Editing Ecotourism (section)

== Improving sustainability ==
=== Principles ===
Ecotourism in both [[terrestrial ecosystem|terrestrial]] and [[marine ecosystem]]s can benefit conservation, provided the complexities of history, culture, and ecology in the affected regions are successfully navigated.<ref name="Macdonald 2017">{{cite journal |last1=Macdonald |first1=Catherine |last2=Gallagher |first2=Austin J. |last3=Barnett |first3=Adam |last4=Brunnschweiler |first4=Juerg |last5=Shiffman |first5=David S. |last6=Hammerschlag |first6=Neil |title=Conservation potential of apex predator tourism |journal=[[Biological Conservation (journal)|Biological Conservation]] |volume=215 |year=2017 |doi=10.1016/j.biocon.2017.07.013 |pages=132–141|bibcode=2017BCons.215..132M }}</ref> Catherine Macdonald and colleagues identify the factors that determine conservation outcomes, namely whether: animals and their habits are sufficiently protected; conflict between people and wildlife is avoided or at least suitably mitigated; there is good outreach and education of the local population into the benefits of ecotourism; there is effective collaboration with stakeholders in the area; and there is proper use of the money generated by ecotourism to conserve the local ecology.<ref name="Macdonald 2017"/> They conclude that ecotourism works best to conserve predators when the tourism industry is supported both politically and by the public, and when it is monitored and controlled at local, national, and international levels.<ref name="Macdonald 2017"/>

=== Regulation and accreditation ===
Because the regulations of ecotourism may be poorly implemented, ecologically destructive greenwashed operations like [[underwater hotel]]s and [[helicopter tour]]s can be categorized as ecotourism along with canoeing, camping, photography, and wildlife observation. The failure to acknowledge responsible, low-impact ecotourism puts legitimate ecotourism companies at a competitive disadvantage.

Management strategies to mitigate destructive operations include but are not limited to establishing a carrying capacity, site hardening, sustainable design, visitation quotas, fees, access restrictions, and visitor education.

Many environmentalists have argued for a global standard that can be used for [[certification]], differentiating ecotourism companies based on their level of environmental commitment, creating a standard to follow. A national or international regulatory board would enforce [[accreditation]] procedures, with representation from various groups including governments, hotels, tour operators, travel agents, guides, airlines, local authorities, conservation organizations, and non-governmental organizations.<ref name="Elper-Wood">{{cite book |last=Elper-Wood |first=M. |title=Ecotourism at a Crossroads: charting the way forward |year=1998 |publisher=The final report from the Conference of Ecotourism at the Crossroads |location=Nairobi, Kenya}}</ref> The decisions of the board would be sanctioned by governments so that non-compliant companies would be legally required to disassociate themselves from the use of the ecotourism brand.

In 1998, Crinion suggested a Green Stars System, based on criteria including a management plan, benefits for the local community, small group interaction, education value, and staff training.<ref name="Crinion">{{cite book |last=Crinion |first=D. |title=South Australian tourism strategy and the role of ecotourism |year=1998 |publisher=Down to Earth planning for an out-of-the-ordinary industry, presented at the South Australian Ecotourism Forum |location= Adelaide, Australia}}</ref> Ecotourists who consider their choices would be confident of a genuine ecotourism experience when they see the higher star rating.

In 2008 the Global Sustainable Tourism Council Criteria was launched at the IUCN World Conservation Congress.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Hocking |title=About GSTC |url=https://www.gstcouncil.org/about/ |url-status=live |access-date=2021-03-24 |website=Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) |language=en-US |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200710192457/https://www.gstcouncil.org/about/ |archive-date=2020-07-10}}</ref> The Criteria, managed by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, created a global standard for sustainable travel and tourism and includes criteria and performance indicators for destinations, tour operators and hotels.<ref name=":1" /> The GSTC provides accreditation through a third party to Certification Bodies to legitimize claims of sustainability.<ref name=":1" />

[[Environmental impact assessment]]s could also be used as a form of accreditation. Feasibility is evaluated on a scientific basis, and recommendations could be made to optimally plan infrastructure, set tourist capacity, and manage the ecology. This form of accreditation is more sensitive to site-specific conditions.

