Eco-Tourism

Eco-Tourism is the natural ecological conservation and tourism combine as a way to travel. When the conservationists have learned that eco-tourism and the tourism industry linked and affecting the environment, we should focus on the concept of eco-tourism. We can easily find out the negative impact brought by eco-tourism. It shows the ecological impact of the improper human activities. The eco-tourism has undoubtedly become a part of the development of travel and tourism, but tourism growth has brought a lot of negative impacts. When travel behavior or activity does not comply with ecological concepts, attitudes and value, how can you call eco-tourism? It destroyed the environment, exploited the nature. Conservation is not only focus on the profits but also need the economic interests for long-term development.

First of all, there is the destruction of ecosystem. The eco-tourism industry, which is growing rapidly, has emerged as one of the most important sectors of the international tourism industry, making up 7 percent of the world tourism market. In the Asia-Pacific region alone, eco-tour operators report growth rates of 10 percent to 25 percent a year. Demand for quality eco-tourism destinations will continue to grow as urban congestion, pollution, crowding, and concern for the natural environment all increase. (Jonathan Nash, April 2001). That means when the industry was growing quickly, it affected and destroyed the environment and ecosystem directly. Government focused on the economic development policy and land development. When there are increased a large number of industry, it reflects there must have air pollution to affect the resorts of animals and the quality of the air. In the past 15 years, sea shores, coral reefs, forests, and other environments are affected from pollution by the mass eco-tourism industry.“Almost half of all unsustainable case studies reported that ecotourism led to serious habitat alteration, mainly in the form of major habitat changes in order to accommodate more eco-tourists, serious trail erosion due to a high number of people or cars on a certain track and pollution caused by eco-tourists in mostly fragile areas, such as islands or mountain regions.” (OLIVER KRUGER, 11 November 2003)
“Examples of that type include large-scale habitat transformation to enhance ecotourism experience in Malaysia, track erosion in Costa Rican National Parks and severe pollution by garbage at certain points in the Himalayas in Nepal.” (OLIVER KRUGER, 11 November 2003)It proved that more eco-tourism industry, more pollution affecting the environment. Moreover, one of the best-known destruction of eco-tourism is the Galapagos Islands. Galapagos Islands were suffering a lot from eco-tourism. On the other hand, the destruction of the habitats, the habitats is the natural home for the animals and plants. Forests and rainforests are cutting down by the industries. So logging can cause soil erosion, and the logging roads that are built can damage rivers and streams. Wild lands are also being cleared for crops and domestic animals. Animals used to living in that habitat cannot survive in an area without crop. Building roads and cities would also affect the habitat of animals. Highways and freeways would also destroy animals’ natural habitats and plants. These destruction are affected the ecosystem seriously.

Secondly, there is the population pressure. A case shows that eco-tourism has provided many employment opportunities to labor force in the Galapagos Islands. The success of eco-tourism, it can help the immigrants to develop and find the jobs. It’s a way for them to earn the income in order to stable their life. The local infrastructure and the environment were brought pressure by the extra labor force. “Tourist had increased from just 287 in1974 to close to 41,000 high-end tourists in 2012. There was also a 56% increase on 2009 figures in high-end arrivals from neighboring countries, especially India, highlighting the importance of the regional market.” (McIntyre, Kris , 2011 , pg.15). That means when the eco-tourism was building up, eco-tourism brings a larger number of eco-tourists. When there are more and more tourists, road building, hotel, resort, transportation and other infrastructure to satisfy the demand. It will increase the road traffic, and cause the light, air, habitat and noise pollution. Some animals and their resorts may affected by these pollution. To coordinate the increased tourist, they had operated different type of the facilities which are transport services, hotels and accommodation that will destroy the environment and ecosystem. In some notable countries, tourists was polluting, trampling, and gobbling up scarce resources in fragile habitats. It is distressed for us to hear that most of tourism’s expansion is occurring in and around the world’s remaining natural areas. “Almost half of all unsustainable case studies reported that ecotourism led to serious habitat alteration, mainly in the form of major habitat changes in order to accommodate more eco-tourists, serious trail erosion due to a high number of people or cars on a certain track and pollution caused by eco-tourists in mostly fragile areas, such as islands or mountain regions.” (OLIVER KRUGER, 11 November 2003)
“They comprise around 15%of the total number of international tourist arrivals in 2000 and tourism in general created only between 0.5 and 13.5%of the GDP of these countries. Hence, with the exception of Belize, ecotourism has a negligible impact on the GDP of these countries. As can be seen from Table 2, only three countries (Australia, Mexico, USA) are among the top 10 countries in both ecotourism case studies and endemic vertebrate species richness and the top 10 countries in terms of international tourist arrivals and tourism receipts do not, with the exception of the USA and Canada, include prominent ecotourism destinations.” (OLIVER KRUGER, 11 November 2003)In my opinion, the major killer of the eco-system is eco-tourists. It is because the demand of human is unlimited, people would take the limited resources and destroyed the environment constantly.

Last but not least, there is the eco-exploitation. Eco-tourism is a large industry in the world. So there is a vested interest that exploits the environment, resources, creating paradises and increasingly offering adventures and destinations. The tourists spend the money supposed to trickle down into the host community but it’s hard to achieve. Less developed countries lack of the sufficient funds and resources to develop eco-tourism, so it is necessary to rely on foreign capital. “In one economic assessment of rainforest land use in Bahia, Brazil, Conservation International determined that logging the forest provided an initial high return, followed by little income. Conversion of the forest into pastureland was even less profitable and required substantial initial investment.” (Jonathan Nash, April 2001). In conclusion, nowadays, eco-tourism and tourism industry are linked and affecting the natural ecosystem. Is this the eco-tourism fault? Or is this the tourism industry fault? I think it is a cause and effect relationship between eco-tourism and tourism industry and we are hard to distinguish who is fault. Although there are lots of dissenting voices and many conservationists or people are protecting the natural eco-system and our environment, it is not enough for us to lower the damage that eco-tourism and tourism industry affecting the natural environment. We hope the consumers and suppliers can become more aware of issues and problems that they brought to ecosystem. And they should demand less damage and affect and more intelligent encounters for the other culture and nature. Human should also realize the problem what natural environment and ecosystem are suffering, then we can do something and alert the importance of the ecosystem. So this is a big issue and problem for us to discuss and discern. There are always the good and bad, we should distinguish objectively and carefully. If we can do the travel behaviors and activities that comply with ecological concepts, attitudes and value, there’s a real eco-tourism and we can bring the least effect to ecosystem and natural environment.

References

1. OLIVER KRUGER, 11 November 2003, The role of ecotourism in conservation : panacea or Pandora’s box? (Biodiversity and Conservation 14:579-600, Springer 2005)
2. K. Lindberg, B. Furze, M. staff, and R. Black, Ecotourism in the Asia Pacific Region: Issues and Outlook (Bennington, VT: The Ecotourism Society, 1997)
3. McIntyre , Kris, 2011, Bhutan: A model for sustainable tourism development
4. Jonathan Nash, April 2001, Eco-Tourism: Encouraging Conservation or Adding to Exploitation? (http://www.prb.org/Articles/2001/EcoTourismEncouragingConservation )