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Ecotourism Project

Ecotourism Project. Project plan: November 4 What do you intend to do? How do you intend to do it? Field visits completed: December 2 Where have you gone? What have you seen? What questions did you intend to answer? What questions remain? Draft due: December 18

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Ecotourism Project

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  1. Ecotourism Project • Project plan: November 4 • What do you intend to do? • How do you intend to do it? • Field visits completed: December 2 • Where have you gone? • What have you seen? • What questions did you intend to answer? • What questions remain? • Draft due: December 18 • Team Evaluation: January 13 • Written Project due: January 13 • Oral Presentation: January 13

  2. Review: (env.) Benefits of Ecotourism • Direct: • Role as an incentive for promoting and rehabilitating natural environments • Potential for funding that it provides to manage and enhance protected areas and other ecotourism settings • Assistance provided by ecotourism to manage and improve ecotourism venues and to act as ‘environmental watchdogs’ • Indirect • Increased support for environmentalism and protected areas • Environmental benefits derived from protected areas established/kept for ecotourism

  3. (Env.) Direct costs of ecotourism • Permanent environmental restructuring • Generation of waste residuals • Tourist activists • Wildlife observation • Hiking and diving • Introduction of exotic species • [induced active – indirect cost] • [on-site and off-site impacts]

  4. (Env.) Indirect costs of ecotourism • Effects of induced environmental restructuring • Exposure of venues to less benign forms of tourism • Risks of placing an economic valuation on nature-based attractions

  5. Economic factors of ecotourism Table 4.3 (page 195) Direct benefits: • Generation of revenue • Employment • Provision of economic opportunities for remote and peripheral regions • Extra reading in the bookstore

  6. Indirect economic benefits • Multiplier effect • Stimulates mass tourism • Stimulates cultural/heritage tourism • Economic benefits from areas protected for ecotourism

  7. Economic costs • Direct costs • Start-up expenses • Ongoing expenses • (also translate into benefits) • Indirect costs • Revenue uncertainties • Revenue leakage • Opportunity costs • Damage caused by wildlife

  8. Socio-cultural costs and benefits • Table 4.4 (page 201) • Benefits: • Fosters community stability and well-being • Enjoyment for local residents • Accessible to virtually anyone (why?)

  9. Direct socio-cultural costs • Cultural and social intrusion • Imposition of an elite alien-value system • Erosion of local control • Local inequalities and internecine disputes Indirect socio-cultural costs • Potential for local resentment • Tourist opposition to aspects of local culture and lifestyle

  10. Explain: “Ecotourism advocates who express a bias for unspoiled cultures and natural environments seem to suggest that these destinations should not attempt to attain the levels of economic development that relatively wealthy and highly-educated ecotourists enjoy in their home regions.”

  11. …. Stop… • “development”? • “economic development” ?

  12. Managing impacts of camping • Differing objectives for location of campsites • Common forms of impact? • Management strategies: proactive or reactive • Two primary strategies • Campsite dispersal • Campsite containment

  13. Impacts on terrestrial wildlife • Important to first recognize: impacts may be much less significant than major habitat changes associated with agriculture, forestry or extractive industries; large dams; or direct impacts from hunting and poaching • In other cases: disturbance by tourists may have a major effect on wildlife survival and reproduction • Habitat modification • Avoidance behavior • Physiological disturbance • Alert and alarm behavior • Evasive behavior • Aggressive responses • Food and water • Lights, noise, disease, roadkill • Predisposition • Energetic consequences • Breeding populations

  14. Impacts on terrestrial wildlife: Habitat modification • Tracks and trails • May act as barriers to the movement of wildlife • May be avoided by animals • Avoidance behavior • Avoid people • Change the timing of activities • Physiological disturbance • Increases in heart rate or body temperature • Alert and alarm behavior

  15. Impacts on terrestrial wildlife: Habitat modification • Evasive behavior • Run and/or hide • Depends … • Aggressive responses • Aggression strongly correlated with feeding • Aggression associated with defensive behavior • Food and water • Lights, noise, disease, roadkill

  16. Impacts on terrestrial wildlife: Habitat modification • Predisposition • Energetic consequences • Breeding populations

  17. The Cost of Getting There: Impacts of Travel to Ecotourism Destinations • Travel – associated with considerable resource use in the form of fossil fuels • Travel component at 3 distinct scales • Transport directly associated with the ecotourism experience • Travel between various ecotourism sites or operations • Transport from the home location to the destination

  18. “The commitment to ecotourism…ultimately leads to weak sustainability rather than strong sustainability.” • Must read the ‘conclusion’ chapter • Write a 1 to 2-page reflection – for EC

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