WINNIPEG, Canada (30 Mar 2004) -- Eco-tourism often damages the environment, the cultures and the unspoiled wilderness it sets out to protect, says a University of Manitoba ethics professor. Speaking at a conference on wilderness medicine, Arthur Schaefer said so many travellers are taking part in ecologically conscious holidays that they are harming the remote parts of the world they are visiting. "Five-star hotels are being built in remote locations, and habitats are being destroyed to accommodate these tourists," he said. Schaefer said whale-watching expeditions on the St. Lawrence River have traumatized whales, prompting them to beach themselves. In 1950, he noted, tourists made 25 million international trips. That number jumped to 700 million in 2000 and is expected to increase to 1.6 billion in the next 20 years. Schaefer said tourists who take part in eco-tourist expeditions need to realize that their presence in a remote locale is enough to alter the socio-economic and physical landscape. "What happens when (tourism) expands further and we have hundreds of millions of people going to the rainforest?" he asked. "We need to realize that when we go to these places, we're spreading the virus of western capitalism, values and lifestyle." | | In remote, impoverished countries where eco-tourism has flourished, Schaefer said local people often abandon their traditional ways of survival and become reliant on tourist dollars for their living. As a result, when international travel drops off -- as it did after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 -- the local residents are left scrambling to find a new way to survive. "We turn those people into performers for us," he said. "It degrades their customs and changes their society and makes people discontented." At the same time, Schaefer said, eco-tourism can also benefit impoverished countries by creating jobs for local people and broadening the minds of those who travel there. "It creates empathy and we become defenders of the rights of people in remote places," he said. SOURCE - Vancouver Province |
