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How Your Travels Will Affect Local Communities
Ecotourism is definitely a rising trend. However, even within the realm of ecotourism, the social implications of travel are often overlooked.
Negative ImpactsImpacts:
Loss of culture: loss of local produce and crafts, designs adjusted to suit tourists' taste and therefore lacking in cultural flavour.
Loss of traditional food and living style, and replaced with the style of life from the tourist's original home countries.
Tourists should learn to accept the local surroundings, not impose their own expectations onto others' homeland.
Cultural clashes: tourists often dress inappropriately
Can cause locals to stray away from their beliefs and traditions, and cause conflict between tourists/locals
Taking photos without permission and under unwanted circumstances may be offensive
Physical influences: overuse of natural environment
Vandalism and crime can increase
Competition and balance for local resources is affected due to tourism demands
Frequently locals are denied access to tourist resorts: moral issue, inequality and segregation
Positive Impacts
Reducing stereotypes: Allow interactions between travellers and locals; learning more about local cultures and develop deeper understanding
Ecotourism reduces negative stereotypes and develops appreciation
Develop facilities: creation of local establishments can benefit locals as well (income flow)
Development of tourist resources force the improvement of local water supply/roads etc.
Better entertainment/ health systems to benefit tourists which will in turn benefit the locals (win-win situation)
Strengthen communities
Income from tourism can pay for schools/facilities to be built. Profits will therefore go directly to the people.
Create pride/jobs
There is a fine line between tourism and responsible ecotourism. The key to the development of sustainable tourism is effective management. It’s up to you to be sensitive to cultures other than your own and make the effort to travel with companies that truly are eco-friendly, but it is also up to local governments and communities to ensure that they are controlling tourism and monitoring its effects on both local communities and environments.
--------------------------------------------------Pawkie-----------------------------------------------------
<Rachel Lee JIA!!!!!>
http://www.jaguarreserve.com/about.asp
Tash.
Community-Based Ecotourism in Development in Northern Thailand
By Wang Jian Ping
Source: http://www.asianscholarship.org/asf/ejourn/articles/jianping_w.pdf
This source is a study of the development and impact of community-based tourism (CBET) in Northern Thailand.
Benefits
Local people benefit from becoming involved with the tourist industry. “…active involvement and control of eco-tourism products and services by indigenous communities will benefit the indigenous peoples themselves.”
“The richness and diversity of indigenous cultures and traditional knowledge is an invaluable treasure for all human beings.”
Eco tourists will gain from their travels as they gain intellectual knowledge which may lead them to become involved in protecting these eco-tourist sites. “…they will learn from the cultural and biological diversity of places but would also be involved in measures to protect them.”
Preservation of local cultures “other scholars suggest that commodification can help protect or even revive traditional practices and beliefs that would otherwise be lost”
Challenges
“Negative impacts such as environmental pollution and enormous waste management problems, the violation of human rights, commodification of cultures, etc., have affected many indigenous peoples around the world.”
“compared to mass tourism, eco-tourism is a kind of imperialism that can overpower traditional institutions and destroy local culture”
“The contradiction between economic self-reliance and the objective of minimizing the negative impact” Keeping a balance between sustainable economic sustainability and trying to achieve a sustainable environment at the same time.
Ecotorism - an oxymoron?
By Aspen Edge
Source:
http://www.responsibletravelnews.com/articles/2008_07_11_Ecotourism_Definition.htm
There is no universally accepted definition of ecotourism but the International Ecotourism Society (TIES), the oldest organization in the industry, suggests that ecotourism has the following componenets:
Active minimization of environmental and cultural impact
Education on, and raising of, awareness about, the environment and natural history
Provision of financial benefits for future conservation
Improvement of the welfare of the local people
Sensitivity to the host countries' political, social and environmental conditions
Prioritisation of human rights and labour agreements
"Active minimization of environmental and cultural impact" - Can encouraging consumers to travel, usually by plane, all over the world be said to be the 'active minimization of environmental impact'? This activity might be countered by carbon-offsets, but even here, the results are dubious at best. .... Take the the publicized incidence where one initiative did indeed plant 1,000 trees, but unfortunately with no follow-up maintenance, these self-same trees were all dead a year later.... their carbon sequestration capacity is not reached for many years, and in fact, trees are outperformed by temperate grasslands, which sequester 236 tonnes per hectare as against tropical forests at 123 tonnes.
"Improvement of the welfare of the local people" What operator or eco-tourist is really aware of the impact they have on the wellbeing of its host community? e.g. the impact of a bottle water, that could be taking away the water for irrigation for local farming or the profits going to the water battle company which may be an multinational cooperation instead of the locals.
Misuse of the ecotourism name. "There is currently no certification process, what the term means in practice is a lottery. For example, the simple use of building insulation can be considered 'eco', and therefore enable the operator to be described as an ecotourism destination, as in the case of one hotel listed on the internet...The result is a growing niche market in tourism"
"As it stands at the moment, there is nothing 'eco' about tourism. It is truly an oxymoron."
The La Plata County Community Development Department, in Colorado, have just initiated a Land Use Net Benefit Programme, which is involving both local government and all the stakeholders in the creation of community goals which both safeguard the environment and the quality of life of the diverse residents, both indigenous and immigrant. This ensure that everyone in the local community benefits somehow from the flow of ecotourists.
Tourism as a part of an income generating strategy must go hand in hand with a community initiative to regulate the impact on natural resources.
Ecotourism Champion: A Conversation with Hector Ceballos-Lascurain by Ron Mader
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/weaving/hectorceballos.html
This interview has many real world examples where ecotourism has in fact benefited the country and its environment.
Background on Hector Ceballos-Lascurain
“Winner of the Colibri Ecotourism Lifetime Achievement Award, Hector Ceballos-Lascurain is a Mexican architect, environmentalist and international ecotourism consultant. He is Director General of the Program of International Consultancy on Ecotourism (PICE), based in Mexico City, and also a Special Advisor on Ecotourism to IUCN (The World Conservation Union), The International Ecotourism Society and the World Tourism Organization.
Hector has performed research and provided consultations in more than 70 countries worldwide on all aspects of ecotourism planning and development, including the architectural design and construction of ecolodges and other environmentally friendly facilities. He has authored or co-authored more than 130 books, reports and articles and is widely credited with coining the term 'ecotourism' and its preliminary definition in 1983.”
² “Ecotourism is proving to be a viable tool for conservation of the natural and cultural heritage of that important Amazonian area.”
² Varying definitions of the “ecotourism” name.
"Ecotourism in Australia is a very different occurrence from, let's say, ecotourism in Ecuador. It is for this reason, I think, that different people and institutions in diverse countries have arrived at different definitions (some of them, by the way, quite similar among themselves). However, I think that this multiplicity of definitions is causing much confusion"
² In some countries, such as Mexico, there has been little interest and support from the public institutions about investing in to developing ecotourism. Ecotourism still has not established its validity in the tourism market.
² "Most 'ecotour' activities in Mexico carried out by local tour operators are more in the 'adventure tourism' category, and do not always respect the fragile natural and cultural environment in which they take place." An example of how there are various perceptions of what ecotourism is.
Fun Fact~~
In Mexico, ecotourism is called “ecoturismo” in Spainish.
Brittney

