Ecotourism in the context of
international tropical forest policies
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The question of how to effectively mitigate the increasing destruction and degradation of tropical rain forests has been in the centre of the debate on international economic and environmental policy for a number of years. One of the reasons identified by economists for the over-exploitation of tropical forests is the ambivalent attitude towards marketable forest products, like timber, on the one hand and the non-marketable goods and services provided by forests on the other (DIXON and SHERMAN 1991; THIELE 1994).
While it is recognised that the utilisation of and the trade in tropical timber contribute significantly to the economic development of many tropical countries, the conservation of biodiversity and the manifold benefits made available by rain forests such as watershed protection and opportunities for education, research and recreation have not been sufficiently taken into account in terms of their long-term effective potential for the development of society. |
Hence, in most cases the latter are regarded in economic terms as “public goods” from which, unlike “individual or economic goods”, such as timber or some nontimber forest products, no consumer can be excluded (DIXON and SHERMAN 1991). Thus, no direct market prices can be established to determine their monetary value. These situations are known by economists as “market failures” with the result that the non-marketable benefits of forests to society are often ignored or grossly underestimated. This can lead to decisions by politicians to allow such forests to be set aside for logging in order to generate an actual revenue from timber concessions, rather than to preserve such forest land for ecological purposes.
On the other hand, the necessary restrictions on the local population accompanying forest conservation measures often represent the loss of important resources for harvesting, agriculture, forage or hunting to sustain their livelihood. The restrictions are therefore perceived as being economically disadvantageous. As a result, conservation measures are often met with antagonism or scepticism by the communities living within or adjacent to the protected forest areas. In view of both these situations, strategies to be successfully implemented for the protection of tropical forests in the long-term need to address both environmental and economic effects and returns at the national and local level.
Ecologically and socially sustainable forms of tourism (“ecotourism”) are now widely regarded as one of the ways in which the economic attractiveness of tropical forest conservation can be increased and further promoted. This has been specifically stressed in the AGENDA 21 document adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992, by NGOs like IUCN (CEBALLOS-LASCURAIN 1993) and WWF and TOURISM CONCERN-UK (1992) as well as in the Fourth Tropical Forest Report of the German Government (BML 1995).
It is argued that by placing tourism-related values on dwindling forest resources, the conservation benefits can be provided, at least indirectly, with a market value and thus stimulate the interest of the parties involved to implement or support the objectives for the protection of tropical forests more effectively. However, this presupposes that there is also a corresponding demand potential for the ecotourism market segment. Ecotourism supporters argue about this, referring to several market studies:
· Since the beginning of the 1990s ecotourism is the fastest growing sector in the tourism industry, estimated to have a current growth rate of 10-15 % annually. According to the Canadian Wildlife Service, over US $ 200 billion was spent on “ecotourism activities” worldwide in 1990 (refer to PANOS-INSTITUTE 1995).
· In a study conducted by the WWF it was estimated that out of US $ 60 billion spent in developing countries by international tourists, between US $ 2 and 12 billion came from ecotourism. This is already not significantly less than the amount generated by the international trade in tropical timber products, currently valued at between US $ 10 and 15 billion (DURST 1994).
· A survey among 35 North American-based nature tour operators revealed that 62 % named rain forests as the most popular destination of their clients. Islands and high Alpine ecosytems were mentioned by 17 % each, and deserts by 4 % (YEE 1992).
· Seven million tourists in the United States are willing to pay between US $ 2,000 and 3,000 for such an ecotour. Also, this survey showed that 63 % of travellers would be willing to pay US $ 50 toward conservation in the area visited, and 27 % would pay US $ 200 (see PANOS-INSTITUTE 1995).
· Studies on the ecotourism value of tropical forests, applying various valuation techniques (e.g., travel cost and contingent valuation method), indicate a considerable willingness-to-pay on the part of the tourists (e.g. DIXON and SHERMAN 1990; TOBIAS and MENDELSOHN 1991; LIM, WONG and KOLLERT 1993; MERCER, KRAMER and SHARMA 1995; ADGER et al. 1995; MENKHAUS and LOBER 1996). In some cases the recreational value was even higher than the value of harvested timber.
On the one hand, these studies show that since the mid-1980s an increasing trend in nature-related forms of tourism has been observed throughout the world. The highest growth rates have been recorded in destinations of the developing countries, especially in Middle America, South and East Africa and Southeast Asia. On the other hand, the various approaches of analysis in each of these market and/or demand studies support the assumption that a very broad spectrum of destinations and, in particular, nature-related activities have been grouped together under the term “ecotourism”. First of all it is therefore necessary to clarify the exact meaning of the term “ecotourism” and to what extent it can be differentiated from already well established nature-oriented tourism forms.
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Reference :
Ecotourism: Potential for Conservation and Sustainable Use of Tropical Forests
Bernd Stecker,Eschborn 1996
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