1、 外文翻译 原文 In pursuit of ecotourism Material Source: Biodiversity and Conservation 5, 277-291 (1996) Author: Harold Goodwin Ecotourism is expected, by the tourism industry and academics, to grow rapidly over the next 20years. Much has been written about ecotourism, often with missionary zeal, but ther
2、e is little consensus about its definition. It is argued here that conservationists and protected area managers should adopt a definition of ecotourism which contributes to the maintenance of biodiversity and an appropriate definition is suggested. Ecotourism is not merely an alternative to mass tou
3、rism, nor is it the only alternative. The literature on nature tourism and the environmental impacts of the industry dates back to the late 1970s. Tourism is now the worlds largest industry and it has an increasing impact on protected areas. Our understanding of these mechanisms, their ecological im
4、pacts and our capacity to manage tourism in protected areas lags behind the growth of tourism to protected areas. A rapid growth in nature tourism and tourism to protected areas has coincided with a shift in protected area management strategies towards integrated development. Tourism is one means av
5、ailable to protected area managers seeking to increase the economic value of a protected area and to offer sustainable opportunities for economic development to local people. This paper argues that potentially conflicting commercial protected area and development interests all contribute to the emer
6、gence of ecotourism and have been doing so for many years. Ecotourism needs to be tightly defined if it is to benefit conservation. Protected area managers should consider how they can take control of nature tourism to the parks they manage and convert it into ecotourism for the benefit of conservat
7、ion and the livelihoods of local people. Keywords: ecotourism; nature tourism; protected areas. Competing definitions of ecotourism The word ecotourism has been coined relatively recently and there remains no consensus about its meaning. Ecotourism has spread rapidly first because it has a number of
8、 different meanings and second because it has been extensively used opportunistically in marketing, where the tag eco- has come to be synonymous with responsible consumerism. The tourism industry has been quick to exploit the marketing value of ecotourism; the more so since its meaning is unclear an
9、d there is no requirement for the operator to do more than alter the packaging. The ecotourism has been variously defined in terms of visitor behavior and philosophy. The advertising appeals to and promotes these approaches. Ecotourism is a niche market for environmentally aware tourists who are int
10、erested in observing nature (Wheat, 1994), described by Steele (1993) as an economic process where rare and beautiful ecosystems are marketed internationally to attract visitors. Kerman put it bluntly a tour advertised as environmentally friendly can be just as suspect as many of the products starte
11、d up with green packaging at your grocery store (Wight, 1994). Ecotourism is often defined prescriptively. Consider for example the National Eco-tourism Strategy published in 1994 by the Mexican Secretariat of Tourism in cooperation with the World Conservation Union (Table 2). It has developed a lon
12、g list of characteristics of ecotourism which constitute a highly prescriptive definition, one which has been taken-up by the World Tourism Organization (WTO, 1995). It is interesting to note that there is only one reference to protected areas and that where ecotourism is identified as a suitable me
13、chanism for improving links between local communities and protected area managers. Definitions of this nature are difficult to use analytically. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) definition of ecotourism will be the one which is used to determine the volume of ecotourism and to measure its value
14、world-wide. The emerging definition of ecotourism within the WTO and the one which will therefore prevail is derived from Australia. Australias National Ecotourism Strategy defined ecotourism as Nature-based tourism that involves education and interpretation of the natural environment and is managed
15、 to be ecologically sustainable“ (Commonwealth Department of Tourism, 1994). The report recognizes that the natural environment includes cultural components and that to be “ecologically sustainable“ there must be an appropriate return to the local community and a contribution to the long-term conser
16、vation of the resource (WTO, 1995). Alternatives to mass tourism As foreign tourism became available in “package tours“ at lower prices to a mass clientele, and the polluting effects of tourism became more evident, alternative forms of tourism were identified and promoted. There is a plethora of alt
17、ernatives to mass tourism which are used in the marketing, and sometimes the design, of tourism products. Ecotourism is only one of many. Responsible tourism, science tourism, ethical tourism, soft-tourism. Environmentally-friendly travel, green tourism, sustainable tourism, adventure travel, low-im
