The following article about responsible travel is featured in the current issue
of Transtions Abroad. Subscription info is available on their website
(http://www.transabroad.com/) or via email - trabroad@aol.com.
RESPONSIBLE TRAVEL
Ecotourism Guidelines
How to Choose the Organizations and Businesses You Support
By Dianne Brause
Published in the September/October issue of Transitions Abroad
magazine.
I recently compiled a local community publication called "Forever
Green: An Ecotourist’s Guide to Lane County," bringing ideas I have
developed in my work in international travel into the context of my
hometown. I found that the same principles apply to traveling to the
tropical rainforests of Central America, the African game reserves, or
a town in Oregon.
We developed a list of questions that we used to determine which
organizations to include within our Ecotourist’s Guide. You can use
these same criteria to help you assess which types of organizations you
would like to support as you travel the world.
For the purposes of the guide we used the following as a working
definition of ecotourism: Tourism or visitor-related activities or
services that support the local people, culture, and economy in a
positive way, while at the same time contributing to ecological
protection and sustainability.
An ecotourist supports a business, organization, or service that:
° Is Locally Owned and Operated. Local ownership and management means
that the money you spend will likely stay within the community and go
to the people who are actually doing the work.
° Supports the Community and is Service Oriented. Does the business
know and care about the local community and is it willing to go the
extra mile? For example, our city bus service person recently told me
that although the bus from the airport is scheduled to arrive three
minutes after the bus that heads out to our rural area leaves, that if
we call ahead, the driver will delay his departure until the airport
bus has arrived.
° Supports Local People and the Local Culture. Does this group use some
of its resources to make life better for others in the area? In my
community a number of the health food and small grocery stores invite
customers to add a $1 or $5 donation to their food purchase to support
a program that helps feed many of our poor and homeless.
° Creates Locally Crafted or Value-Added Items. Handmade items or
products made from the natural resources of an area generally provide
"right-livelihood" work and often utilize fewer natural resources than
would be the case in a mass production setting.
° Provides Direct Guest-Host Relationships. We often travel to learn
about people from another area, but do not see any way to actually get
to know our hosts and their lives. In the western U.S. a number of
working ranches invite guests to take part in the herding of livestock
as part of their stay and as a way to learn what ranch life is really
about.
° Is Environmentally Conscious or Focused. Does the business keep the
needs of the environment and ecosystem of the area in mind? Some
river-rafting companies teach their customers about the history,
ecology, and protection of the river they are floating down and use
some of the profits for conservation of the river.
° Composts, Recycles, and Reduces Pollution. Does the tour company
compost food wastes and recycle all bottles, cans, containers, and
paper products?
° Experiments with Innovative and Alternative Methods. Does the group
take risks with innovative approaches to support sustainability? Our
utility company has created a methane generation plant using the
escaping gases from the local dump to produce 25 percent of the
district’s electricity by the year 2000.
° Offers Hands-on Involvement to Volunteers. An organization that
encourages volunteers to become involved in local projects creates a
much deeper connection with the people and culture of an area. Example:
A bi-annual beach clean-up day on the Oregon Coast helps visitors and
locals get to know one another while helping preserve the environment.
° Supports Reduction of Resource Usage (energy, water, transportation).
In my area, a bicycle cooperative hires youth to provide "valet
parking" of bicycles at all major events in town so that people are
encouraged to ride a bike rather than pollute the environment and clog
the streets with automobiles.
° Meets "Green" Criteria or Ecotourism Guidelines. Is this group
serious enough about their interest in protecting the environment to
publicly commit to a published standard or guideline for ecotourism? In
Costa Rica, one of the hotels we visited committed to designing its
buildings and exterior lighting so as not to interfere with the
endangered turtles nesting on the adjacent beach.
Most groups won’t meet all of the above criteria. Yet at home or abroad
these guidelines may help you consider some of the many daily choices
you have which impact the health and welfare of people and ecosystems.
As a traveler, you can have an important impact on the development of
ecotourism and the movement toward sustainability in the 21st century.
DIANNE G. BRAUSE has just written Forever Green: An Ecotourist’s Guide
to Lane County, a directory of responsible tourist resources in
mid-western Oregon and a philosophical treatise on sustainable tourism
(48 pp., costs $5 postpaid from: Forever Green, c/o Lost Valley
Educational Center, 81868 Lost Valley Ln., Dexter, OR 97431;
541-937-3351; diannebr@aol.com, www.efn.org/~lvec).
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