Effective Conservation through Ecotourism

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Effective Conservation through Ecotourism

Tourism is regarded as one of the most growing industries in the world, and one of its leading sectors is ecotourism. Ecotourism which in other words is known as sustainable tourism is the responsible travel to natural regions which conserves the environment as well as the well-being of the indigenous individuals. It emphases on responsible tourism that have a positive impact on the host’s nation’s natural besides social environment. Therefore, this means that ecotourism is predominantly around bringing together conservation, communities and sustainable travel (Fennell, 2014). Ecotourism is seen as a reliable tool in the preservation of the endangered species, through providing the indigenous people with economic substitutes to resource manipulation, developing their living standards, and providing financial provision and awareness for preservation and funding the protected areas. Though ecotourism has enjoyed great support and praise as a conservation tool, several issues have been raised over it. One of the concerns raised is that tourism development can have negative impacts regarding the environment either through the development of urban infrastructure, which can cause stress to animals and thus affecting their behavior and can also cause some social problems for the native individuals.

Ecotourism which is a subsection of the tourism industry includes, wildlife viewing, nature walking, diving, and traditional tourism among others and it goes typically with some consideration given to the ecosystem, sustainability plus biodiversity education. This method of tourism is mainly imperative for the nonhuman primates which are regularly indigenous to developing areas and are commonly directed for wildlife viewing excursions. Therefore, ecotourism has the capability of supporting the preservation efforts, sustainable growth, and public education. Nevertheless, organized evaluation is required to evaluate the costs and benefits of ecotourism on both humans as well as nonhuman primate populations. This technique of tourism is predominantly essential for the nonhuman primates, which are habitually native to developing areas and are regularly aimed for wildlife viewing adventures (Liu, et al. 2014). Ecotourism has the capability of supporting conservation efforts, public education, plus viable development, but more organized valuation is required to assess the expenses and welfares of ecotourism on mutually human and nonhuman primate inhabitants.

Much of ecotourism comprises the feature of wildlife viewing, which considerably differs from other circumstances whereby individuals may encounter wild animals. Great efforts are made for example in zoos and animal parks to put the animals in species-appropriate societal groups and inclusions. Nonetheless, they persist confined animals in artificial backgrounds. Therefore, with wildlife watching occurring at an ecotourism habitation, tourists have to go to the animals and meet them on their unusual conditions. The nonhuman primates are amongst the animals frequently pursued as part of the ecotourism. The extensive relationship between the primates and human residence in several regions of the developing domain means they often contribute a significant figure among the species prevailing for tropical ecotourism excursions. According to the public perception, primates are friendly and enjoyable to watch with their physical as well as behavior resemblances to human beings make them preferred for viewing by the visitors. Ecotourism is adequately grounded with the orangutans and macaques who thrive mainly in Southeast Asia, the chimpanzees and mount gorillas predominantly found in East Africa, baboons found in East and Southern Africa plus several other places around the world which gives the tourists an opportunity to see the primates in their natural locality. This desire for seeing these animals is thereby strengthened by the fact that nearly sixty percent of the entire primate taxa are vulnerable to extermination.

In current years, scientist and other researchers have explored the impacts of ecotourism on the wild primate populations which comprise the nonhuman primates. Whereas it could be considered a useful tool for conservation, primate tourism is characterized by some several risks. Tourist-area primates exhibit some behavioural alterations, for instance, shifting away from individuals or primarily extending higher in the coverage, in respondent to the human vicinity. Additionally, the primates who are wide open to visitors may correspondingly portray conducts showing anxiety, for example, self-scratching or displaying raised stress hormones. The nutritive changes which are related to ecotourism could show metabolic concerns, or hence could result in loss of species-appropriate scavenging abilities (Estrada, et al., 2017). Also, the random availability of food can make the primates act aggressively, and thus increasing the threats of scratches, bites and other hazardous circumstances. Lastly, the close interaction and the act of sharing food among the human and nonhuman primates can increase the transmission of zoonotic infection.

To unite conservation, sustainable travel, as well as the communities engaging in ecotourism, should follow the principles of ecotourism. The first principle is that ecotourism has to be centred in traveling to natural destinations whereby these destinations are more habitually than remote areas which can either be inhabited or not. Typically, these places are under environmental protection which can be under international, domestic, communal or under individual level. Other principles of ecotourism which needs to be followed for proper conservation include the following; the building of ecological and cultural awareness and providing direct financial aids for the environmental protection, designing, constructing and operating low impact facilities.

