ecotourism follows three main principles: conservation, community, and interpretation. it differs from traditional tourism because it invites tourists to view wildlife and threatened natural environments while keeping them at a distance. money spent by the tourists then filters back into the community, fostering economic growth and creating jobs.

for example, south africa generates $8.4 billion and 5,000 jobs from ecotourism alone. south africa has limited land that can be developed and effectively utilized. this creates a scarcity of employment opportunities. so, ecotourism is key to supporting local economies. 

ecotourists can also benefit, as they are immersed in the surrounding culture. ecotourism can help you gain a new environmental awareness that you may have been searching for!

due to the pandemic, areas that relied on ecotourism are facing the consequences. lauren gilhooly in the magazine sapiens highlights a correspondence with howard stanton, who runs a malaysian ecotourism destination: “(we have) had to put all staff on unpaid leave for the foreseeable future. … we have taken the decision to reduce all costs until a better time to open becomes available.” 

luckily, platforms such as veco labs are developing apps and sites that create an in-depth tourist experience consisting of 360-degree photographs with background audio, still images, and embedded videos. narration from guides is included to enhance the effect. 

a tour by veco labs can be found here. 

virtual ecotourism can remind you of your love for travel. it can also evoke your support for local economies through donations. as virtual ecotourism platforms grow, hopefully, direct donations to the featured areas will become more available. virtual ecotourism that donates its profits would be a great alternative for communities that rely on ecotourism as income, especially during the pandemic.

as the pandemic subsides in the future and normal travel resumes, you may think that virtual ecotourism cannot compare to the real experience of seeing wild animals and bonding with family during a vacation. 

however, with advances in technology occurring every day, it is exciting to think about the potential developments for virtual ecotourism. veco labs plans to add more interactive features into their interface so that users can ask questions and be guided in real-time throughout a destination. this replicates the social aspect of traditional tourism! 

but virtual ecotourism extends beyond pandemic relief. while ecotourism attempts to focus on conservation, its growth in popularity shows that negative environmental impacts are being exacerbated. in a study on the kodagu district in india, the ecotourism in the area is leading to a decrease in biodiversity, water quality, and air quality, among many other harmful effects. 

daniel blumstein, chair of ecology and evolutionary biology at ucla, warns that ecotourism’s effects on wildlife can be compared to that of animal domestication. wildlife becomes less aware of their surroundings, making them more susceptible to predators.  

thailand’s maya bay also experiences harm from ecotourism. maya bay has reported that 77% of the island’s coral is in danger due to the large number of visitors and boats that it must accommodate. 

a shift to virtual ecotourism can maintain all of the positive intentions of ecotourism such as proper conservation and economic support of local communities while diminishing the harmful effects that come with it. 

you can directly help the environment while satisfying your yearn for travel during the pandemic with virtual ecotourism. consider taking a virtual tour and bask in your heightened social and environmental consciousness!

when we can travel again, what will it look like? how will travel and tourism have changed? how will the pandemic make us think differently about our health — and the health of our planet?

the pandemic has forced us to reconsider a lot of things, so when i sat down with global explorer and sustainability travel pioneer sven lindblad, who’s ceo of lindblad expeditions (www.expeditions.com), i wanted to know what it’s going to take to get back out in the world — and how we can do it more sustainably. sven’s thought a lot about both those issues because his company, like so many others in the travel business, was all but shut down by the pandemic.

communities in beautiful but remote travel locations face a particularly delicate balancing act, made more challenging by covid-19 travel restrictions. where ecotourism supported conservations efforts, tourists and their money just about disappeared, creating an economic void that threatens so much of what’s been achieved in recent years. for example, “undertourism” now threatens progress in marine sanctuaries where tourism dollars replaced revenue that had led to overfishing.

but there are changes we can make as we navigate the responsibilities of stewarding both natural resources and the communities dependent on tourism dollars. as i learned in our conversation, these issues are priorities for sven. he thinks and talks about them with searching curiosity and commitment. he’s made sustainable tourism a focus of his company. and he’s been recognized for his conservation and environmental stewardship over the past two decades, specifically for his work in the galápagos archipelago.

could his vision of tourism be how we travel in the future? it would stretch our horizons for sure, but it’s an expedition worth considering.

conservation and environmental protection always felt blindly obvious to me. my love for nature led me to quickly internalizing information about how the world and its animals were at risk. i then developed an even stronger concern for the fate of our planet and our species. rather than this world being solely ours to wander, i always felt as if we were lucky just to share it with the other creatures who have long inhabited it. 

