedestination of Zagori and, in the same time, differentiate Zagori from other mountaindestinations with similar profile in Greece. There are two ways of utilizing this label.The first possibility would be to give it to Zagori as a whole, i.e. as a destination.Although in this case the requirements for calling this a certification scheme are notfulfilled, the advantage of this approach is that the adoption of the Balkan Chamois asthe official logo of Zagori provides a special identity to all local products and tourismservices, which thus become recognizable by tourists and are identified with thedestination as a whole. The second possibility would be establishing a set of qualityand/or performance criteria and then awarding the label only to those tourismenterprises that reach or exceed the required standards. The advantage of thisapproach is that it is more beneficial for the natural environment, since it constitutesan incentive for tourism business to in Zagori to operate in a more sustainable way.This could also help visitors who are sensitive with regard to environmental issuesdistinguish and support those businesses in Zagori that operate in a moreenvironmentally friendly manner.Regardless of the approach that will be adopted, though, the establishment ofthe “network of communities of Chamois biotopes” and the adoption of the BalkanChamois as its official label should also be linked to the conservation of the area’snatural resources. There are various ways of redirecting part of the revenues generatedby tourism to conservation purposes. For instance, a fixed symbolic amount could beadded to the bill of every hotel customer who visits Zagori (either through opt-in oropt-out procedures). The total amount accumulated from all tourism businesses inZagori within a year could be then spent on purposes such as scientific researchconducted by local universities/NGOs and/or environmental conservation projects inthe area. In any case, it is necessary to note that the creation of such a logo is not