How Your Travels Will Affect Local Communities
Ecotourism is definitely a rising trend. However, even within the realm of ecotourism, the social implications of travel are often overlooked.
Negative Impacts:Impacts
Loss of culture: loss of local produce and crafts, designs adjusted to suit tourists' taste and therefore lacking in cultural flavour.
Loss of traditional food and living style, and replaced with the style of life from the tourist's original home countries.
Tourists should learn to accept the local surroundings, not impose their own expectations onto others' homeland.
Cultural clashes: tourists often dress inappropriately
Can cause locals to stray away from their beliefs and traditions, and cause conflict between tourists/locals
Taking photos without permission and under unwanted circumstances may be offensive
Physical influences: overuse of natural environment
Vandalism and crime can increase
Competition and balance for local resources is affected due to tourism demands
Frequently locals are denied access to tourist resorts: moral issue, inequality and segregation
Positive Impacts
Reducing stereotypes: Allow interactions between travellers and locals; learning more about local cultures and develop deeper understanding
Ecotourism reduces negative stereotypes and develops appreciation
Develop facilities: creation of local establishments can benefit locals as well (income flow)
Development of tourist resources force the improvement of local water supply/roads etc.
Better entertainment/ health systems to benefit tourists which will in turn benefit the locals (win-win situation)
Strengthen communities
Income from tourism can pay for schools/facilities to be built. Profits will therefore go directly to the people.
Create pride/jobs
There is a fine line between tourism and responsible ecotourism. The key to the development of sustainable tourism is effective management. It’s up to you to be sensitive to cultures other than your own and make the effort to travel with companies that truly are eco-friendly, but it is also up to local governments and communities to ensure that they are controlling tourism and monitoring its effects on both local communities and environments.
--------------------------------------------------Pawkie-----------------------------------------------------
<Rachel Lee JIA!!!!!>
http://www.jaguarreserve.com/about.asp
Tash.
Community-Based Ecotourism in Development in Northern Thailand
By Wang Jian Ping
Source: http://www.asianscholarship.org/asf/ejourn/articles/jianping_w.pdf
This source is a study of the development and impact of community-based tourism (CBET) in Northern Thailand.
Benefits
Local people benefit from becoming involved with the tourist industry. “…active involvement and control of eco-tourism products and services by indigenous communities will benefit the indigenous peoples themselves.”
“The richness and diversity of indigenous cultures and traditional knowledge is an invaluable treasure for all human beings.”
Eco tourists will gain from their travels as they gain intellectual knowledge which may lead them to become involved in protecting these eco-tourist sites. “…they will learn from the cultural and biological diversity of places but would also be involved in measures to protect them.”
Preservation of local cultures “other scholars suggest that commodification can help protect or even revive traditional practices and beliefs that would otherwise be lost”
Challenges
“Negative impacts such as environmental pollution and enormous waste management problems, the violation of human rights, commodification of cultures, etc., have affected many indigenous peoples around the world.”
“compared to mass tourism, eco-tourism is a kind of imperialism that can overpower traditional institutions and destroy local culture”
“The contradiction between economic self-reliance and the objective of minimizing the negative impact” Keeping a balance between sustainable economic sustainability and trying to achieve a sustainable environment at the same time.
Brittney