The deprivation and loss of habitats, overexploitation of natural resources plus human-induced changes in the environment and climate have led to the decline in species at an exceptional rate. As this speed of universal biodiversity loss upsurges, there are a significant number of species that need proper considerations and sound investments in their preservation programs. Conversely, there is limited amount funding available, and hence these funds fall below what is required to halt this universal conservation disaster. Due to the possible constraints to commercial financing limiting the action needed to prevent the biodiversity loss, ecotourism is emerging as a gradually significant source of revenue required for the preservation efforts. Currently, ecotourism can be considered as an effective conservation solution for many species, for instance, the nonhuman primates around the globe (Fletcher, 2018).

While looking at the kind of problems which usually exist not only within primate conservation but environmental in general, it becomes evident why understanding the humanoid influences on the environment is very critical. An example to explain this well is a land transformation for human use as well as the resource extraction which has been pointed out as possessing the most damaging impacts on the environment happening the forest structures, and hence the primate populaces inhabiting those spaces have deteriorated as a result. As these forest structures endure to develop progressively fragmented, the primary populaces suffer a lot. Nonetheless, possibly one of the ultimate treacherous residual effects of degrading forest structures is that it results to the humans and nonhuman primates into close spatial contact with each other. Therefore, in the end, this leads to the menace of human-wildlife conflicts.

Primates have a precise significance to the preservation of forest structure due to their fundamental roles as seed dispersers and pollinators. Thereby the implication of this role cannot be inconspicuous because of the dependence over fauna and their predators have on these plants. Through weakening the primitive populaces in a given region, either through hunting or habitat devastation, the rest of the ecosystem will suffer as a consequence. The seeds which these primates scatter not only add to the general biodiversity of the ecosystem through extra plant life, nonetheless it also offers the resources that are essential for other animals to endure. Therefore, primate conservation mainly through ecotourism carries a specific significance. The nonhuman primates consent us to understand impartial how alike we are to our fellow inhabitants of the earth. By every bit of novel information, we increase about them, the limitations we create amongst us develop progressively blurry. After all, they too have demonstrated a proclivity for interspecies compassion (Shannon, et al. 2017). They have shown remarkable intelligence. They have created their tools, and they have passed down knowledge from generation to generation.

In conclusion, it is evident that ecotourism can improve primate conservation in the universe. However, it is vital for scientists and other researchers to evaluate the impacts of tourism and growth within primate environments. There exists a range of significant research questions which instantly needs to be addressed. Initially, there is the need to determine whether ecotourism in its present condition, efficiently supports sustainable growth in habitat nations or not. Further, there is the need to discover whether watching the primates in the wild inspires the tourists to learn about as well as preserving other groups of wildlife, which eventually will expand the preservation influence of primate tourism. The challenges which affect these primates and other wild animals in their habitats greatly need to be addressed as ecotourism has proven that these challenges can be reduced. Therefore as described in this paper, it is clear that ecotourism is increasingly being used as a conservation tool globally and is thus useful in conserving endangered biodiversity.

References

Estrada, A., Garber, P. A., Rylands, A. B., Roos, C., Fernandez-Duque, E., Di Fiore, A., … & Rovero, F. (2017). Impending extinction crisis of the world’s primates: Why primates matter. Science Advances, 3(1), e1600946.

Fennell, D. A. (2014). Ecotourism. Routledge.

Fletcher, R. J. (2018). Ecotourism. In Companion to Environmental Studies (Vol. 591, No. 594, pp. 591-594). ROUTLEDGE in association with GSE Research.

Liu, J., Qu, H., Huang, D., Chen, G., Yue, X., Zhao, X., & Liang, Z. (2014). The role of social capital in encouraging residents’ pro-environmental behaviors in community-based ecotourism. Tourism Management, 41, 190-201.

Shannon, G., Larson, C. L., Reed, S. E., Crooks, K. R., & Angeloni, L. M. (2017). Ecological consequences of ecotourism for wildlife populations and communities. In Ecotourism’s Promise and Peril (pp. 29-46). Springer, Cham.