but recently, my affirmed beliefs have been questioned. after spending six weeks as a wildlife and conservation intern at tacugama chimpanzee sanctuary in sierra leone, my clarity on the ethics of conservation work are as blurred as ever. the future seems dangerously uncertain. looming within the persistent dark clouds of the rainy season, every day at the sanctuary i felt more strongly the imminent reality of climate change, population growth, and species extinction. i felt the hopelessness of long-term, momentarily intangible projects, of underfunded programs, unfairly slow productivity levels, and infuriating legislation that allows a chimpanzee poacher to get away with less than a $1 fine.

what i had thought would be a reflective, meditative, and illuminating six weeks instead became the complete opposite. i envisioned spending my mornings practicing yoga and meditation with the backdrop of rainforest sounds, and my evenings reading my 1,000-page novel, “infinite jest,” and then journaling, pinpointing exactly what i wanted to pursue in this field of work in the future. 

instead, i spent many of my mornings patrolling the electric fences in the unrelenting rain, scrubbing chimpanzee poop off my pants, and making sure the millipedes hadn’t crawled back into my suitcase overnight. my evenings were spent most often in the candlelight, without power, struggling to write down my disorderly thoughts beneath the glow of my headlamp. i was totally exhausted. was all this even worth it? 

i would often find myself trapped in this pit in my mind: 

the problems are so overwhelmingly huge, i can’t possibly make a difference. how naive was i to think that i could come here for six weeks and change a situation that is so deeply corroded?

what good am i doing, killing myself over the small problems provoked by climate change, when there are just 100 companies who create 71% of all carbon emissions?! even if i dedicated my entire life to this particular cause, devoting every ounce of energy i have into bettering the lives of those living closest to the chimpanzee habitat in sierra leone, my impact would clearly be negligible to the irreversible environmental catastrophe that is looming. 

and if i did, i wouldn’t be happy — i can’t do this for more than a few months at a time. living in the middle of the rainforest is really, really hard. am i a phony conservationist and environmentalist? if someone who is as passionate as i am is unwilling to devote their life entirely to this issue, then who on earth is? 

should i just quit school then, and enjoy my life while i can? hey, maybe i could move to hawaii and become an artist, eating fresh papaya, and surviving off the grid with a self-sustaining garden. 

i thought about all these things, and more. i let my mind wander down the endless paths of what-ifs and worst-case scenarios. what i’ve realized is that all this worrying is doing far more harm than what i could be doing if i was doing anything but worrying.

the problem these days with conservation action, with considering climate change, is that we spend way more time deliberating and arguing about whether or not it is happening than actually implementing solutions. people are willing to put as much energy into arguing about how to save the planet as they are into actually getting about doing it.

i almost fell down this hole, too. but doing something, anything, is far more moral than doing nothing at all — and that in the end, it does add up. international development work is certainly not perfect; it is riddled with ethical conflicts and it’s important that we continue to examine these closely. but it also has dramatically improved and saved millions of lives, provided critical health care, education, jobs, infrastructure, and political stability. maybe these improvements aren’t seen right away, but over time they add up. slight positive developments do make a difference, especially when you’re dealing with small local communities and individual animals. 

there are institutional barriers that make improvements and solutions to entrenched problems nearly impossible. it’s important to recognize that volunteering or interning for a brief period of time does not provide a systematic solution to these problems. that’s not to say it has no value, just that we need to accept our contributions for what they are.

the truth is we need both: we desperately need large institutional changes, but we also need individuals who care about specific issues, who are willing to make day-to-day changes and have conversations that shift consumer habits. 

maybe i didn’t come away knowing what conservation-related career path i was going to pursue. my biggest takeaway was a perspective, an insight as to how complicated, sensitive, yet important conservation work can be, about privilege, about the power of storytelling. 

it was an insight into how it feels to face situations that seem doomed, but choosing to not let that shut you down. and lastly, it was an insight into how optimism and a positive outlook can change your perspective and can help you change the world.

the audience built anticipation as we waited for one of the three to open the envelope with the winner inside. find a list of all of our storyfest grand prize winners here!

the conference closed with all of our grand prize winners on stage, receiving a warm welcome from the lieutenant governor of the state of alaska, the beginning of their excitement for their expedition to alaska with lindblad expeditions in june.

see the finalists and all the storyfest 2018 entries here.

“i have always believed that tourism and conservation go hand-in-hand,” he said in the video. “i wanted to connect people with wild places — and i wanted them to understand the importance of these places.”

frank sesno then welcomed lindblad to the stage and they began with lindblad sharing some insight into what storyfest winners will be experiencing on the expedition to alaska with lindblad expeditions.

we’re constantly looking for ways through storytelling to broaden the exposure of these experiences — the beauty, wonder, and relevance, lindblad said.

sesno also asked whether he had witnessed any evidence of climate change himself.

lindblad shared that he’d just returned from the norwegian arctic — after not visiting since about 1976. on his original trip he said they wouldn’t have dreamed of going prior to late july because the sea ice would have been so thick. this march he traveled to see what it was like in the spring — so this was four months earlier in the year than his previous journey, 42 years ago. what did they find?