http://www.jaguarreserve.com/about.asp
Tash.
Community-Based Ecotourism in Development in Northern Thailand
By Wang Jian Ping
Source: http://www.asianscholarship.org/asf/ejourn/articles/jianping_w.pdf
This source is a study of the development and impact of community-based tourism (CBET) in Northern Thailand.
Benefits
Local people benefit from becoming involved with the tourist industry. “…active involvement and control of eco-tourism products and services by indigenous communities will benefit the indigenous peoples themselves.”
“The richness and diversity of indigenous cultures and traditional knowledge is an invaluable treasure for all human beings.”
Eco tourists will gain from their travels as they gain intellectual knowledge which may lead them to become involved in protecting these eco-tourist sites. “…they will learn from the cultural and biological diversity of places but would also be involved in measures to protect them.”
Preservation of local cultures “other scholars suggest that commodification can help protect or even revive traditional practices and beliefs that would otherwise be lost”
Challenges
“Negative impacts such as environmental pollution and enormous waste management problems, the violation of human rights, commodification of cultures, etc., have affected many indigenous peoples around the world.”
“compared to mass tourism, eco-tourism is a kind of imperialism that can overpower traditional institutions and destroy local culture”
“The contradiction between economic self-reliance and the objective of minimizing the negative impact” Keeping a balance between sustainable economic sustainability and trying to achieve a sustainable environment at the same time.
Brittney

