Ecotourism (revised May 2003)

Ecotourism is a specialized market of sustainable tourism. It can be defined as nature or culture-based travel that (1) conserves the visited resource, (2) benefits the local community, and (3) educates the visitor. The most common ecotourism activities are wildlife viewing (including bird watching), visiting wildlife refuges and unique natural geological formations, hiking, trekking, and walking nature trails. The growing interest in these activities has led to an increase in the amount of ecotourism-focused travel over the last two decades.

The UN Environmental Programme, The World Tourism Organization, The Man and the Biosphere Programme, the UN Development Programme, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, and the Convention on Biological Diversity are all examples of programs that focus on ecotourism/sustainable tourism as a means of poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation. The Department of State represents U.S. interests in several of these fora and is engaged in the international discussion on ecotourism. The Department recently sponsored the symposium, “Natural Resource Conservation and Economic Development in the Congo Basin: The Role of Ecotourism,” to investigate the applicability of ecotourism to the conservation of tropical rainforest and economic growth in least developed nations.

Depending on the exact definitions used in research, ecotourism can account for 4-7% of the world’s total international tourism receipts of $464 billion (World Tourism Organization’s 2001 statistics). Politics, weather, popular trends, and other factors impact tourism and as a result national revenues from tourism can be unpredictable. However, tourism can play an important part in the economic development of a region, especially those with natural and cultural protected areas.

As an indication of the economic value of wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported that in FY 1995, “people visited U.S. (nature) refuges more than 27.7 million times for recreation and environmental education. Their spending generated $401.1 million of sales in regional economies. As this spending flowed through the economy, more than 10,000 people were employed and $162.9 million in employment income was generated.”

George Washington University, Washington, D.C. is in the process of developing a database of over several hundred entries listing “International Donor Involvement in Tourism Development in Less Developed Countries.”

There are many international certification schemes promoting standards for ecotourism vendors from “Lodge Management” to “Beaches.” The International Ecotourism Society (http://www.ecotourism.org) is currently developing an International Sustainable Tourism Guideline and Certification accreditation program in conjunction with UNEP, Rainforest Alliance and the Institute for Policy Studies.