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Our role as tourists |
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Feelings happen when we travel and we are exposed to nature, among others, these are good reasons to travel; the feelings we get are unforgettable memories that enrich our lives in a deep way. But when the trip ends, and we return to our lives, we start to feel the opposite, we start to feel that the way we live, the way we develop as a society destroys nature and then we come up with ideas that we think will help to protect nature, we start to picture ourselves being volunteers in a protected area near our home, or donating part of our salary to a conservation ONG, but the truth is that we have a family and a career and we have to take care of these, later we realize there’s no money nor time left to achieve our goal, then we start to feel guilt, because we think we are not doing enough. |
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At least that has happened to me many times, and during an almost twenty years experience as a naturalist guide I have had the opportunity to analyze this matter, have understood several facts and finally got to a conclusion some time ago. |
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We understand that depending on the way we manage an eco tour, this will produce a positive or a negative impact to the environment, but have you think about the impact we are producing on local communities? We are hitting people, and again, depending on the way we manage an eco tour this will produce a positive or negative impact in local communities, to explain myself in a better way I want to share my personal story regarding this topic. |
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Twenty years ago I told my dad: -I want to be a naturalist guide. and he went into panic, his face showed expressions like: -Oh my God, I’m loosing my son; he will become a Neo Tropical Hippie! He will probably go into the forest to smoke strange herbs!
Twenty years ago no one thought in Costa Rica we could make a nice and decent way of living for being such thing as a Naturalist Guide, that was completely unknown, a few months latter my dad was proud of me, because he could see I was able to describe nature using scientific names, he owns some land and was thinking on developing nature trails for tourism, so even him was positively impacted. If this happened to me twenty years ago, let’s imaging how much impact we are producing today because of our trip. |
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Many of the people who interact with tourism are young, many of these from rural areas, who had as only destination on life to use the machete in a banana or coffee plantation, or even worst using a chain saw to cut down the forest, and because of eco tourism, because of your arrival, many of this young people are upgrading their lifestyle by learning a second language, buying binoculars and becoming naturalist guides, or boatmen, or chefs or many other professions that involve tourism, even more, a multiply effect happens, we are making their neighbors understand that a forest is more proffitable standing than cut. |
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After understanding the positive impact we are producing in local communities, the question will be: Is there something else I can do in order to help nature while I travel? Then the answer may be: Next time you buy a trip, you should ask and become picky on how much eco friendly is this tour they are trying to sell you. Is there any code of ethics that this local operator can show? The more you demand an ethical behavior from local tour operators, the faster and easier the people who sell tours will understand that taking care of nature is a must in order to still be at the market. |
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