Principles, Approaches, Benefits, and Challenges of Ecotourism - Essay Example

? Ecotourism Ecotourism With older forms of tourism posing multiple negative impacts to the society, a more sustainable form of tourism is essential. The last few decades have experienced the new wave of ecotourism. Currently, experts in the field are advocating for adoption of green growth favorable tourism. Many feel that ecotourism has the potential to bring in a good measure of foreign currency to any nation and minimize the negative effects on the environment and communities. This paper will highlight the principles, approaches, benefits, and challenges of ecotourism. In addition, it will present two case studies of ecotourism. Ecotourism denotes a responsible form of tourism that promotes both environmental projects and the welfare of the people in the regions of interest (Baromey, 2008). It offers the tourism a great deal of pleasure and a connection with nature and people of different cultural diversities. Ecotourism seeks to create a unification front of environmental conservation, sustainable travel, and communities. Ecotourism operates within a variety of principles that act as guidelines in the venture. It seeks to minimize the impacts that come because of mass and uncontrolled tourism. It also focuses on creating an environmental and cultural awareness as well as respect. Ecotourism has the interests of the tourists as well and emphasizes strives to ensure that tourism derive a measure of satisfaction and have memories of good experiences. Moreover, ecotourism strives to provide the hosts with positive experiences. For ecotourism to prove effective, it must yield financial benefits towards all forms of conservation. The communities that surround tourist destination must derive benefits financially and a form of social empowerment. Ecotourism also focuses on highlighting the necessary sensitivity concerning a country’s social, political, and environmental climate (Buckley, 2004). According to Buckley (2009), ecotourism emerged in the 1980’s after a realization that majority of tourists preferred natural areas. Tourism trends were changing with increased visits to places that tourists interact and connect with nature. The debate and concerns about the environment gave ecotourism an enormous popularity enabling it to penetrate completely into the tourism industry. The term became very popular among tourism promoters. The growth of ecotourism progressed to maturity as many initial theories underwent the test of time and more realistic concepts adopted. The realistic concepts and definitions have come into place after evidence based on empirical data became available. Ecotourism has slowly become the most preferable form of tourism because of its sustainability. Sustainability in this context is in reference to its different aspects of promoting the environment, tourist experience, economic benefits and socio-cultural dimensions because of its sustainability, most tourist organizations on the national and international front advocate for ecotourism (Singh, 2010). Community-based approach is one of the strategies emphasize by some organizations. In this approach, the local communities inhabiting the natural areas considered a tourist destination often exercise a measure of control in the ecotourism project. They participate actively in the designing projects as well as the management. In addition, they receive a portion of the economic benefits. The level of contribution of different communities depends on the institutions in place. This implies that planning of a community-based ecotourism requires an inclusion of initiatives within the community. Community-based have the potential of achieving several targets of ecotourism. From this approach, a community shifts to sustainable livelihood forms. In addition, the approach presents a community with the opportunity of direct contribution in conservation. Direct involvement of a community increases the benefits a community can derive from ecotourism and motivates the community to contribute more to conservation projects. It is worth noting that prior to planning; an interpretation of the nature and culture of the in regard to the visitors becomes very important. However, community-based approaches require sufficient research and planning by a devoted community team. The projects instituted should target to conserve the environment, reduce negative effects of mass tourism involve the community intensely. Ecotourism projects from the community level are very effective because the community members commit to environmental conservation that they have initiated. Community-based programs may start at a small scale but have a greater impact on the people in terms of their awareness of the importance of biodiversity conservation. According to Wood (2002), other approaches towards ecotourism focus on national efforts. The national tourism organization in place plans and executes majority of the projects towards sustainable ecotourism. Approaches from this level are likely to start on a large scale. However, efforts of involving the local people must be evident. Most of the governments adopt an integrated approach in promoting ecotourism. The integrated approach involves different programs and projects for different protected areas. In each county or province, there are representative offices that overseer the activities in that specific region. There is a central committee that designs and implements programs. The local office representatives interact with people at the community level and host campaigns on the importance of conserving the environment. The national tourism board must efficiently coordinate activities in all regions. The board should adhere to the guidelines of ecotourism and promote its sustainability. The national tourism organization board may work in conjunction with non-govern-mental organizations