According to the International Ecotourism Society, ecotourism is ‘Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people’.
Ecotourism Australia defines the term as ‘ecologically sustainable tourism with a primary focus on experiencing natural areas that foster environmental and cultural understanding, appreciation and conservation’.
At Ecotourism Kenya, ecotourism is referred to as “nature and culture based tourism that invests in and supports the protection of the environment, respects local cultures and engages local communities to ensure fairness among all stakeholders”.
So what really is ecotourism?
Actually it is all of the above. The underlying words are ‘responsible tourism’ and ‘local cultures’. It brings together conservation, communities and tourism.
Ecotourism as a concept has been greatly misunderstood and misused throughout the world. It has been used to refer to ‘ecological destinations’ and, in some extreme cases, to ‘budget tourism’. Perhaps the most common mistake is the perception of it as an object or place. it is not. It is a ‘means’ to obtain more environmental benefits from responsible tourism practices.
Tourism as a sector contributes greatly to the economies of East African economies. In Kenya, for example, it supplies in most cases up to 20% of GDP. It is a sector that we cannot do without.
Principles that govern ecotourism
Environmental Protection
Practices that promote environmental protection are a key principle.
According to Webster’s dictionary, the environment is the setting or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates.
It is what determines the nature of biodiversity in a region. The giraffe would live miserably on the glaciers of Alaska, but so will the polar bear on the Mara prairies.
The environment has a natural way of rejuvenating itself. That is one of the reasons why there will be forest fires and then rain immediately after so that fresh shoots can grow.
Unfortunately, we take from the environment faster than it can renew itself. In addition, what we return is carbon, toxins from our sewers and all kinds of chemicals from factory waste. This harmful largesse on our part not only slows down the environment’s ability to cool itself, it adds to the actual degradation.
It is for this reason that Ecotourism Kenya grants certification in its ecorating scheme to tourist facilities that are practicing activities that support the conservation of the environment.
Protection and promotion of local cultures.
Once again, tourism is highly dependent on its immediate environment. Aside from that environment is the community within which the tourist facility belies its trade.
Many tourist facilities disparage the cultures of the people around them and try to socialize the local population into guest customs. This has led to the erosion and, in some cases, the death of certain cultural values that were, in fact, morally and socially superior to those espoused by the guests.
However, researchers have found that, when done correctly, tourism activity can benefit local culture and the environment. They noted that tourism has helped preserve some musical and dance traditions among the Maasai, encouraged tourism employees to learn foreign languages, and increased environmental awareness among people living near game reserves.
This is another reason why a resort’s relationships with local cultures are a huge determinant of where the facility ends up in our decorating scheme.
Economic benefits for the local community.
In many cases, tourist facilities will be located in remote areas such as the Masai Mara and the South Coast, where literacy levels are not exactly high. This has resulted in communities being tricked into signing their land or getting very little from the facilities that are taking millions off their land.
The Kenyan government has a policy that locals should receive a quarter of the economic benefit from tourist sites, but the researchers found that this is not being enforced. While it is the prerogative of government to ensure that such policies, once established, are adhered to, we also believe that it is the social, economic and moral obligation of a facility to ensure that the community in which they are established gets a fair share of the revenue. they increase by the use of their resource.
As the Tourism Industry grows, there is an increasing need to encourage the responsibility of the facilities that offer services in the sector. There is also a need for you to understand more about the environment and how to benefit from it while conserving it.