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In Brazil's Mamiraura Reserve, a stealthy tourist may come face to face with…a scientist.

Nature for passion and profits. Ecotourism’s other major goal is to preserve nature. Without solid economic justification, most decision makers will see little merit in reserving large areas of “empty” land for wild plants and animals. But a governor’s mind might change when he learns that if the forest disappears, the tourism industry will disappear with it.

This seemingly straightforward argument is not always easy to make. Even in the United States, where the concept of national parks was born, ex-president Jimmy Carter’s decision in 1980 to protect a huge chunk of Alaska as wilderness provoked such anger that people in that state lined up to throw bottles at his image. But today, the state earns $1 billion annually from tourism, mostly nature tourism, and the former critics grudgingly admit that Carter made the right decision.

In Latin America, proponents of natural area preservation are just beginning to make a persuasive economic case. The large number of ecotourism enterprises operating in Bolivia’s Madidi National Park, among them an IDB-financed ecolodge, is proving that protected land can bring in tourist dollars. In Brazil, an enterprising lodge operator helped convince her state to preserve a large piece of Amazonian forest. In Ecuador, opponents of a new pipeline that would cut across a fragile cloud forest are pressing ahead with arguments that the project would threaten an ecotourism industry that they estimate will bring in $600 million over the next 20 years.

At the community level, local people are generally in favor of preserving their natural areas. “It’s their home, and they would just as soon see it left alone,” says Peter English of Tropical Nature. In his organization’s Ecuador project, the community drew up a land use plan that prohibited logging, hunting, and catching large fish in a major part of their territory. “Ecotourism gives a community the option to preserve their land,” he said.

But when people are poor and lack options, practicality comes before sentimentality. “The people want money to buy radios, lanterns, rice, and other basic goods,” says English. If the international economy slows down and tourists don’t come, the impact is felt immediately. Left with no economic alternative, people will likely go back to cutting down the forest.

The same applies to private entrepreneurs. In a highly competitive, low-margin environment, ideals often must take a back seat to financial survival. “They may have green goals, but they fudge them to stay alive,” says TIES President Epler Wood.

Sometimes, the danger is not too few tourists but too many. One of the first questions posed in designing an ecotourism project is how many visitors can an area absorb before their actions destroy the nature that they came to experience. But it goes beyond simple numbers. According to Richard Ryel, president of International Expeditions, Inc., a U.S. nature tour operator, “carrying capacity is the most bandied about term. How people are managed is the key.”

Some of the best cases of how not to manage ecotourism come from southeast Asia. In Thailand, for example, one company won well-deserved recognition for its kayaking expeditions in limestone marine caves. But success bred imitators, and in short order other companies were sending as many as l,000 tourists into the caves daily. Many visitors snapped off stalactites for souvenirs and scared away wildlife. The original operator received death threats, and one of his associates was shot and wounded.

Proper land use planning is the key to balancing development and environmental protection. But for many reasons—insufficient data, lack of political will, poor enforcement—land use planning in Latin America is an area in urgent need of training as well as rules and regulations, says Epler Wood. Even in Costa Rica, otherwise exemplary in the field of environmental protection, development continues to eat away at buffer areas around parks and preserves, she says. In many Latin American countries, laws related to land use and ownership make it difficult to implement effective policies. As a result, municipalities that attempt to restrict development in areas bordering protected areas often face legal challenges that they cannot overcome.

The land use challenge goes beyond buffer areas. One of Costa Rica’s signature protected areas, the Monteverde cloud forest, is losing its clouds, and with them, a major source of water that sustains a lush ecosystem of elfin trees laden with epiphytes and rare creatures. The cause lies far off in the lowlands, where deforestation reduces the amount of moisture available to form the clouds. Losers include not only the flora and fauna, but also the 50,000 tourists who visit the area each year and the enterprises that depend on their patronage.

Beyond economics, ecotourism can also help protect natural areas through what Epler Wood calls “ethic transfer.” In contrast to many developed countries, where the conservation ethic has had many years to develop, Latin America’s environmental constituency remains weak. This has changed in countries such as Belize, Costa Rica, and Ecuador, where a steady stream of ecotourists and scientists have transferred some of their knowledge and enthusiasm to the local people.

Natural areas will need all the help they can get. “Ecotourism is described as a win-win proposition, for travelers, for local people, for the industry,” says Martha Honey, ecotourism expert with the Washington, D.C.,-based Institute for Policy Studies. “But the reality is more complex,” she says. “There are major struggles throughout the world over parks and protected areas.”

The proven benefits of ecotourism can affect—but not determine—the outcome of these struggles. There are many reasons to protect natural ecosystems and biodiversity, and ecotourism is clearly one of them.

Date posted: January 2002