in implementing its policies and creating awareness to the local communities (Lu?ck & Kirstges, 2003). An appropriate case study of the application of community-based ecotourism is the Sabah case in Malaysia. The Sabah state is one of Malaysian states that have a great tourism potential. Sabah as a state is home to many national parks and protected areas. It has varied nature with mountains, valleys, and a rich flora and fauna. The Batu-Puteh community lies in the Sabah region along the river Kinabatangan. The Batu-Puteh community is currently leading model for community-based ecotourism projects. It is one of the based ecotourism project in Asia proving itself sustainable and taking into consideration the entire range of eco-tourism principles (World Tourism Organization, 2007). An extensive description of the initiation and management of the project is essential . The Batu Puteh community-based project has proved successful. Before adoption of the approach, the region had suffered natural habitat loss due to increased logging and excessive growth of oil-palm trees. The community lacked a stable and reliable economic activity. The community was able to discern that the region had unexploited ecotourism potential. With such knowledge, the community sought help from reliable sources. The community wanted to introduce alternate forms of livelihoods. The project prioritizes the community and encourages different forms of participation (Fennell, and Dowling, 2003). Research was an integral part of the initial activities of the projects as the community sought to establish the natural and cultural resources that could form part of the final ecotourism product. The community dedicated a lot of time in the phase of capacity building in order to increase its chances of attaining a worthwhile ecotourism product. The community had in place a core committee that committed to effective planning. Currently, the community has a wide range of fields of work. These include forestry, managing of protected areas and wildlife, provision of environmental education and serves as a centre for livelihood diversification (Zeppel, 2006). The community has always ensured that relevant structures for the project exist. The community indulged in creating a home-stay accommodation facility for its tourists. In the first six months, the community managed to establish more than 800 bed-nights. Although the community started small, it has expanded to forest camps, watching wildlife, student educational and volunteer programs. The community has a wide range of activities and innovations that make it stand out in society. The community’s innovation targets to provide the people with a variety of income sources and poverty alleviation among the people. In addition, the project ensures that the community receives a share of the economic benefits of tourism in the region (Torabi, 2012). From the project, the community has evidence of multiple benefits. In addition, the project has had several impacts that provide a good criterion to assess the sustainability of the project. The approach has produced several positive impacts to the biodiversity. The project has raised awareness of biodiversity conservation in the region (Honey, 2008). In addition, the project has established an extensive forest ecology, conservation measures, and forest restoration activities. The ecotourism project presents its visitors with an opportunity to participate actively in conservation of nature in the home-stay programs. Through the home-stay programs, the visitors find value in the culture of the people. Due to the success of the project, it has information exchange programs with upcoming projects and government sectors. In the socio-economic view, the project is an evident employment provider with a large number of people working in different programs of the project. The neighboring villages to Batu-Pituh have experienced the positive effects of the project. The income received from the visitors finds its use in the community. The villagers run a micro-credit for the community to access funds that they can use to improve social amenities. The fact that the project has gained popularity in the entire state and efforts of replication are evident in other regions proves that the project is worthwhile and sustainable (Fennell, 2002). The Laos is the second case study of managed ecotourism but at a different level of organization. This is a region in south East Asia near the Indochina peninsula. The country has a culture and nature that prove to be rich. In addition, it is home to a rich ecosystem. The presence of diverse ecosystem has prompted the nation to have multiple protected areas and two world heritage sites. Laos is operating on a network of all the protected areas and heritage sites. The Lao PDR has 14% of its total land under protection (International Monetary Fund, & Laos, 2004). This depicts the great potential of tourism that the country has. Since the launch of ecotourism in the region in 1999, the country has been registering high growth in the number of visitors to the region. The future of Lao seems promising considering the growth in the last few years. An analysis of the strategies that Lao has used to achieve such success is essential. Lao has structured the tourism sector into projects and programs. Such organization makes policy implementation and assessment of efficiency more effective. The tourism organization has representatives in each province and down to the community neighboring each of the protected areas. With a vast piece of land under protection, effective management and coordination is essential. The Lao republic works closely with different stakeholders (International Monetary Fund, & Laos, 2004). It has instituted a task-force committee that formulates and executes policies. The taskforce committee has the responsibility of delegating duties to each of the