Balancing Conservation and Tourism - Case Study Example

Running Head: BALANCING CONSERVATION AND TOURISM Tourism and Environment Name Course Tutor Date Introduction Tourism is one of the major economic drivers in the world today. Countries are investing heavily in tourism and their efforts to attract both internal and international visitors are paying off heftily. Tourism has been reinvented and economies are coming up with new ways to create sustainable and long term income sources from them. Major tourist destinations in the world have experienced an influx of visitors over the last few years. With numbers growing and the pressure increasing, the price to pay for the boom has been transferred to the environment. Some of the tourist attraction sites in the world have been pushed to the limits as a result of increasing numbers and continued environmental degradation. Human activities coupled with climate change have ruined some tourist sites to the brink of extinction. Major world sites call for infrastructure to accommodate the rising numbers. Infrastructure such as access roads, hotels and recreation facilities are taking over tourist attractions (Weiler, 2007, p. 331). Furthermore, benefits raised from tourism are skewed and only a few individuals benefit from the gains. Stake holders are raising the alarm over the destruction of environmental heritages in the name of tourism development. Some governments have tried to involve local communities in initiatives such as sustainable tourism and ecotourism studies have shown that if the destruction continues, in the coming years there will be no tourist sites to visit. The practice is so rampant especially along beaches and national parks. They have been turned into real estate ventures and the ecological space has been shrinking by the day. The effects of this are already being felt with major animal and plant species already disappearing. In efforts to curb this, governments and relevant authorities have received the wake up call and are relentlessly trying to reverse the effects. With alarming statistics, there is a need to strike a sustainable balance between tourism and conservation. The potential for growth should not blind the environmental and conservation aspect (Weiler, 2007, p. 332). This essay will critically evaluate the difficulties that tourist authorities are financing coming up with a convincing and workable balance between tourism and conservation. It will also analyze possible strategies and measures that authorities can put in pace to reverser the negative effects and imbalances. Understanding conservation in tourism Before enumerating the difficulties of balancing tourism and conservation, it is crucial to understand the significance of sustainable tourism and striking a balance. Sustainable tourism is tourism that makes an optimal use of environmental resources and at the same time conserves and manage natural heritages and biodiversity. It also entails encouraging, respecting, social cultural diversity and ensuring that benefits are spread across all boards to stakeholders. Development of sustainable tourism is an effort that should involve all stakeholders that are relevant to the industry. This should be accompanied by sober political approaches and leadership. The process is a continuous one with regular monitoring and evaluation of progress and evaluation of impacts against benefits. The process involves introduction of preventive, corrective, and preservation measures. The tourism experience should not just be a fun and recreation experience but an educational endeavor where participants get to learn about the importance of environmental responsibility (Gutierrez, Lamoureux, Seleni, & Sebunya, 2012, p. 5). Difficulties in balancing tourism and conservation In making conservation efforts, there are many challenges that hinder implementation. This is dependent on the type of tourism attraction. National parks, heritage sites, beaches, caves, marine parks all have different conservational challenges. However, there are challenges that cut across the entire tourism industry as a whole. The biggest challenge in achieving balance is mainly as a result of encroaching of environmental habitats in the bid to expand infrastructural support systems. This entails building of massive hotels and recreation facilities that interfere with the biodiversity and ecological cycles. For example, many national parks in the world are today experiencing an influx in the number of buildings, roads, railways and even airports are being built in them. This has greatly affected animal routines such as migration and reproduction. There is also the issue of pollution and degradation that comes with these developments. Furthermore, to build this infrastructure calls for clearing of land and interference with ecosystems. Resources such as water and land have to be shared with the ecology. It therefore creates a competing environment between the human beings and the ecosystem. The biggest challenge is to balance the influx of visitors and at the same time maintain environmental sustainability for the future. In Komodo National Park in Indonesia, these challenges have been experienced here too. It is one of the most common tourist attraction sites in Indonesia. The national park has in the last few years experienced increasing numbers of tourists from Europe, America and the entire world at large. Concerns have been raised over the lack of local participation and environmental destruction from tourist activities in the park pollution in the park has been attributed to infrastructural development and environmental negligence. In a developing country such as Indonesia, tourism is a key economic contributor. Authorities realize that the growth in number of tourist is significant in supplementing their GDP and foreign exchange earnings. In addition to this, communities and local people living around the park feel that, though, the park has brought some benefits to their livelihood, they have been shortchanged in regard to the overall economic benefits that the government realizes fro activities in the park. The fact that the park is a protected national heritage zone has not prevented developers from taking advantage of the situation and carrying out their activities with disregard for environmental conservation. The local people have also complained that the tourism activities in the region have lead to increased costs of living and locals themselves are now encroaching on the park in order to sustain their own lives. Most of the benefits are reaped by the few well up people who can manage to cope with the rising inflationary pressures (Walpole & Goodwin, 2005, p. 3). Another concern of the region is the cultural degradation and moral decadence that tourism has brought to the region. Tourism demands have introduced harmful practices to the environment. Sale of souvenirs to tourist by locals is a booming business. Some of them are gotten illegally from the national parks and this practice further hurts conservation efforts. The Komodo National Park is famous for the Komodo dragon. More than 90 % of tourists visiting the park are foreign tourist. Komodo