Ecotourism is broadly defined as low-impact travel to threatened and often undisturbed locations. is different from traditional tourism because it allows the traveler to be educated about the areas. This occurs both in terms of physical landscape and cultural characteristics.
Ecotourism often provides funds for conservation and benefits the economic development of places that are economically poor.
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Ecotourism and other forms of sustainable travel have their origins in the environmental movement of the 1970s. Ecotourism itself did not become mainstream as a travel concept until the late 1980s.
During this period, increased environmental awareness and the desire to travel to natural sites, as opposed to built tourist sites, made ecotourism desirable.
Since then, several organizations specializing in ecotourism have developed. Many different people have become experts at this. Martha D. Honey, PhD, co-founder of the Center for Responsible Tourism, for example, is just one of many ecotourism experts.
Due to the growing popularity of adventure and environment-related travel, various types of travel are being classified as ecotourism. Most of them are not actually ecotourism, because they do not emphasize conservation, education, low-impact travel, and social and cultural participation in the places visited.
Therefore, to be considered ecotourism, a trip must meet the following principles established by the International Ecotourism Society:
Opportunities for ecotourism exist in many different locations around the world and their activities can vary widely.
Madagascar, for example, is famous for its ecotourism activity, as it is a critical point of biodiversity, but it also has a high priority for environmental conservation and is committed to poverty reduction.
Conservation International says that 80% of the country's animals and 90% of its plants are endemic to the island alone. Madagascar's lemurs are just one of many species that people visit the island to see.
As the island's government is committed to conservation, ecotourism is allowed in small numbers because education and travel funds will make work easier in the future. In addition, this tourist income also helps to reduce the poverty of the country.
Ecotourism is also popular in Central and South America. Destinations include Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guatemala and Panama. In Guatemala, for example, ecotourists can visit the Eco-Escuela de Español.
Despite the popularity of ecotourism in the aforementioned examples, there are several criticisms of ecotourism as well. The first is that there is no single definition of the term, so it is difficult to know which trips are actually considered ecotourism.
Furthermore, the terms “nature”, “low impact” and “green” tourism are often interchanged with “ecotourism”. These generally do not meet the principles set out by organizations such as the Nature Conservancy or the International Ecotourism Society.
Critics of ecotourism also cite that increased tourism to sensitive areas or ecosystems without proper planning and management can actually harm the ecosystem and its species, because the infrastructure needed to sustain tourism, such as roads, can contribute to degradation environmental.
Ecotourism is also said by critics to have a negative impact on local communities, because the arrival of foreign visitors can change political and economic conditions and sometimes make the area dependent on tourism as opposed to economic practices domestic.
Regardless of these criticisms, however, ecotourism and tourism in general are increasing at popularity around the world and tourism plays an important role in many economies around the world. world.