18、pact tourism are just some of the marketing terms coined to describe these “superior alternatives. Less-developed countries (LDCs) have particular advantages in attracting alternative tourists, they have areas of undeveloped land often rich in landscape, habitat and wildlife interest and they have s
19、o far maintained their cultural diversity, although the impact of tourism may threaten its continuation. The concepts of appropriate tourism (Krippendorf, 1982; Richter, 1987) and alternative tourism (Gonsalves, 1987; Smith and Eadington, 1994) have considerable relevance in rural areas. Alternative
20、 tourism activities are likely to be small scale, locally owned with low import leakages and profits re-invested locally (Gonsalves, 1987; Cater, 1993). In the development of tourism in rural areas, there is a strong case to be made for alternative tourism. Alternative tourism recognizes that local
21、communities are affected by tourist development, and seeks to give the local community an effective voice in decisions about the forms of tourism which use its environment. It also seeks to ensure that a reasonable share of the incomes and profit derived from tourism goes to the local community. Env
22、ironmentally responsible tourism As long ago as 1982, Krippendorf argued that the landscape is the real raw material or tourism. Travel companies are merely a means to an end, and the tourist uses their services in order to “consume the landscape and the countryside. The landscape can lose its touri
23、st value through its over-use by the tourist - tourism destroys tourism - but it is the monetary value of tourism which keeps the land productive. Tourism, the countryside devourer, is an extractive industry, it can consume landscapes, it damages the environment of the native inhabitants and thus re
24、duces the quality of their life. Krippendorf concluded that ecology should be placed before economy in tourism, not least for the sake of the economy itself and all who participate in it. Enlightened elf-interest requires the tourism industry to address (and prevent) the destruction of its essential
25、 raw-material. Tourism is far from a smokeless industry. The tourism industry is increasingly being blamed for environmental and social/cultural damage. There is a long catalogue of literature documenting the environmental impacts of tourism encompassing all sectors of the industry: aircraft emissio
26、ns and noise, hotel water consumption and waste, tourist litter and polluted beaches. Tourists destroy vegetation, cause trail erosion, degrade coral reefs and endanger traditional cultures (Beed, 1961; Pigram, 1980; WTO, 1981; Travis, 1982: Jenner and Smith, 1992, Cater and Goodall, 1992: UNEP, 199
27、2). Some hotel chains and tour operators conduct environmental audits into waste management, recycling and energy use in pursuit of sound environmental practice and a greener image (WTTERC, 1993). Environmental impact assessment (EIA) and physical, economic, social and environmental carrying capacit
28、y analyses have become a regular part of the process of tourism development. The tourism industry responds to the environment Sustainable tourism Tourism has been widely endorsed as one of the primary strategies for environmentally benign development. Farrell and McLellan (1987) argue that In terms
29、of modern thinking and ecodevelopment, if tourism is sustained significant steps have then been taken toward maintaining environmental integrity. A healthy environmental integrity means the possibility of successful tourism which, when managed properly, becomes a resource in its own right. The logic
30、 of this argument is attractive. However, there are other, potentially more profitable, models of tourism development which appear to thrive on environmental degradation - it is not clear that unregulated tourism development will be sustainable. Carefully managed tourism can provide significant econ
31、omic returns from the low-impact use of protected areas and can be less erosive than some alternative land uses. Tourism to protected areas, if adequately regulated and controlled, offers one of the least damaging economic uses. Sustainable tourism requires that the host population achieves rising l
32、iving standards, that the tourist guests are satisfied with the product and continue to arrive each year. It also requires that the natural environment is maintained for the continued enjoyment of the hosts and guests, all of which requires careful management. If nature-based tourism is to benefit c
33、onservation there must be a clear link between the tourist destination choice and locally protected nature (Valentine, 1992). Local people and the industry need to appreciate the economic value of the protected or vulnerable area as a tourist destination. It must be clear to local people and the tou
