Ecotourism And Its Effects On Native Populations

A successful ecotourism program must involve aspects of both environmental planning and social planning for the destination regions. Without one or the other, the program will focus too heavily on the environment or too heavily on the culture at a detriment to the neglected aspect. Ecotourism cannot be developed out of every type of conventional tourism; it takes a conscious effort to maintain the integrity of local cultures and environments. The World Conservation Strategy laid out by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) in 1980 echoes this sentiment: “With the emphasis on ‘ecodevelopment,’ there has been a strong move [to focus on] the interdependencies between environmental and economic [and social] issues” (Dowling, 2003, 6).

According to Dowling (2003, 3), there are four main dimensions to the environmental maintenance of a successful ecotourism program: it must have a strong nature base, support for conservation in the area, sustainable management practices, and an element of environmental education for locals and tourists. Support for conservation and sustainable management are especially important to ecotourism destinations because they are “usually concentrated in sensitive and unique environments” (Diamantis, 2004, 15). These unique environments represent different uses to different people. Locals use their environment delicately to maintain a balance and future for their culture. Foreigners see a unique environment as an untapped source waiting to be developed or harvested for its resources. Also, visitors are mostly unaware of the impact that their presence imposes on these delicate environments. By simply expecting to live at the same standards they do in their home country, tourists use the resources on the local island much more frivolously. These negative consequences to the environment can be eliminated through proper education of both native and foreign people with respect to tourism.

Social planning in a destination region is equally as important as environmental planning for ecotourism. Both locals and tourists must understand the goals of a program if everyone is to be working towards the same goal. The most important social factor is to make sure that “local populations have a crucial level of awareness of the prospective benefits and costs of tourism to contribute effectively in the planning process” (Diamantis, 2004, 13). Wearing (2001, 396) acknowledges that “the community is rarely asked by private operators about their vision for the area, nor have they been traditionally part of the planning process.” As the study of ecotourism has increased, there has been a trend to include the community more in development. The simplest and most effective way to ensure community involvement in ecotourism is through the development of community organization programs. Members of the community meet with selected ecotourism development officials to discuss their culture, ways of life, and visions for ecotourism. The development officials then teach the community about the positive and negative effects of ecotourism. This input is used to the highest degree to make sure that both groups work together to reach a common goal.

A survey developed in Mexico by Diamantis sought to explore and compare the effectiveness of community organization programs, using the cities of San José and Alta Cimas as examples. Each of these cities had an ecotourism program in effect at the time of the study, and the only noted difference between the two is the presence of a community organization program in Alta Cimas for two years prior to the study, where San José did not have one. The objective of the program in Alta Cimas was to allow the citizens equal input into the development of social, economic, and conservation projects related to their ecotourism industry. Through a simple survey of the impacts of ecotourism, it was found that the citizens of Alta Cimas were more conscious of the positive and negative impacts of ecotourism than the citizens of San José (Diamantis, 2004, 13).

Benefits for local communities are wide reaching. Not only is there emphasis on proper environmental management, emphasis on improving social operations has been effective in these areas. Ecotourism provides new jobs in the local community through the growth of hotels, restaurants, and guided tours. This creates business growth and provides additional income for often economically unstable areas. Also, an outlet to new markets for local products is created, in that locals are able to sell their goods directly to the consumer without having to use an intermediary. While this is great for local businesses, the local citizens themselves are put at a disadvantage. The new market for local goods in effect raises their global price, making it harder for locals to afford goods they have grown accustomed to. Other social benefits of ecotourism include improved funding for facilities and an improved infrastructure, the acquisition of new skills and technologies, increased cultural awareness by the culture itself as well as by the rest of the world, and also improved land use patterns for development in the area (Dowling, 2003, 13 and Wearing, 2001, 397).

Tourist money goes to advancing the quality of tourism services as well as the local way of life. In the ideal situation, “a large part of the revenue gained will stay within the region” (Diamantis, 2004, 14). When the locals are the hotel owners, the restaurant workers, and the tour guides, it is only proper business that they get to keep the money that they make and not have to share it with foreign powers.