Some countries have their certification programs for ecotourism. Costa Rica, for example, runs the GSTC-Recognized Certification of Sustainable Tourism (CST) program, which is intended to balance the effect that business has on the local environment. The CST program focuses on a company's interaction with natural and cultural resources, the improvement of quality of life within local communities, and the economic contribution to other programs of national development. CST uses a rating system that categorizes a company based on how sustainable its operations are. CST evaluates the interaction between the company and the surrounding habitat; the management policies and operation systems within the company; how the company encourages its clients to become active contributors towards sustainable policies; and the interaction between the company and local communities/the overall population. Based upon these criteria, the company is evaluated for the strength of its sustainability. The measurement index goes from 0 to 5, with 0 being the worst and 5 being the best.<ref>{{cite web|last=Stater|first=Adam|title=Ecotourism in Costa Rica|url=http://www.anywherecostarica.com/sustainable/cst-sustainable-tourism}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Stater|first=Adam|title=The Certification of Sustainable Tourism|url=http://www.turismo-sostenible.co.cr/en/|access-date=2013-05-10|archive-date=2018-08-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180820190526/http://www.turismo-sostenible.co.cr/en/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Labels and certification===
Over 50 ecolabels on tourism exist.<ref>[http://www.ecolabelindex.com/ecolabels/?st=category,tourism Ecolabels on tourism]</ref> These include (but are not limited to):
* Austrian Ecolabel for Tourism
* Asian Ecotourism Standard for Accommodations (AESA)
* Eco-certification Malta
* [[EarthCheck]] 
* Ecotourism Australia
* Ecotourism Ireland
* Ecotourism Kenya
* European Ecotourism Labelling Standard (EETLS)<ref>[https://www.ecotourism-network.eu/en-ecotourism-standard/en-the-euro-eco-label-stand EETLS]</ref>
* Korean Ecotourism Standard

===Guidelines and education===
[[File:2017 Sarasota Adventure Kayak Guided Tour Cormorant among the Fleet 04 FRD 9405.jpg|thumb|Ecotour guide stands on a [[Kayaking|kayak]] spotting [[dolphins]] and [[manatees]], around [[Lido Key]].]]

An environmental protection strategy must address the issue of ecotourists removed from the cause-and-effect of their actions on the environment. More initiatives should be carried out to improve their awareness, sensitize them to environmental issues, and care about the places they visit.<ref name="Tuohino and Hynonen"/>

Tour guides are an obvious and direct medium to communicate awareness. With the confidence of ecotourists and intimate knowledge of the environment, tour guides can actively discuss conservation issues. Informing ecotourists about how their actions on the trip can negatively impact their environment and the local people. A tour guide training program in Costa Rica's [[Tortuguero National Park]] has helped mitigate negative environmental impacts by providing information and regulating tourists on the parks' beaches used by nesting [[endangered sea turtles]].<ref name="Jacobson and Robles">{{cite journal |last1=Jacobson |first1=Susan K. |last2=Robles |first2=Rafael |title=Ecotourism, sustainable development, and conservation education: development of a tour guide training program in Tortuguero, Costa Rica |year=1998 |journal=[[Environmental Management (journal)|Environmental Management]] |doi=10.1007/bf02645660 |volume=16 |issue=6 |pages=701–713 |s2cid=67806838}}</ref><ref name="weaver">{{cite book |last=Weaver |first=D. B. |date=1998 |title=Ecotourism in the Less Developed World |publisher=[[Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International|CABI]] |isbn=978-0851992235}}</ref>

===Small scale, slow growth, and local control===
The theory of [[underdevelopment]] tourism describes the behavior of [[Multinational corporation|multinational corporations]] that control the development of ecotourism and reap the main benefits, which may lead to a loss of development ownership by local communities. This may limit the control of local communities over natural resources and raise discussions about the unequal distribution of ownership and benefits of tourism resources.These corporations finance and profit from the development of large-scale ecotourism that causes excessive environmental degradation, loss of traditional culture and way of life, and exploitation of local labor. In [[Zimbabwe]] and Nepal's Annapurna region, where underdevelopment is taking place, more than 90 percent of ecotourism revenues are expatriated to the parent countries, and less than 5 percent go into local communities.<ref name="Ziffer">{{cite book |last=Ziffer |first=K. |title=Ecotourism: the uneasy alliance |year=1989 |publisher=Conservation International/Ernst and Young}}</ref>