How Your Travels Will Affect Local Communities
Ecotourism is definitely a rising trend. However, even within the realm of ecotourism, the social implications of travel are often overlooked.
Negative Impacts:
Loss of culture: loss of local produce and crafts, designs adjusted to suit tourists' taste and therefore lacking in cultural flavour.
Loss of traditional food and living style, and replaced with the style of life from the tourist's original home countries.
Tourists should learn to accept the local surroundings, not impose their own expectations onto others' homeland.
--------------------------------------------------Pawkie-----------------------------------------------------
<Rachel Lee JIA!!!!!>

"Ecotourism is an oxymoron" - Initial thoughts
To have a company being able to give a pair of shoes away everytime a pair is sold is incredible. It means the price of the shoes has to cover the production costs of 2 pairs of shoes + the profit margin for the corporation. But like Daniel said, if people are conscious and willing in making a difference by paying a higher price, it will be possible for such charity and humanitarian schemes to succeed. I guess it relies more upon the ideals of human compassionate and I think Ecotourism is quite the same. If people are willing to pay a much higher price to minimize their damage to the local environment, it is possible that ecotourism may become one of the pillars that could help ELDCs sustainably develop their nations; raising living standards and incomes. Although i think this is very idealistic to say.

On a moral/ethic basis, I think Ecotourism is applaudable and hence should not be labelled as an oxymoron. It encourages the maximization of benefits while minimizing impacts for the local communities and environment. Like what Steph said, it raises awareness through education, public (or international support and funding which helps natural conservation. Ideally, the wealth generated with the injection of income in the form of foreign currency into ELDCs with ecotourism industry will be evenly distributed into the communities. However, this is not the idealized world that we live in.

With the rise of neoliberalism since the 1970s, the liberalization of a nation's economy was seen as the way to 'do things'. Deregulation and privatization was widespread under the influence of the IMF and WTO which allowed powerful multinational companies to have significant political-economic influence within a country's government. Foreign firms and industries as such ecotourism will steadily increase its ability to manipulate and exploit the liberalized economy. By doing so, the ideals embedded within the concept of 'ecotourism' will be shoved aside. Profit or capital accumulation will be seen as the new ultimate goal, especially at the expense of the health of the environment, people's health and human rights. The lack of regulation as established by the way the global economy function will create severe issues.

Like many who perviously stated, with deregulation, mismanagment (and exploitation) will occur, and it will be hard to resolve such issues. The strive for profit making will turn ecotourism into the wrong direction, threatening environments and local communities. Effectively, this will be the fundamental issue of Ecotourism. With liberalization of the global and local economies, the commodification of everything has occurred. There are monetary values for things like natural sceneries, indigenous cultures and the environment. It turns ecotourism into a capitalistic industry instead of what it should really be doing: the preservation of the environment and local communities. It ideals will be lost. In this sense, ecotourism is an oxymoron.

In conclusion, ecotourism will not be an oxymoron if it is managed properly, but even simply that is an issue which will be difficult to resolve.

"Ecotourism is an oxymoron" - Initial thoughts
I just searched up TOM shoes and I’ve seen people walking around with those! Very interesting idea…

But anyways, yes I do agree with what Daniel has said above about people’s ideals and that awareness spreads quickly that leads to action, sort of in the same way that those who have experienced ecotourism will have gained a greater awareness and likely be more willing to contribute to nature conservation in the future.
Yet, in the situation of ecotourism, perhaps because of the ambiguity behind the definition of “ecotourism” and that it is so easy for anyone to claim that they are an “ecotourism” organization that makes greenwashing so easy to occur, it may have created a lot of confusion and uncertainty in people’s views towards ecotourism. Perhaps in a way all this greenwashing and hidden economic motives have tarnished the image of the original intention of “ecotourism”. And it is likely that those confused and people who have been “greenwashed” may be less trustful and willing to participate in ecotourism as they would have been. Thus, it is possible that awareness and willingness to participate in ecotourism may be affected because of all the confusion and uncertainty.

Nevertheless, I feel that if truly managed well, just as Daniel has said, ecotourism should be able to work out well.

"Ecotourism is an oxymoron" - Initial thoughts
Steph raised a very interesting idea and it immediately sparked an idea in my mind - TOMS shoes. Have anyone heard of TOMS? Perhaps not - it is a relatively...new brand? Or a more famous one in the US. Basically it is a for-profit organisation, but for each pair of shoes it sold, it will give one other pair away. Now this sounds like a ridiculously awesome idea (because it would be balancing its books AND giving shoes away) but incredibly hard to manage. How on earth could they do it?