“just very thin sea ice, formed very recently. we were totally able to move freely,” he said. “and it’s been that way for years — though this was a particularly extreme year. and this is happening all over the arctic.”

up next: anand varma: the beauty and the bizarre >

storyfest finalist and planet 世界杯欧洲预选赛免费直播  olivia urbanski, of loyola university chicago, talked about the video she made while studying abroad at ol pejeta conservatory featuring sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhino, who died on march 20, 2018.

harrison watson, of jackson state university in mississippi, and a storyfest 2017 finalist and amazon traveler, talked about the use of language in storytelling — how words can take us to a deeper place than images and sounds, and his interest in the intersection of religion and environment.

anna sumi a recent george washington university grad, spoke of her adventures to siberia in summer 2017, and the challenge of translating science. one major issue for these arctic urban areas is the melting permafrost, for their infrastructure is built according to the permafrost layer, and its degradation will disrupt the entire foundation of these cities.

alaine johnson of yale-national university of singapore, a 2018 planet 世界杯欧洲预选赛免费直播 and storyfest finalist, talked about her studies, which have her looking at how patterns of urbanization are effecting the way we are linked with the environment. using yoga as an example, she said the instructor is telling you to feel the earth beneath your feet — but it’s kind of hard to do that when it’s 22 stories below you. 

zack smith of suny-esf, and also storyfest 2017 finalist, spoke of the magic of sound, and the power that vibrations have to transport the listener to a place.

up next: what’s your sustainability story? >

roots & shoots as an organization has made a tremendous impact on a number of lives and communities worldwide, however, what they are doing on mt. kilimanjaro is beyond belief. by providing the mamas of mweka with a foundational structure of sustainable eco-tourism (much similar to the australian aboriginal peoples inclusion in eco-tourism model) and more connections than most can imagine, roots & shoots has created a lucrative business that benefits all parties. it is much similar to any excursion company, that allows visitors to partake in different cultural or adventurous activities, however, this is directly benefiting the mamas. 

by pairing visitors with each of the mamas, these female elders welcome their guests with a large traditional mill on the mountain, accompanied by some traditional dances that the visitors are welcome to join in. though the majority of the mamas cannot speak english, through partnerships with local universities and youth development programs, young people come to help and translate for the participants and the mamas. through stories and songs, visitors learn about the history of the mountain, the lives of the mamas, and various other proponents about tribal culture on the mountain. upon completing this portion of the excursion, visitors are welcome to assist in the creation of school buildings, much like the one my group assisted with. through a combination of bendable branches and hard labor, each group builds a different portion of the house upon each visit. however, worry not, if one does not enjoy physical labor, anyone is welcome to join members of the organization or tribe in the conservation area where anyone can plant their own tree, watch the intricate manmade watering system, or simply gaze at the beautiful trees that span among the magnitude of trees along the mountain that has been planted over the years. after leaving the campgrounds, each participant is again paired with their mamas and their translator, where they follow the mama home. once at their mama’s location of living, they are given traditional food, stay in a designated location of the mamas home, and have a translated conversation with the mamas. the amount of time each visitor spends with their mama is determined by the excursion program they sign up for. mine was only one night, whereas others we met were for a week. either way, each person leaves with a different understanding of life, and tanzanian tribal culture. 

upon conclusion of the program, each mama receives a portion of the payment from roots & shoots that provides their portion of the household income. i believe this system is perfect and amazing in a number of ways because it is an opportunity for a group of women, who would otherwise potentially not have the opportunity, to provide for their household by doing something they love. by sharing their culture and meeting thousands of people each year, these women have found economic sustainability through an organization that does so much good. this is roots & shoots.

when brett towle went looking for vacation plans, he wanted an off-the-beaten-path experience. he didn’t expect to come away with a newfound appreciation for environmentalism.

towle went on a surfing trip led by henry heyman, owner of ecotourism business tres brazos outfitters.

“i chose to go on this trip because i have lived in northern climates for the past 15 years and have been foaming at the mouth at any opportunity to catch some waves,” he said.  “i improved my surfing for sure, but this trip also left me with an immense respect for the natural environment.”

henry heyman, a former intern at panama’s eco-town of kalu yala, started a business based in panama in december taking patrons on vacations with net zero carbon emissions. the goal of his and other ecotourism businesses is to get travelers thinking more about sustainability and conservation.

