Ecotourism, Egotourism? (is it just time for a new word?)
After all these years hanging about elephants and tourists (as well as jungles in the early days) I don't think we've ever referred to what we do as Ecotourism, especially the latter more-than-half of my career sitting in a 77 room five star hotel - a few journalists have sneaked the E-word in but I'm not sure we ever have.
Reading the piece below reawakened my interest in the idea of just what Ecotourism might be and what the world understands it to be - I have long harboured a suspicion that there is a vast difference in understanding between those small scale operators and (in some cases) politicians in the fragile areas of the world that we go to visit and the would-be visitors on the other side of the world (in the bit we damaged some centuries ago).
I asked google for a definition and got a large number of broadly similar sentences, the one closest to my understanding was "Responsible travel to natural areas supporting the fauna, flora, and local economy" from something called Wikictionary.
Funnily enough there was nothing there that said you also had to be living uncomfortably so, while there would be a great debate about the energy footprint of a large hotel-like structure (something we strive to reduce) over a hand made shack in the jungle, I think we could probably qualify - we certainly support the local economy in a way far greater than a local guest house, 200+ plus staff from the local area working the best paid jobs in the region, local purchases of food and fodder etc.
Flora, well, the elephant camp's unfortunate tendency to eat everything in site would push any claims to help that onto thin ice - though with protected areas around the site and the gardeners slowly moving toward native species perhaps we could get away with it.
Fauna, well, bingo under that heading - not talking about elephants, our girls are domestic so probably don't count in this equation; but in our prevention of hunting on site which has provided what is the only decent dawn chorus for miles around as well as our support for local ornithologists I think we score nicely.
Still, and largely thanks to our size of operation, our pricetag and our large, brick building Ecotourism purists would consider me to be stretching the definition somewhat and there are certainly some well thought out places that fit the definition far better, though they have their own way of operation and their own target audience subtly different from our own.
But enough of 'our' definition, what of the other definition? Dramatically embodied below by the man suggesting they capture wild Indonesian elephants and train them for use in 'ecotourism' concerns. By whose definition can removing an endangered wild species from a human degraded ecosystem, subjecting it to physically arduous training methods and then using it to carry tourists be considered ecotourism?
Well, I would posit that it would be by the definition of a large number of local operators who paint Ecotourism on their signs worldwide, folks for whom the definition stops at the "travel to natural areas".
Just because there's a tree in the backyard and you're sleeping on a hard bed doesn't make it ecotourism, indeed some of the greatest inequalities that I have seen between what the operator gets and what he gives to the community happen in the more rudimentary operations and just because we, the five star hotel, don't paint the word on our sign or bandy it around to describe what we do doesn't mean we don't enormously help the local community, flora and fauna.
Choose your travel operator wisely, there are many that understand the difference, there are some that don't.
__________________________________
Wild elephants roam in Chevron operational area (Indonesia)
Reading the piece below reawakened my interest in the idea of just what Ecotourism might be and what the world understands it to be - I have long harboured a suspicion that there is a vast difference in understanding between those small scale operators and (in some cases) politicians in the fragile areas of the world that we go to visit and the would-be visitors on the other side of the world (in the bit we damaged some centuries ago).
I asked google for a definition and got a large number of broadly similar sentences, the one closest to my understanding was "Responsible travel to natural areas supporting the fauna, flora, and local economy" from something called Wikictionary.
Funnily enough there was nothing there that said you also had to be living uncomfortably so, while there would be a great debate about the energy footprint of a large hotel-like structure (something we strive to reduce) over a hand made shack in the jungle, I think we could probably qualify - we certainly support the local economy in a way far greater than a local guest house, 200+ plus staff from the local area working the best paid jobs in the region, local purchases of food and fodder etc.
Flora, well, the elephant camp's unfortunate tendency to eat everything in site would push any claims to help that onto thin ice - though with protected areas around the site and the gardeners slowly moving toward native species perhaps we could get away with it.
Fauna, well, bingo under that heading - not talking about elephants, our girls are domestic so probably don't count in this equation; but in our prevention of hunting on site which has provided what is the only decent dawn chorus for miles around as well as our support for local ornithologists I think we score nicely.
Still, and largely thanks to our size of operation, our pricetag and our large, brick building Ecotourism purists would consider me to be stretching the definition somewhat and there are certainly some well thought out places that fit the definition far better, though they have their own way of operation and their own target audience subtly different from our own.
But enough of 'our' definition, what of the other definition? Dramatically embodied below by the man suggesting they capture wild Indonesian elephants and train them for use in 'ecotourism' concerns. By whose definition can removing an endangered wild species from a human degraded ecosystem, subjecting it to physically arduous training methods and then using it to carry tourists be considered ecotourism?
Well, I would posit that it would be by the definition of a large number of local operators who paint Ecotourism on their signs worldwide, folks for whom the definition stops at the "travel to natural areas".
Just because there's a tree in the backyard and you're sleeping on a hard bed doesn't make it ecotourism, indeed some of the greatest inequalities that I have seen between what the operator gets and what he gives to the community happen in the more rudimentary operations and just because we, the five star hotel, don't paint the word on our sign or bandy it around to describe what we do doesn't mean we don't enormously help the local community, flora and fauna.
Choose your travel operator wisely, there are many that understand the difference, there are some that don't.
__________________________________
Wild elephants roam in Chevron operational area (Indonesia)
The Jakarta Post
January 3, 2010
Dozens of wild elephants have been roaming in the operational area of US-based leading oil producer Chevron Pacific Indonesia (CPI) in Duri district, Riau over the past week, but the provincial natural resources conservation agency has no plans to capture the giant mammals.
Head of the agency, M. Hutomo, said Wednesday evacuation of the elephants would spark a conflict between humans and the protected animals, which have been displaced from their habitat due to its conversion into palm oil plantations and residential areas.
“Capturing the elephants will not solve the problem. The best solution is to domesticate the elephants for ecotourism interests and the delivery of oil palm kernels,” Hutomo told Antara state news agency.
The agency is deploying a team to monitor the elephants on a daily basis. Hutomo said the elephants had not caused damage to the oil company’s property as they only were only seeking leaves to eat.
Article at the following link:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/02/03/wild-elephants-roam-chevron-operational-area.html
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/02/03/wild-elephants-roam-chevron-operational-area.html
Posted by John Roberts at Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:45:00 GMT 
Categories: Regional Elephants
Tags: what defines ecotourism
Categories: Regional Elephants
Tags: what defines ecotourism
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