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Home / Recreation and Leisure
Ecotourism: I Came, I Saw, But I Did Not Conquer
By:Gene C. Sager
The term “ecotourism” is begging to enjoy a career as a buzz word. So we should be suspicious of bandwagoners who may use the word to greenwash their not-so-green tours. Amid confusion as to what the term means, some people hear it simply as touring in nature; most writers feel it must mean environmentally friendly enjoyment of nature. The more I ponder the matter, the more I realize that the issue is not about semantics, it is about our relationship to the natural world. Ecotourism issues are a microcosm of general environmental issues, and the root question is, “What is our fit with nature?”
Consider the following scenarios and try to decide which ones you think describe genuine ecotourism and which ones partly or wholly fail to be examples of ecotourism. Rate each tour on a scale of one to ten (ten being the highest rating). Many are scenarios in Australia because it was a visit Down Under that stimulated my interest in the subject.
Kakadu
My first example is an “ecotour” of the Kakadu National Park in Northern Territory, Australia. We were packed into one of Hunter Safari's four-wheel-drives with our camping gear, food and water on top. For three days we drove, hiked and swam in the 20,000-square-kilometre park, which is owned by the Aborigines and leased to the Australian government. The fee to Hunter's Safari was A$300 per person and A$10 went to the park. Tomo, our white Australian guide from Melbourne, taught us the Aboriginal and modern/scientific views of the wildlife and plants. To get to Twin Falls, we had to paddle or swim up a gorge several kilometres, while fresh water crocodiles sunbathed on the rocks. At some choice scenes such as Twin Falls, as many as 25 people happened to converge on the spot.
Killington
Killington is a lovely mountain in central Vermont, excellent for skiing. The number of hikers and skiers was small, and no fees were charged. A large complex of condominiums was built on the side of the mountain after minimal communication with local residents. The project ran into serious difficulties over a proposal to purify the sewage from the development and have it sprayed as artificial snow. This produced a bumper sticker when critics got wind of the plan: “Killington, where the affluent meet the effluent.” The sticker was widely seen across Vermont. When a workman appeared at the building site with the sticker on his car, he was promptly sacked. He then instituted a well-publicized lawsuit for improper discharge. The local newspaper added to this wonderful controversy with a cartoon which showed a skier going hell-for-leather down the slope carrying two toilet plungers as ski poles.
Uluru
Uluru (Ayer's Rock, by its European name) is the world's largest monolith and an Aboriginal sacred site in the centre of Australia. Like a great rock magnet, it draws “ecotourists” from all over the world. Our first close up view of Uluru was at sunset from a parking zone where our huge double-decker bus was among 30 buses of tourists viewing the changing colours of the rock. By park rules, tourists stay in a lodging complex (with facilities ranging from deluxe to backpackers) built 20 kilometres from Uluru.
About 80 percent of the power in the complex is solar. Park fees are paid to the Aborigines (who own the land) and to the government (which leases and manages the park). Most of the tourists climb to the top of the rock, despite the stated preference of the Aborigines against this practice. Our tour included a guided, educational walk around the base. Crowds or no, I experienced a deep sense of awe during the walkaround.
Yellowstone
In America's oldest and largest recreational park, the interaction between the wildlife and the tourists gets closer and more frequent as the yearly visitor tally has grown to three million plus. Bears and coyotes are accustomed to handouts from tourists and often come to beg along the roadsides. In January of 1990, a lone cross-country skier was attacked by a coyote near Old Faithful. Coyotes and bears have been emboldened by close interaction with humans.
Hayman Island
Here is a description of Hayman Island in the Whitsunday Islands off the northeast coast of Australia. It is an advertisement in the official Australian Tourist Commission brochure, Destination Australia (1994). The tourist industry rates the hotel as among the top ten luxury hotels in the world; it costs $375 per night.
“A soft breeze touches your heart. You're in paradise. Exquisite beauty and elegant luxury blend in perfect harmony. Untouched bushland flows into palm fringed beaches. Gentle waterfalls weave a soft magic amid tropical flowers and exotic birdlife. Hayman is a haven unlike any other. You can sail, fish, scuba and snorkel the crystal waters of the Great Barrier Reef. Or play tennis, practise your golf and much more....”
Sorting Out the Issues
The first tour (Kakadu) should receive a high eco-grade, should it not? Say, eight on a scale of ten? Responsible camping is less obtrusive than a hotel and involves minimal impact on the environment. Nine people is not a crowd; the teaching of the guide can be rather personal. Yet the Kakadu was not a perfect ten. Serious questions need to be raised about the local residents and owners of the land – the Aborigines. Why aren't most of the guides Aborigines? How much say do the Aborigines have in controlling the park? The natural setting and the local residents are both parts of the environment; both must be respected and play a role. A high degree of local control usually results in protection of the environment in the long run. If the local residents have control and responsibility for a special natural setting, and if they directly benefit from it, they will most likely preserve it well.