I've had the chance to listen to the CEO of TOMS and he gave an incredible presentation about his business model (not leaking any tips, though) and how the model allows him to sustain his company as well as give shoes away. It is currently a very successful company and people who buy TOMS are very aware of its effects on another poor family somewhere in Argentina. People get aware of the matter, and they act on it by buying a pair of TOMS because they know it will be delivered to a pair of legs that have almost never tried on any shoes before.

So does this business model work? Yes. I think it does and I think TOMS have proven that it does. You can be for-profit AND make good of the environment. Thats why I think much of it comes down to what people's ideals are. If people are striving to protect the environment, then they'll work their way out. Just did the CEO of TOMS.

Value of Ecosystems (Ecotourism?)
I also agree with what Joyce and Daniel have said.
Bringing Joyce’s idea of the tour guide to a larger scale, it can be very tempting for developing countries relying on tourism as a primary source of foreign currency, income and employment to fall into the trap of depending on mass tourism to support their economy. The country may easily fall into the trap of maximizing short-term profit making opportunities that tourists can bring and sacrifice the long-term natural environment of their area that the ecotourism industry is founded on and quickly break the values “ecotourism” is founded on. Perhaps they may think that once we gain quick profits and develop our country, we can repair the environment later. However, it is all too well known that it takes a lot more time and effort to repair damaged environments compared to that of destroying them. And such a mentality would go completely against the values of ecotourism.

Value of Ecosystems (Ecotourism?)
Yes, very true joyce, and thats why we, ideally, need to separate business values and the values of the ecosystem. In other words, we must come to understand the ecosystem as it is, and its monetary value for us directly, instead of only realising that the tour guide can be the buck.

I'm sure many of these tour guides do in fact understand the value. But appreciation and understanding in this case is quite different, and we must learn to understand and appreciate, instead of just understanding and reverting to the old business model.
At least, ideally.

"Ecotourism is an oxymoron" - Initial thoughts
Asia and I were just discussing the issue of ecotourism that Louise, Daniel and Cheryl had pointed out. We were talking about how in a perfect case scenario where ecotourism is well managed, it should not be oxymoronic and should be able to meet the seven requirements of Martha Honey’s widely approved definition of ecotourism. If managed well, ecotourism can increase public support and total amount of funding available for nature conservation. And as Louise pointed out, in cases where they do not meet the criteria, they should not even be labeled “ecotourism”.
However, the problem is that ecotourism is an extremely difficult to manage and to succeed, a lot of conditions must be satisfied. Because of this, it is so easy to fail in meeting some conditions that it can easily lead the whole “ecotourism project” down the wrong path so that it becomes a threat to nature conservation and the local community and no longer fits the intended and idealized definition of “ecotourism”.

So the fundamental problem to be targeted is management. Ecotourism is essentially a business. Their goal is essentially to make money which has to cover costs as well as be distributed to the organization, the local community, funds for nature conservation, etc. Yet, because of the nature of such a business, it is impossibly complex to manage.

Just think. First, things like pricing of tickets and estimations of the tourist carrying capacity of the destination would have to be considered to make sure that the number of visitors does not threaten the conservation objectives of the protected area. Yet, as a business they have to ensure that they earn enough money to be sustainable in the long run to create economic benefits for the locals and benefit conservation, local empowerment, etc. These two things are very difficult to balance all at once as there are so many stakeholders involved in the situation. Also, before all this has taken place, it is important that not all areas or sites are capable of supporting profitable ecotourism enterprises, where factors such as accessibility, availability of complementary attracts, cost of visiting have to be taken into consideration.

So many factors that have to be considered in balancing profits, sustainability, and ecotourism intentions make it so easy for the situation to be mismanaged. And it is likely that these cases, which may have started out fitting well into the definition of “ecotourism”, are the ones that can lead to the conflicts of ecotourism as being oxymoronic.