34、rist industry that the protected or vulnerable area is one of the reasons that tourists are attracted to the area, only thus can it be accorded an economic value. The development goal is to attract visitors to natural areas and use the revenues to fund local conservation and economic development (Zi
35、ffer, 1989). The impetus for ecotourism development often comes from outside and it behoves conservationists, development experts and the tourism industry to be aware of the conflicts between the immediate interests of the rich tourists and the local people. Eco-missionaries can expect to be accused
36、 of green imperialism and eco-colonialism. If tourism is to make any adequate recompense for the non-development of relatively pristine sites it will need to generate significant revenue for the benefit of those expected to sacrifice these potential sources of income (Cater and Lowman, 1994). The Wo
37、rld Tourism Organization, UNEP and UNESCOs Man and the Biosphere Programme jointly sponsored the first World Conference on Sustainable Tourism in April. 1995. The conference adopted a Charter on Sustainable Tourism which applies Agenda 21 to the industry. The Charter on Sustainable Tourism establish
38、es a set of imperatives for major changes in the tourism industry as a whole, applying the recommendations of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (WTO, 1995). The Charter asserts that tourism development should be based on criteria of sustainability: it must be ecologically sound
39、 in the long term, economically viable, as well as ethically and socially equitable for the local communities. Tourism development, the World Tourism Organization asserts, must respect the fragile balances that characterise many tourist destinations, in particular small islands and environmentally s
40、ensitive areas. Nature tourism It is important to distinguish between ecotourism and nature tourism. Nature, or nature-based, tourism encompasses all forms of tourism - mass tourism, adventure tourism, low-impact tourism, ecotourism - which use natural resources in a wild or undeveloped form- includ
41、ing species, habitat, landscape, scenery and salt and fresh-water features. Nature tourism is travel for the purpose of enjoying undeveloped natural areas or wildlife. Not all forms of nature tourism are compatible one with another; trekking, mountain biking and white-water rafting may not be compat
42、ible with birdwatching or photo-safaris. Some forms of nature tourism may quickly transform the undeveloped and unspoilt nature of the areas in which they develop. Consider for example the transformation of the beaches of Goa, Bali and the Mediterranean. Nature tourism involves the marketing of natu
43、ral landscapes and wildlife to tourists. It has the potential to provide developing countries with the finance and motivation required to boost conservation efforts. National parks and protected areas are one of the primary resources for nature tourism, which is of increasing economic importance, pr
44、oviding foreign exchange and an economic return for the preservation of natural habitats and their dependent species. Nature tourism includes a wide range of activities from relatively passive scenery and wildlife viewing to physically exerting adventure tourism activities (mountaineering or white-w
45、ater rafting) often involving elements of risk. Nature tourism may be consumptive (sport hunting) or non-consumptive and it may or may not be sustainable. Nature tourism may be the primary focus of a tourism activity or part of a package of leisure, recreational or cultural tourism activities. Howev
46、er, only some forms of nature tourism make a positive contribution to conservation. It is these forms of nature tourism which constitute ecotourism Conclusion Ecotourism can benefit protected areas in three ways. First, ecotourism is one of the most important ways in which money can be generated to
47、manage and protect the worlds natural habitats and species. Ecotourism can contribute directly to conservation through park admission fees and payments for guiding, accommodation and interpretation centers. Central to the definition of ecotourism is re-investment by the industry in the maintenance o
48、f habitats and species. Second, ecotourism can enable local people to gain economically from the protected area with which they live. Protected areas cannot co-exist in the long term with communities which are hostile to them. Local people are important stakeholders with whom protected area managers
49、 must cooperate. More of the benefits of conservation need to be delivered to local people by enabling them to benefit from the protection of the park their use of which is now regulated. If local people secure a sustainable income (a tangible economic benefit) from tourism to these protected areas, they will be less likely to exploit them in other less sustainable ways - obvious examples are over fishing, poaching or coral blasting. If local people gain from the sustainable use of, for example, a coral reef or wild animals through tourism they will