Another question that must be raised concerns carrying capacity. Is 25 people too many in one spot in a narrow gorge? How can one appreciate or contemplate nature in a crowd?
As for the second case, Killington: Is skiing or other recreation an ecotourist activity? It can be compatible with ecotourism. Killington as a low key ski/hiking spot could have received a medium eco-grade before the condos went in. After that, it was all down hill. Local residents did not play a significant part in the building plan, to say nothing of the sewage plan.
The case of Uluru raises several problems. Thirty buses side by side to view a sunset, 100 people on the path to the summit – surely these numbers tend to mitigate the emotional impact and the communion with nature. The climbing of Uluru is a grand scale desecration. The Aboriginal leaders have stated as much. Would it not be a sacrilege if someone off the street were to walk into a Catholic mass, ascend the altar and stand on top of the altar table? I imagine that the climbing of Uluru is equally offensive to the Aborigines. To my dismay, even Landcare, a leading eco-group, sends students on a holiday to climb Uluru as a prize for conservation work! Again, I argue that nature and the established human residents should be seen as a seamless whole. We cannot isolate Uluru from the people who have lived there for thousands of years and who still hold it sacred. We cannot respect Uluru and show disrespect for the Aborigines. I would give the Uluru tour a grade of four.
In the case of Yellowstone, the key issue is again carrying capacity. How many “ecotourists” can nature hold before we begin to see the destructive results? We may well ask, “Is Yellowstone being loved to death?” Ecotourism can destroy ecotourism. Another important issue is feeding wild animals, a no-no in any ecotourist ethics code. As the snowmobile picture shows so well, intensive human intrusion disrupts habitat and natural activities. How environmentally friendly can an ecotourist be in Yellowstone, given the number of visitors? I doubt that any Yellowstone visitor can score much above a five on a green report card.
As a luxury hotel, Hayman may get a high grade. But Hayman and other resort complexes like it want to be seen as gateways to pristine and sensational natural settings as well. “The best of all possible worlds.” Compared to another nearby resort, Hamilton Island, Hayman is more long slung and less obtrusive. But that's as complimentary as I can be in an eco-audit.
Most Hayman-bound tourists fly into the jetport at Hamilton Island. Hamilton jetport handles the 727 jets which disturb the nature contemplation of visitors like me. And I doubt that the “exotic bird life” is well served by the jets. The Hayman tourists then board a catamaran which arrives at Hayman in 55 minutes. The luxury of the resort is aesthetically and ecologically incompatible with an “untouched” natural setting. To build and maintain the modern luxury we must either disrupt the local bush with storage, waste and generating facilities or else disrupt the water by constantly shipping the goods, fuels, etc. in and the wastes out of Hayman Island. Hayman resort is a chunk of modern, industrial, high-tech, energy-intensive living space built in a place where it doesn't fit. The Whitsunday Islands, except for Hayman and Hamilton Islands, is a relatively untouched natural setting. Hayman gets an eco-grade of two.
Towards a Greener Definition
The Australian Department of Tourism defines ecotourism as “nature-based tourism that involves education and interpretation of the natural environment and is managed to be ecologically sustainable.”
That last term – ecologically sustainable – is dangerously vague. Is Hayman Island ecologically sustainable? Its resources and energy come from all over the world and it sends most of its wastes to be treated and disposed of elsewhere. Hayman Resort itself can continue, but can its sources and ultimate dumping areas sustain themselves?
Another question is the time frame. How long can Hayman and its sources and dumps sustain before we run out of energy and space?
A final questions concerns general practice or “universalizability”. How many Haymans can the earth sustain?
Just as we should not think of any place as separate from other places, so we should not think of a place as separate from its people and their cultural history. But unfortunately the Department of Tourism definition makes no mention of cultural dimensions of natural settings; it is as though human culture exists apart from nature, and so nature can be visited, viewed, climbed, photographed and protected without regard to its historical involvement with human animals.
The case of the Uluru climbers constitutes a flagrant violation on this score, and there are more general implications of this point about nature and culture to be considered here. One of the greatest problems facing the environmental movement today is the relation of rich and not-so-rich nations. In terms of ecotourism, the danger is that first world tour companies and first world ecotourists run “ecotours” in poor countries without adequate regard for the local culture and economy. A European company may buy the land to “protect” it for ecotourism. The locals may only receive money from the purchase of the land. Some locals may work at menial jobs to maintain the site. The profits go to the company owners abroad. Or the rich-poor/distant-local problem may occur in connection with an ecotourism business owned by rich nationals.
The Australian Tourism Department definition also leaves out aesthetic factors and crowding. An ecotour is spoiled by a skyrise like that on Hamilton in the Whitsundies (NE Australia). Litter or loud parties also spoil the experience of beauty. A closely related point has already been touched on: the numerical carrying capacity of a natural setting for the purposes of ecotourism. Thus, aesthetics and crowding are additional topics which need to be included in a full definition of ecotourism.
Article Source: http://www.dailynewarticles.com
Gene C. Sager is a professor of environmental ethics at Palomar College in San Marcos, California.
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