Ecotourism is commonly viewed as an excellent education platform to learn more about taking up initiative and responsibility to conserve the natural environment. It strongly engages in education about cultures and environment which how ideally one should contribute in some ways to preserve that culture and its natural surroundings. Visiting these remote destinations, whether inhabited or uninhabited, are usually under the protection of governments, conservation or scientific organisations, or private business owners (Kimberly, 2016). Ecotourism is usually also known as one of the sustainable tourism. However, if it is poorly planned and implemented, ecotourism could be viewed the same as mass tourism, which brings disturbance to the nature. …show more content…
Costa Rica has one of the fast-growing ecotourism that is difficult to gauge the carrying capacity, and resulting in the increasing negative environmental impacts such as solid waste generation, pollution, habitat disturbance, forest degradation and trail erosion. According to Bernardo (2012), Manuel Antonio National Park, one of the national park in Costa Rica, has been negatively affected by the crowd, which results in improper waste disposal in the environment and causing many of the resident monkeys to become garbage feeders. In order to minimize all these negative effects, ecotourism projects must prioritise environmental conservation, which means taking on the task of reducing the number visitors and economic profit. However, this method will arise to another issue. Ironically, reducing the numbers of visitors would cause the degradation of the natural environment because of the funds that requires to maintain and preserve it in the long run (Bernardo, 2012). Balancing between preservation and development proves to be challenging enough for …show more content…
One of the possible way is to measure the sustainability of ecotourism by developing sustainability indicators. In the past, indicators are mostly used to measure the economic growth such as GDP. The indicators now are different as compared to the traditional indicators, because they take into consideration the severity of the current issues, measures of risk and potential need for action, and means to identify and measure the results behind such actions taken (Indicators of Sustainable Development for Tourism Destinations, 2004). Indicators are important because it can be used for monitoring the impacts of ecotourism and giving the management side to have a strategic planning to take certain measures against it. To plan such measures, appropriate data are required. For example, addressing the problem of overcrowding, compulsory data like total number of tourists visiting the destination, number of tourists per square metre of the site (per square kilometre of the destination), and percentage of tourists who believe that the destination is crowded. All these data provided can be essential to identify, evaluate and make critical decisions before any negative impact has occur on the environment. With sustainability indicator in place, the issue of overcrowding can be minimise, and ecotourism in Costa Rica can be proved as
This aspect is “The Double-edged Sword of Ecotourism.” In this chapter, Stanford expresses the positives and negatives of ecotourism. Ecotourism is a form of tourism which involves visiting fragile and undisturbed natural areas and in this case, the main reason is to see gorillas. Ecotourism has its good and bad. It is good because those poor communities that live close to the habitats of the apes can have a source of revenue. Those areas are really poor, and with ecotourism, they can earn about $9000 dollars a month. However, those areas may not exactly be the safest. Stanford cites a 1999 cross border attack by rebel groups in Rwanda in which 8 ecotourists were murdered and this attack deterred tourist from going there for many months. Another negative aspect of ecotourism is how it affects the apes. Although, many apes who do live in these areas of habituation and have tourists coming in and out, the apes develop really high stress levels. When humans move too quickly or make loud noises, the apes are stressed out and can flee. Not only that, but increased stress levels lowers their immune systems making them more susceptible to disease. Stanford ends this chapter saying that ecotourism is bound to happen if the countries are too poor to provide for their people and that “the apes will have to live with the results” (190). In
Eco tourism is a fast growing industry involving the tourist visits to natural areas to help minimize the endangered places and animals in that community. According to (ecotourism.org) Ecotourism is defined as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people." The Eco Certification program is put forth to certify tourist attractions to than help unite the communities, conservations and keep sustainable tourism. Their purpose is also to observe the wildlife and learn about the environment. There are certain basic requirements that gain you an Eco Certification and they are the location, Environmental manager, Customer satisfaction and minimizing any potential environmental damages that can occur these are just four of the ten requirements in order to be Eco certified.
In many South American countries, there is a program in effect called Ecotourism. When the idea was initially though of, many of the developing countries of South America, had very poor economies as well as many suffering people. To act as a means of improving the status of these poor countries, the idea of Ecotourism was developed. In essence, Ecotourism is a program that permits tourists to visit and explore countries in South America while contributing their foreign capital to local economies. For the tourist, this is a great opportunity to see places of the world that have not been destroyed or inhabited by many. Though the idea of Ecotourism was one with good intentions, the local people in the countries where Ecotourism has been in effect are not gaining much at all. For this reason, I do not think that Ecotourism should be a continuing program in these countries. If the native people (whose best interest was at heart initially) are not benefiting from Ecotourism, then why has it been allowed to exist? The answer is simple: greed and selfishness.
Costa Rica in the last year has had serious issues with deforestation. Costa Rica is known for the huge forests and biodiversity. And without these forest the animals species will get in real trouble. In the following paper the issues and reasons for deforestation will be explained, the effects of deforestation, and finally what Costa Rica is doing to resolve this issue.
