Ecotourism is
“Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and
improves the well-being of local people."
(TIES, 1990)
Ecotourism is initiated with approaches to minimize the
negative impacts of traditional tourism on the environment and enhance the
cultural interaction of local people with tourists. The governments can increase the awareness of
local people and gain support from them for conservation of regional natural
resources. While conserving the nature, ecotourism provides good income for
governments and rural people.
Principles of Ecotourism: It is based on conservation,
communities, and sustainable travel.
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Advantages
of ecotourism can be discussed as follows.
1) Environmental Conservation: Ecotourism help to conserve all types of ecosystems
including forests, coral reefs and mangroves. The governments tend to preserve
the existing natural ecosystems and reforestation of the deforested area.
Tourists and local communities are encouraged to conserve ecosystems. The taxes
based on tourism, enters fee and donation are directed as funding on
conservation actions, reestablishments and recover the ecosystem damage due to
the tourism. Most tourists interest and join voluntarily for the conservation
programs including sea turtle conserving program.
2) Enhance the living standard of the local community: ecotourism give direct employment
for the rural people. They can find their job opportunity from transport,
tourist hotels, guidance, conservation programs and constructions. The rural
people can start their self-employment without joining directly into the
ecotourism. They can open stores and sell local delicious foods. Tourists
prefer to buy clothes, juallary, music instruments and bags which are made from
local materials. Infrastructure is developed to attract more tourists which are
results in indirect the development in the rural area. The construction of
roads, drinking water, electricity, health facilities improve the living standards of rural
communities. The volunteers in the groups of tourists are willing to help local
people to improve their health and education. They may conduct educational
programs and clinic.
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Although
ecotourism provides lots of benefits it is also associated with some
disadvantages due to the misbehavior of both tourists and local communities and
poor management as follows.
1) Habitat degradation and fragmentation: construction of roads, accommodations and other infrastructures
distrusts the habitats and ecosystems. The animals go through to roads are hit
and killed by the vehicles carrying tourists. Construction may remove the
vegetation that offers food, shelter and breeding places for native animal
communities.
2) Threaten the animal biodiversity: The tourists tend to hunt in natural forests and fish in
the coral ecosystems. It may leads to overexploitation and threatens the native
and endemic animal species. Thereby it reduces the local animal and plant diversity.
The annoying actions including noising of tourists disturb the animal behavior.
Most of the animals do not like to contact with people so that those kind
animals tend to moves another suitable ecosystem where the human influence is
still not a problem. The fire camps within forested areas disturb the pathways
of nocturnal animals including elephants, lions and ant eaters. Wild animals
tend eat the remaining of food thrown away by tourists. These foods may be
wrapped in polythene bags which are accumulated and block the digestive tracks
of animals including the elephants. They left over plastic water bottles,
aluminum cans which are not easily biodegradable and remain within the wild
environment and affect the existence of plant animal communities. The propeller
cuts of boat hit and kill the animals live in the coral ecosystems.
3) Aquatic pollution: Unregulated boat riding brings serious environmental problems. They
increase the turbulence and reduce light penetration through increasing
turbidity at the most of time. So it kills the plants and algal communities in
bottom of the sea. The gases releases due to fossil fuel burning from boat are
toxic to plant and animal communities. It has been damaged and killed the
entire coral reef communities in most area of the world. Poorly maintained
boats leak oil into water. These oil deposits in the feathers on the sea birds
which make them unable to fly. Oil decreases the light penetration through the
water. It reduce dissolving oxygen through the oil water interface.it disturbs
natural temperature lowering and establishing mechanisms. Thereby it increases
temperature of water. Oil pollution is extremely cost to remove by mechanical
methods. Propeller of boat damages and cut the aquatic vegetation including sea
grasses and seaweeds.
4) Soil disturbance: Constructions of roads disturbs the soil. It left soil more vulnerable
to wind and water erosion. Deposition of eroded soil in aquatic systems threats
the aquatic animal and plant life. Use of vehicles for transporting tourists
such as safari jeeps cause soil compaction in forested area which result in
water logged condition because it reduces the infiltration capacity of soil.
5) Introduction of alien invasive species: alien invasive species are unintentionally introduced
trough the ecotourism. The vehicles that transporting tourists from urban areas
to rural areas or long distance supports to introduction of alien invasive
species into native areas. The vehicles that are used for construction purposes
are another source of introduction of alien invasive species. The tourists
transporting and recreational ships and boats also cause spread of alien
invasive species in aquatic ecosystems. Recreational boats act as the major
spreading agent of Dreissena polymorpha between lakes and rivers within Europe.
6) Forest resources exploitation: The large trees grown in the forests are fall down for
constructing tourists’ hotels. Loss of trees directly affects the existence of
the ecosystem as animal community interacts with them. Tress acts as a habitat
for many animal species. Pollinators and seed dispersals directly depend on
tree for their survival. Birds, animals and insects find their breeding places,
nesting places in large trees. Some tourists tend extract forest resources
illegally. Some collect bird eggs, small reptiles, butterflies and moths,
resins from trees, fungal species and piece of corals. They collect and bring them into their
countries for genetic exploitation.
7) Social impacts:
Young children in rural and coastal areas tend to leave the school and join to
ecotourism to earn money. Tourism persuades small children and girls to employ
as sex workers. Thereby HIV aids transmit from the foreign tourists to local
people. Ecotourism create a way to transport drugs into local communities which
lower the health and income of people.
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