stakeholders. In this nation, ecotourism denotes any tourism activity in its rural setting and protected areas that projects minimal impacts to the environment but focuses on conservation of the available resources at the natural and cultural level while promoting different aspects of the community. It also targets to offer the visitors a measure of connection with nature and the local people (Spenceley, 2009). The ecotourism taskforce works hand in hand with all the donor agencies and depends on the efficiency of advisory program in place. The advisory programs’ objectives are creating awareness and imparting the value of ecotourism to the local communities. In addition, the advisory programs open up ways for private entrepreneurs in the local areas. These investors start up activities that can sustain the local people. In addition, these programs address the negative impacts of tourism and come up with innovative ways of minimizing these effects to increase sustainability. The taskforce indulges facilitates and develops relevant relationships with the stakeholders (ICEM, 2003). Depending on the interests and goals of stakeholders, the taskforce can build hierarchical, either corrdination or communication relationships. In other cases, a product support relationship exists between the taskforce and the stakeholders. Although Lao has done a lot since 1999, it still has formulated specific objectives and goals for the future. According to Eagles and McCool (2002), its objectives focus on the key guidelines of sustainable ecotourism. The country intends to have a better network of infrastructure that will open up the destination sites to the visitors. In addition, the country wants to increase the participation of the host communities in community-based programs that promote ecotourism. An additional objective targets to offer relevant training to all parties working towards promotion of ecotourism. The training will empower them to give their best. Lao has achieved a level of sustainability although it can improve (Ecotourism development in the Pacific islands, 2003). As described above, achieving sustainability in tourism requires the adoption of effective strategies. From the community-based case study analyzed above, it becomes evident that a specific community can initiate and work on programs that promote ecotourism in their local region. Batu-Putih community-based program has succeeded because of the dedication and devotion of each member of the community to contribute positively to the project (Gursky, & Supriatna, 2010). In addition, the community indulged in extensive research into the fieldwork prior to starting. Such research provided them with adequate theories that could stand the test of time in managing the project. Effective planning by the leading committee resulted to the success. Any venture based on effective planning is likely to succeed (Burns, Ritchie, and Palmer, (2004). The community was working towards a similar goal that had the potential to improve their livelihoods and this illustrates that they realized the value of conserving the environment and took it as personal responsibility. The community-based approach proves very efficient because the ecotourism product results as an initiative of the people. The Batu-Pituh people derive economic benefits from the project that improves their socioeconomic status (Gursky, & Supriatna, 2010). However, marketing proves to be a challenge to the project. From a community level, it is not easy to market the ecotourism product on a wide front. However, there is solid evidence that shows its sustainability. As long the community continues with the trend of conservation, the same natural resources will be available in the future. Replication of the project in other regions makes it more sustainable. According to Eagles and McCool (2002), the Lao republic is trying to achieve a level of sustainable ecotourism. However, from the two case studies, several challenges surrounding ecotourism crop up. Activities that support green growth need commitment. Getting each individual in a community to participate in promoting biodiversity conservation especially is not easy if they lack other economic activities. Lao’s case does not prove very sustainable in terms of extending the economic benefits to the host communities. Most of the communities that surround the protected areas are apparently very poor. In many cases, the host communities contribute in conservation but they receive little of the benefits (International Monetary Fund, & Laos, 2004). Negative impacts of tourism will always crop up especially with increasing numbers of tourists because of the pressure they exert to the resources. Therefore, ecotourism projects should have elaborate ways of minimizing these effects. The Lao case has an advisory committee that guides the host communities in solving majority of the problems that result. However, with proactive thinking, effective planning, and implementation of the relevant policies can enable an ecotourism product brings multiple benefits (Diamantis, 2004). Ecotourism has varying definitions depending on different communities. However, this paper has highlighted the basic principles and objectives of ecotourism. Current approaches to ecotourism differ according to the region. Some communities realize the need to promote green growth and put into place relevant projects that produce an ecotourism product. Any ecotourism venture must prove itself sustainable in reference to conservation of biodiversity, ecosystems, promotion of cultures of the host community as well as empowering the host community socially and economically. Ecotourism is proving more sustainable than all other forms of tourisms as it is evident in the case studies presented. Therefore, more communities should adopt ecotourism. References Baromey, N. (2008). 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