Neth, B., 2008. Ecotourism as a Tool for Sustainable Rural Community Development and Natural Resources Management in the Tonle Sap Biosphere Researve. Kassel: Kassel University Press GmbH,
This is an Economic analysis of the impacts of cruise ship tourism specifically pertaining to Costa Rica. The analysis was published in the “International Journal of Tourism & Hospitality Research”. The source has trusted information written by two established, well known, professors, in the tourism field, Juan Brida and Sandra Zapata. The source houses a wealth of statistical information that illustrates the positive impacts that cruise ships have on Costa Rica. Not only does the article have data on the exact number of cruise ship passengers that
Ecotourism is defined according to Higgins (2006) as travel that preserves the environment and promotes the welfare of local people. Costa Rica is often viewed as the epicenter of ecotourism; in brief it has become the leading destination for ecotourism in Latin America (Horton, 2009). Although ecotourism has been an integral part of the Costa Rican economy over the past decades, there is a significant need to look into the neoliberal policies that drive the sector as there is research that illustrates the detriment it can cause a local community. Furthermore, Costa Rica’s ecotourism boom occurred as a result of the government’s rapid expansion of protected areas in the 1970s and 1980s to cast one fourth of the national territory (Horton, 2009). In terms of environmental efficiency, a report by the CIA (2014) highlights that Costa Rica is effectively managing its overall Carbon emission from consumption of energy at a modest 6.806 million Mt, which is measured in metric tons. Ranking Costa Rica 116th in terms of consumption, whereas Ecuador a country with similar characteristics, ranks 76th out of all countries in the world. There is also strong signals that highlight the economic role that ecotourism has formed, by the late 1990s, employing 12 percent of Costa Rica’s labor force (Horton, 2006). The forces at play, construct the system that originally initiated the ecotourism boom and has led it to this point. Thus, the implications of ecotourism in Costa Rica have widely varied from preserving forest, reducing the carbon emission from consumption of energy and incorporating ecotourism as an effective sector of the economy. However I will point out there needs to be a more broad emphasis on the counter narratives that ecotourism ...
The article provides checklists to see whether or not it is ecotourism, with some key features being the companies relationship to the natives, if they act for convince or for nature, and if they are a certified ectourism company. The authors also talk of the consequences of ecotourism by exemplifying the Galapagos Islands boom in “ecotourism” as a negative impact that brought invasive plants, animals, and even pirates to the islands. They then point at the path to a solution for the Galapagos Islands through legislation, tour design and interpretation, and lessening their environmental impact. McElrath, Kolby. 17 February 2016.
Costa Rica lost more than one-third of its rainforest during the booming 20th century to cattle ranching, agriculture, and logging. Since the 1990’s, when it had one of the worst deforestation rates in the Americas, 26% of its territory has been protected, and it has increased its forest cover to over 50%.1 By pursuing a number of bold conservation policies, by establishing and managing national parks and reserves, and by promoting ecotourism, the country has reversed this trend of deforestation. In fact, Costa Rica continues to combat encroaching forces of development successfully, now serving as a leading practitioner of afforestation, reforestation,
Nature Tourism and Enterprise Development in Ecuador. (1988, November). World Leisure & Recreation, 29(1), 22-27. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10261133.1988.10558980#.UtrAZ9jTksY
Harmful activity increased in some of the biggest expanses of forests in the world (Bolivia). “‘One company alone cannot solve this issue,’ Mr. Lindsay (Bunge’s vice president for global corporate affair) said. ‘A positive step would be for more companies to adopt zero deforestation commitments’” (Tabuchi). A really proficient way of promoting rainforests, as Costa Rica has established, is ecotourism, or the use of the rainforest to promote tourism and profit from the natural environment. People will pay to come from all over the world to visit natural rainforests for tourism, which actually may be even for profitable than any kind of logging, or agriculture and cattle
We talked about the first type which is the economic effect on the local community and the second type that is the social effect on the host community. In this part of our essay we will represent the last kind of effect on the local community by tourism. It is the environment effect on the local community. Tourism has positive and negative aspects in term of its impact on the host community. First point, tourism can help to protect the environment through reinvest some of profits, that generated by tourism, to the preservation of local environment and make it popular destination for holidays. However, it can cause pollution and damage in the environment through overuse of natural resources, such as water supply, beaches and coral reef. It also account for increased pollution through traffic emissions and littering. Additionally, tourist accommodations in general dump waste and sewage into seas and rivers. Second point, it might reduce some problems such as over-fishing by creating another source of employment. According to Tourism Concern, tourism account for more than eight per cent of jobs in the world wide and there are approximately two hundred million people work in the tourism sector on all sides of the world. (Tourism Concern, 2004). As a result a lot of people will abandon works in fishing and deforestations and tend to works in tourism industrialization. On the adverse side, it can harm the environment through polish off grass cover, harmful to wildlife and forests and grave local habitats. (BBC,
Borges-Mendez, Ramon. "Sustainable Development and Participatory Practices in Community Forestry: the Case of FUNDECOR in Costa Rica." Local Environment 13.4 (2008): 367-383. Print.
Belsoy, J. 2012, ‘Environmental Impacts of Tourism in Protected Areas’, Journal of Environmental and Earth Science, vol. 2, pp. 10.
The negative impacts that tourism creates can destroy the environment and all of its resources which it depends of for survival. Tourism has the prospective to create and bring useful effects on to the environment by donation the environmental protection conservation.