dragon parts have been known to fetch very high prices in the black market (Walpole & Goodwin, 2005, p. 5). Due to poverty and skewed distribution of tourist income, hunting of the dragon has been a rampant vice in the regions. Additionally, the park has components of marine tourism that are also threatened by tourist activities. Due to rising numbers of tourist I the region, there is also the issue of increased demand for food to feed the ever rising number. This has led to growth in fishing as the main economic activity among locals in the region. To meet both local and tourist demand for fish, overfishing has been a major concern in the region. Another challenge faced in this region is the involvement of the local community in conservation initiatives. Most locals feel that the authorities responsible for maintaining the park do not involve them in conservation practices. Most are enthusiastic about the idea and would like to be part of conservation initiatives. They recognize that the park is a major source of their livelihood and conserving it is a major concern to them. Revenues collected from tourist activities are not adequately reintroduced in conservation efforts (Walpole & Goodwin, 2005, p. 6). The local communities may be willing to participate in conservation strategies but they are reluctant due to inadequate involvement by planners and managers. Research studies have in the past evaluated the attitudes that local people have towards conservation. Most have found out that the costs of conservation have negative concerns while gains from conservation have positive results. The only people who have positive attitudes towards protected areas of tourism are those hat reap direct benefits fro them. Strategies to reduce imbalances In reducing the negative effects of tourism, it is worth noting that tourism has big potential to boost economic growth and at the same time promote conservation efforts. Realizing that tourism is a business just like any other is eminent in realizing this objective. Application of ethics, both in tourism and environmental matters is the starting point towards this campaign. Protected tourism destinations are in constant threats from foreign tourists. One of the major concerns is that developing nations se tourism revenues to provide much needed services such as health education and food production of the people. As a result, very little funds are available for sustaining the environmental serenity (Burger, 2010, p. 42). Coupled with other factors such as political and climatic, natural heritages are under constant threats of destruction and extinction. This is the reason why issues such as poaching is common in developing nations From the study in komodo region, it is clear that benefits fro tourism are unevenly distributed and this is echoed by the local communities. As a result, their attitudes to ward conservation are negative for a majority of them they would only participate in conservation if the benefits were to reach them. As a long term goal in conservation, planners and mangers should ensure equitable distribution and sharing of benefits gained from tourisms. They should realize and appreciate the efforts that local people put in to ensure that tourist get the best experiences. This way achieving a balance in conservation is attainable when local communities are brought on board. Local communities should be given first priority when it comes to employment opportunities in the sector (Saarinen, 2006, p. 1125). For instance, Chinese contactors have taken to developing infrastructural amenities in the region while such contracts could be awarded to local industries. If tourism itself is to address the issue of conservation imbalance, inequalities need to be addressed too. Planners and managers should initiate training programs for local people and educate them about their role in ensuring sustainable growth both for them and the industry. They should take advantage of the willingness of local communities to participate in conservation efforts ea and use it optimally, but first, address inequalities Another great way to address imbalances is linking ecotourism with conservation effort. Ecotourism entails interaction conservation and social initiatives. This calls for involvement of local people and tourists in social responsibility geared towards conservation. Apart from conserving the environment ecotourism promotes cultural diversity an appreciation. Tourists may be ignorant about the negative effects they could have on the environment. It is a workable way of educating them and giving them personalized tours to the sites. Being more knowledgeable about the region, locals can be the best tourist educators on conservation issues (Saarinen, 2006, p. 1130). Furthermore, ecotourism is way of sharing revenues with the local communities and help reduce imbalances. Tourist agents should let their clients know of environmental concerns and what role should play in ensuring they do not contribute to thee destruction of the very attraction they traveled to see. Planners should implement control measures in terms of infrastructure development. Protected areas should have strict infrastructural codes of operations geared towards conservation and preservation. Strict policies in terms of encroachment and pollution should be enacted and adhered promptly Conclusion Evidently, tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors in world global economies. The growth is so rapid that it has compromised the very existence of the tourist cites. This has led to an imbalance that is threatening to wipe out natural tourist attractions. The need for growth is inevitable as world economies seek to sustain their ever-growing budgets. The immense benefits have come with the cost of extinction, degradation, pollution and environmental negligence. The tourism industry can be said to be ‘feeding on its own self’. With growing climatic concerns, humanity cannot afford to accelerate these effects through preventable and irresponsible practices. This issue is being realized and appropriate steps are beginning to take shape but in some places it is already too late. Sustainability in tourism is dependent on maintaining and replenishing the meager resources available in frugal and responsible ways. Realizing the limits that the environment can handle and following them appropriately is the key to restoring the balance between conservation and tourism. References Burger, J, 2010, 'Landscapes, tourism, and conservation',The Science of the Total Environment , vol 249, pp. 39-49. Gutierrez, E, Lamoureux, K, Seleni, M., & Sebunya, K,2012, 'Linking Communities, Tourism And conservation, Conservation Internationall, pp. 4-50. Saarinen, J, 2006, 'Traditions Of Sustainability In Tourism Studies', Annals of Tourism Research, vol 33 no.4, pp.1121–1140. Walpole, M. J, & Goodwin, H, 2005, 'Local attitudes towards conservation and tourism around Komodo National Park, Indonesia', Durrell Institute of Conservation & Ecology, pp. 1-10. Weiler, B, 2007, 'Tourism and heritage management:balancing conservation and development', Tourism Management, vol 18 no. 5, pp. 331 333. Read More