Douglas Trent, who runs Focus Tours, wrote an interesting article called “Putting the ‘eco’ in ecotourism“.

“Most of what is called “ecotourism” has very little “eco”. A close look at where the profits from ecotours go reveals this. The vast majority of tour companies, nature-based and otherwise, are located in cities, be they my company in Santa Fe, New Mexico, or one in Lima, Peru. The company that sells a tour typically ends up with a high percentage of the profits a tour generates. The vast majority of this is spent in a city. The next largest percentage of the profit tends to stay in the city the tour starts in. The rental van or car, food supplies for the lodges in the field, etc., come from that city. In most areas I know, and I have guided birding and nature tours for over 20 years in Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Guyana, almost none of the profit stays with the people that live in areas rich in biodiversity.”

In the article Trent explains the finances of the ecotour industry, particularly how a non-profit conservation fund can partner with a for-profit tour operator for the benefit of biodiversity conservation. It would be nice to see more collaborations of this type rather than the clearly “take the money and run” approach of many in the industry.

Trent closes his article with these suggestions:

“This is a “nuts and bolts” breakdown of a real ecotour. It also shows how private-sector companies (EcoTrent Consulting, Black-Diamond Paving and Focus Tours) and an NGO (Focus Conservation Fund) can successfully work together.

It was recently stated that the “eco” in ecotourism is currently more of an “echo”. If we want to change this several things have to happen.

1) Tourists have to be educated to choose to travel with companies that do the most for real biodiversity preservation.

2) Many more community-based ecotourism businesses need to be developed.

3) Community-based ecotourism businesses need to be developed with guides as professional as the best bird watching and nature tour guides currently working if they hope to capture part of this lucrative market.

I will treat this topic more in future writings.

We are at a crossroads in “ecotourism”. Currently, most of what is called ecotourism is simply nature-based tourism, and concentrates the profits in cities. If efforts are made to increase the number of professional community-based ecotourism businesses, the future of ecotourism will lead not only to biodiversity preservation, but also to cultural preservation. We cannot separate nature from people anymore than we can separate people from nature. Humans and biodiversity are intricately linked. We need each other.