The present sustainability challenges in ecotourism initiatives have drawn attention to small-scale, slow-growth, and locally community-based tourism development models, which are thought to be better suited to meeting long-term ecological and social objectives. Local peoples have a vested interest in the well-being of their community and are therefore more accountable to environmental protection than multinational corporations, though they receive very little of the [[profit (economy)|profits]]. The lack of control, [[westernization]], adverse impacts to the environment, and loss of culture and traditions outweigh the benefits of establishing large-scale ecotourism. Additionally, culture loss can be attributed to cultural [[commodification]], in which local cultures are commodified to make a profit.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Johnston |first=Alison |date=2000 |title=Indigenous Peoples and Ecotourism: Bringing Indigenous Knowledge and Rights into the Sustainability Equation |journal=[[Tourism Recreation Research]] |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=89–96 |doi=10.1080/02508281.2000.11014914 |s2cid=168101298}}</ref>

The increased contributions of communities to locally managed ecotourism create viable economic opportunities, including high-level management positions, and reduce environmental issues associated with poverty and unemployment. Because the ecotourism experience is marketed to a different lifestyle from large-scale ecotourism, the development of facilities and infrastructure does not need to conform to corporate Western tourism standards, and can be much simpler and less expensive.<ref>{{cite book |last=Soifer |first=Jack |year=2008 |title=Entrepreneuring Sustainable Tourism |isbn=978-989-95976-0-0}}</ref> There is a greater [[Fractional-reserve banking|multiplier effect]] on the economy, because local products, materials, and labor are used. Profits accrue locally and [[import]] leakages are reduced.<ref name="Cater">{{cite book |last=Cater |first=E. |editor1-last=Cater |editor1-first=E. |editor2-first=G. |editor2-last=Lowman |title=Ecotourism in the third world—problems and prospects for sustainability, in Ecotourism: a sustainable option? |year=1994 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |location=United Kingdom}}</ref> The Great Barrier Reef Park in Australia reported over half of a billion dollars of indirect income in the area and added thousands of indirect jobs between 2004 and 2005.<ref name="weaver"/> However, even this form of tourism may require foreign investment for promotion or start-up. When such investments are required, communities must find a company or non-governmental organization that reflects the philosophy of ecotourism; is sensitive to their concerns, and is willing to cooperate at the expense of profit. The basic assumption of the multiplier effect is that the economy starts with unused resources, for example, that many workers are cyclically unemployed and much of industrial capacity is sitting idle or incompletely used. By increasing demand in the economy, it is then possible to boost production. If the economy was already at full employment, with only structural, frictional, or other supply-side types of unemployment, any attempt to boost demand would only lead to inflation. The multiplier impact is frequently employed in ecotourism research to demonstrate the driving force behind tourism expenditure on the local economy.  However, there are still differing opinions in macroeconomics on the multiplier theory's validity, and different schools of thought have different understandings of the circumstances for its use and the mechanism by which it works.

As an example, consider the government increasing its expenditure on roads by $1&nbsp; million, without a corresponding increase in taxation. This sum would go to the road builders, who would hire more workers and distribute the money as wages and profits. The households receiving these incomes will save part of the money and spend the rest on consumer goods. These expenditures, in turn, will generate more jobs, wages, profits, and so on with the income and spending circulating the economy.

The multiplier effect arises because of the induced increases in consumer spending which occur due to the increased incomes – and because of the feedback into increasing business revenues, jobs, and income again. This process does not lead to an economic explosion not only because of the supply-side barriers at potential output (full employment) but because at each "round", the increase in consumer spending is less than the increase in consumer incomes. That is, the [[marginal propensity to consume]] (MPC) is less than one so that each round some extra income goes into saving, leaking out of the cumulative process. Each increase in spending is thus smaller than that of the previous round, preventing an explosion.

=== Efforts to preserve ecosystems at risk ===
Some of the world's most exceptional biodiversity is located in the Galapagos Islands. These islands were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979, then added to UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger in 2007. IGTOA is a non-profit dedicated to preserving this unique living laboratory against the challenges of invasive species, human impact, and tourism.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.igtoa.org/travel_guide/challenges |title=Challenges Facing the Galápagos Islands |work=igtoa.org |access-date=9 June 2015}}</ref> For travelers who want to be mindful of the environment and the impact of tourism, it is recommended to use an operator that is endorsed by a reputable ecotourism organization. In the case of the Galapagos, IGTOA has a list<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.igtoa.org/members |title=Galápagos Islands Travel & Tours - Conservation & Ecotourism - IGTOA |work=igtoa.org |access-date=21 April 2017}}</ref> of the world's premiere Galapagos Islands tour companies dedicated to the lasting protection and preservation of the destination.