“it’s less of like ‘here’s a beach resort, hang out here, drink as much as you want, eat as much as you want, relax’ and more of like ‘let’s go on a low-impact adventure where you get a really scenic trip with a really low environmental impact,’” heyman said.  

his trips include everything from short day hikes to picturesque waterfalls and swimming holes in the tres brazos valley in panama to a multi-day scuba diving trip in the historic town of portobelo on panama’s caribbean coast.

while his trips are scenic and fun, they also raise awareness about environmental issues through outdoor adventure.  

“a huge part of every trip i do is really trying to have some kind of educational component and really place-based,” he said. “when i take people rafting on the chagres river in panama, for example, i like to start a conversation about dams that pop up on rivers and how that negatively impacts the ecosystem there.”

but ecotourism is by no means limited to panama, or even central america. mark thomson has spent the past 15 years running whitewater river expedition trips in the canadian arctic. he said the people who come on his trips love exploring parts of the world they wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to see.

“i think often people also leave with an increased sense of national pride, having experienced a part of their country that many others don’t ever get to in a lifetime of living in that country,” thomson said.

a major goal of the ecotourism industry is to reduce strain on the environment imposed by vacationers, but the mission has a catch.   

“the trips themselves have little to no impact on the environment, but it’s hard to ignore the massive carbon footprint of the plane ride or whatever other means of transportation people take to get to the destination,” heyman said.

the thinking is that the initial carbon footprint left by the flight is mitigated by limiting the environmental impact of the stay itself.

“outside of the initial travel, the rest of the trip is typically man powered transportation, causing no environmental strain whatsoever,” thomson said.

he added that most trips, including all of his own, practice what’s called “leave no trace” camping. this method means everything brought in for the trip leaves with the campers including all human, food and packaging waste.  waste generated throughout the trip is typically recycled, composted or reused wherever possible.

care is taken when cooking to ensure food smells don’t linger and camping spots are chosen carefully to protect fragile habitats and ensure animals don’t grow accustomed to human presence.

“ultimately, people aren’t just going to stop traveling because it’s bad for the environment,” heyman said. “the way i look at it, if you’re trying to see central america at least you’re coming on my trip that’s very very low impact as opposed to other alternatives.”

while ecotourism is certainly geared toward nature-lovers, these trips appeal to more than just the environmentally-savvy.  

“each day provides opportunities for reading and relaxation in many of the ways that a traditional resort experience would offer,” thomson said. “my trips are usually situated in remote areas with plenty of opportunity for wildlife viewing, but there are certainly plenty of ecotourism opportunities for folks who don’t want to travel to remote wilderness areas, and prefer a more traditional hotel style ‘home base.’”

these home bases usually include a campsite or a cabin somewhere in nature. among heyman’s many trips, he offers tourists a chance to stay at panama’s kalu yala for a few days, enjoy the food and area economy there and explore the surrounding valley with interns from across the world who come to study there for 10 weeks. they live in tents like the interns and eat many farm-to-table foods.  

but travelers said the best part of ecotourism is learning more about little-known environmental issues and local cultures.  

“the best part of the trip was befriending some locals and exploring the town over, isla canas,” towle said. “we were able to visit the community skate park and learn about their small town culture, and that was an invaluable and priceless experience to say the least.”

and industry pioneers hope the education they spread through their trips will affect meaningful change, one trip at a time.

“it’s the combination of an increased sense of enthusiasm for regions of the country people had never experienced before, along with a new bank of knowledge about the importance of that area and pressures on it,” thomson said. “these things result in a concern for the well-being of these areas that can’t be replicated elsewhere.”

pacific lutheran university is piloting an educational and participatory program to begin mitigating one of the largest contributors to plu’s carbon emissions – study abroad air miles. when the new president reaffirmed plu’s commitment to carbon neutrality by 2020 by signing the acupcc, the study away and sustainability centers partnered to meet this goal in a meaningful manner.   global education is a pathway to distinction at plu.  however, as a result our study away program contributes 19.4 percent of the university’s total carbon footprint at over 3,700 mtco2e.

plu has dropped its co2 emissions by 17 percent, but in order to reach neutrality, we knew we would need to invest in a third party offset.  the concern was that traditional offsets would not meet the need for education and connection in students who were travelling.  plu sought the help of an organization that is redefining the false concept of offsetting one’s carbon footprint by reframing it as “onsetting”, earth deeds. their focus is increasing carbon consciousness by providing tools to measure, manage and reduce our ecological impact and support community-based sustainability projects. such projects are not necessarily certified by a third party nor are they measurable in terms of carbon neutrality. rather, the projects have a meaningful and positive environmental impact on the local community.

students calculate their individual carbon footprint, offset a portion, and then onset to a sustainability project in a community that plu students are affiliated with.