Tourists to Advocates: making ecotourism work for people

The idea of ecotourism being one of the ways in which a variety of ecological, economic and social ills can be resolved has been around for some time now. Unfortunately though, the desire to see quick and/or easy solutions to these problems all too often results in both the concept and the practice of ecotourism being used and abused. Having just completed the International Year of Ecotourism it is perhaps useful to ask again, just what we mean by the term and what an ecotourism practice should do. The International Ecotourism Society defines ecotourism as responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people. At first glance, this may seem a reasonably straightforward definition, but it isn't. When we think about it, there are a number of words which can have alternative meanings, depending on where you sit. For example, responsible may mean one thing to the department of tourism, another to a national park manager, still another to the tourist. Should ecotourism merely conserve and sustain or actively improve? How should we define well-being? And so on. Least this sounds like an academic exercise in making things difficult, it's important to realise that this is more than being pedantic about definitions. People act on these ideas, policy-makers make policies based on assumptions relating to these questions and, importantly, tourists undertake their activities using value positions relating to all kinds of things. Broadly, it is possible to see ecotourism used in a number of different ways as a slogan, to be used for marketing destinations or businesses, as an activity which encompasses certain value positions and ethics related to appreciation of the natural and cultural environment where tourists undertake their activities, as an integrated approach to conservation and local level development where activities of tourists directly benefit local populations and the environment, etc. Consequently, while a lot of activities are called ecotourism, a closer examination of their impacts show that they are not what should be called ecotourism. For ecotourism to be effective, it is of utmost importance to clearly define what it is. Actually defining key ecotourism characteristics and principles will assist ecotourism management. There are a number of characteristics which an activity should possess for it to be worthy of the label ecotourism. In themselves they seem like they are very straightforward but, unfortunately, they aren't. It seems pretty obvious to say that, first and foremost, ecotourism is a conservation mechanism. But do the different stake- holders ? natural resource managers, local people, tourism operators, policy-makers and tourists themselves ? see conservation in the same way? Not necessarily. For example, forest access may be important for local people to gather medicinal plants or to meet their fuelwood requirements. Conservation, therefore, is linked to livelihood. However, what are one group's medicines and biomass is another group's photographic subjects, and part of another group's wilderness experience. Consequently, motivations for conservation are quite different. Conservation, however, will only be able to be achieved if and when it is linked to socio-economic development and livelihood security of local populations. One of the principles behind this is that local people will protect, for example, a forest if they realise the forest is worth more to them as a forest than as felled trees. However, it is also important to realise that forests have all types of values for local people, not just economic ones. So ecotourism needs to provide economic benefits to local people, but it also needs to provide cultural benefits as well. Further, within an ecotourism framework it is unacceptable if benefits, be they economic, cultural, or any other, are not shared equitably. An ecotourism approach embraces local people as partners in the activity. The building of outside constituencies is one of the most important, but often little recognised components of an ecotourism approach. For many people, ecotourism is achieved if people have a good time and learn something about the location. However, we should see this as only the absolute minimum outcome. A much better outcome is to see ecotourism as a process which facilitates tourists actively developing/enhancing conservation ethics and becoming advocates for the protection of the environment. Of course, all these lofty ideals are not possible without a set of conservation, development and tourism management strategies and policies enabling the development or facilitation of these characteristics. These policies should not see ecotourism as the province of tourism departments only, but as a complex activity requiring policy and regulatory inputs from all stakeholders. The facilitation and management of ecotourism in any country is a difficult one, not helped by the fact that the term has become a buzzword in national and international conservation and development circles. The task that we all have policy-makers, planners, tour operators, tourists and those concerned about the environment is to ensure ecotourism does more for the ecosystem, people and society than its history shows it might.