In this session, Environmentally Friendly or Deadly, we will look at popular ways in which we encourage people to become one with nature that motivates them to become the champions of the environment. However, we risk exposing fragile environments to naive tourists and snake oil salesman taking tourists where they should not be.
Last year over 150,000people descended on the Galapagos Islands. That is a lot of people for thirteen islands that are only 4,897 square miles of land in a 20,000 square mile area. This generates a lot of tourism dollars. Unfortunately only an estimated 15% of the tourism dollars find their way to the local economy. However small, this money is the main source of funding for the Galapagos Islands National Park for preservation of species and environments as well as the local business economy.
The tourism endangers the very thing it is designed to protect. Tourists leave an imprint in garbage, human waste, energy consumption, undocumented immigration, and even corruption at national and local politics. Yet every tourist leaves with the appreciation for the environment and deeply committed to preservation.
Those of us that promote environmental concerns know the power of a person having an emotional and physical connection to a plant, an animal or a pristine view. But at what sacrifice?
The Galapagos Islands are not the only controversial ecotourism spot. This discussion will give examples of the good, bad and ugly of ecotourism and discuss solutions or compromises to keep people connected to the earth and committed to saving it.
