Consequences of Ecotourism

When I hear the word eco, the first thing that comes to my mind is go green, but it is a prefix used when concerned with living things in relation to environment. So, ecotourism is tourism which is designed to contribute to the protection of the environment or at least minimize damage to it, often involving travel to areas of natural interest in developing countries or participation in environmental projects.

Although, the concept has presently become very popular starting from early 00s , but we can say it existed since the time of Charles Darwin. Ecotourism is encouraged to travellers and tourists because it is assumed that if people saw the beauty, and felt the charisma, they will care more. The important thing is to find out whether it has served its purpose? During the 1900, people visited Africa to enjoy adventure tours. Wild life safari was considered as ecotourism, but tourists were more temped into local wildlife hunting. From 50s & 60s onwards, environmentalist noticed that the animal population was decreasing and that

something had to be done to prevent many more animals went extinct. So, they came up with the concept of ecotourism, with the objectives to stop hunting activities, prevent damage to the environment and conservation of endangered living species and trees. During the 80s and 90s, campaigns were held to teach people and influence them into taking on their responsibilities to save the world. After mid 90s, ecotourism became very popular that soon it took upon the face of good business from a non-profitable organisation. People began taking more interest in learning different cultures, natural history, witnessing miracles of Mother Nature. In 00s, people began to perceive it as the new trend of travelling and highly in demand. Developing countries saw

ecotourism as a ray of sunshine; that they should make hay while the sun shone. And it did. Ecotourism brought along economic advancements. With so many visitors per annum, locals and residents found more job opportunities, such as hotel businesses began to grow, car rental agencies and so on. It also contributed to the countries Balance of Payment, to the

Governments income and expenditure, helped deal with inflation. It also opened doors to enlighten; explore the world, enabling scope for exchanges of knowledge, ideology and human behavioural differences, differences in ethics and beliefs and many more. Mysteries about the different regions of the world, once only read in books could now be experienced by oneself. The East could finally meet the West. In order for a country to permit ecotourism and host it, it needs to consider three very important effective factors. Firstly, facilitating

accommodation;

secondly,

communication/transportation

and; thirdly that the prices of commodities and food should stay stable and there shouldnt be any shortage in the food. Facilitating shelters and roads for transportation is only possible through deforestation to acquire space. What we knowingly ignore is deforestation intervenes in the circular flow of nature of wildlife, resulting animal and species and thousands of trees to extinct. Furthermore, hoteliers claim that they are eco-friendly; their business is not harming the environment. Well, what about excessive amount of waste they dump every day? It does damage the environment. Causing changes in the weather, air born diseases, imbalance in the eco system are sickening the wild and marine life. They are getting infected by new diseases which then spread on to us through air or water. There are some developing countries that use

fertilizers to pace the growth of the harvest to meet the demands of the market. Developing countries often face food deficit consequences anyway, at such circumstances, inviting in thousands of tourists could

damage the economy. Sometimes, if the country is poor there is exploitation of the local tribes, that is, ecotourists take advantage of the local residents for cheap labour. Ecotourism may also create social damage. There are high chances for exploitation of social cultures. Also tourists can be reckless and cause damage to the attractions. There could be absence of duty of care. The earths ecosystem is very vulnerable at present situation. All the initiatives are being taken to protect what is left. I dont think that its the time to take risks anymore.

In 2006, Dr. Donald A. Levin whose a botany professor at the university of Texas at Austin, in a January-February issue of American scientist magazine said that the imbalance of the ecosystem would cause half of all the living bird and mammal species to extinct within 200 to 300 years. He explains that its a normal phenomena for species to extinct, but the rate of extinction is as many as 100 to 1000times greater than the normal. Then in 2007, it was reported that during the 80s, 100,000 birds had been inhabitant of Delaware Bay, whereas figures of 2007 stated that the population decreased to only around 15000. If the purpose of ecotourism was conserving our ecology, then why is it that its not preventing extinction or slow down the rate of extinction of the living species . Marine parks have always been a great attraction of ecotourism in Malaysia. It contributes about 10% of the total tourism revenue. Pulau Payar, an island near Langkawi is famous for diving and snorkelling. Lack of proper enforcement of ecotourism guidelines and enforcing securities made easier for diving agents to take innumerable tourist to the island ignoring the carrying capacity of the island. The beaches got overcrowded and many diver and snorkelers accidently stepped onto many on the corals. Soon, the islands environment began degrading.

Similarly, the island in Terengganu and Sabah is almost near to extinct due to overcrowding of the beaches. Here, there were concern of conserving the island after the environment had started detoriating, after risking to be wretched by tourist. I see 3 perspectives here, I dont know which one of them is positive: An ecology professor from The University of Minnesota, David Tilman reasons that human activity is the cause for increasing rate of extinction. He says that it happens due to excessive deforestation, and fishing to such extend that it even wipes off the bottom of the ocean. So, its suggestible that increase rate of human activity means increasing the rate at which resources would finish. If we reason with David Tilman, then the locals are calling drought upon them. Ecotourism aids you with knowledge. There are those who are giving all their effort to prevent a mass extinction, they go to places and teach people about wild and marine life conservation. It helps the locals to preserve endangered species of their countries. But the locals dont benefit anything. It was assumed that ecotourism would work like a speed breaker to slow down the sky rocketing rate of all wild and marine life. But it didnt. In fact, the increasing rate of extinction has been complementing equally with the increasing rate of ecotourism.

References
1-The International ecotourism Society, (2009-2010): What is Ecotourism? The Definition <http://ecotourism.org/site/c.orLQKXPCLmF/b.4835303/k.BEB9/Wha t_is_Ecotourism__The_International_Ecotourism_Society.htm> 2-Alexander Grouch: Advantages of Ecotourism <http://ehow.com/about_5434465_advantages-ecotourism.html 3-Alyson Paige: Advantages and disadvantages of ecotourism> <http://ehow.com/list_6134497_advantages-disadvantagesecotourism.html> 4-Saikat, (2008): Effects of Ecotourism <http://aboutmyplanet.com/environment/effects-ecotourism/> 5-Julie Dasenbrock, (2002): The pros and cons of Ecotourism in Costa Rica: TED Case Studies, No.648 <http://1.american.edu/ted/costa-rica-tourism.htm> 6-Kevin Belanger, (2006): Ecotourism and its effects on Native Population <http://geog.umd.edu/academic/undergrad/harper/kbelanger.pd f>

7-Clem Tisdell, (2003): Economic Aspect of Ecotourism: Wildlifebased Tourism and its Contribution to Nature: Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics. Vol.5, No.1 <http://slageconr.net/sjae/sjae51f/sjae05106.pdf>