University of Aarhus ECOTOURISM AS A WAY TO PROTECT ...

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Ecotourism as a sustainable way to protect nature (international, national, regional). This diversity results from different national, cultural, geographical and historical backgrounds. As a result of the need for some global ecotourism regulation the Green Globe 21 with co-operation of the NEAP and other schemes seems to be the best for the future, setting of the global rules of ecotourism through certification. The best would probably be, when the rules of the Green Globe 21 are sensitively applied to the local conditions (environmental and cultural background etc.) by the local authorities, NGO or private companies (using the strong support by the Green Globe 21). In the tourism market it is important to mention that the major motivation for the providers when applying for "ecolabel" is that they gain some competitive advantage resulting in an increased revenue flow. So the environmental performances are often instruments to how they increase their profits. As an instrument for the consumer’s choice, ecolabels are a valuable environmental management tool in tourism (Buckley, 2001). And it is a great challenge for all environmental issues, because this approach is not very common up to now. But the ecolabeling is still now in the early stages and only few tourists routinely search for ecolabels in product purchasing (Buckley, 2001). So the future emphasis should be aimed to enhance the transparency of the ecolabels and effectively hand in hand with emphasis on public promotion of tourism ecolabels as a way to travel more "environmentally". 2.6. Different roles of ecotourism As mentioned in the section of the economic aspects of ecotourism, tourism has rapidly developed all over the world. It significantly becomes a contributor to the local, regional, national, and global economy. 28
Ecotourism as a sustainable way to protect nature Generating benefits from ecotourism have been discussed in different dimensions. It could be a means of generating economic benefits for different stakeholders, increasing awareness for both local communities and tourists, promoting biodiversity conservation and mitigating negative impacts. 2.6.1. Generating economic benefits for different stakeholders Ecotourism not only generates economic benefits for government agencies, non-government agencies but also for local people. First of all, all forms of tourism have greatly contributed to the national and international economy. This point of view has been mentioned before. Especially, this economic source is very important for developing countries. Thailand earned approximately US$1.5 million a year for set of parks (FAO, 1997). Nepal has received total revenue of US$4.5 million in 1994 just from the hotel industry in the Royal Chitwan National Park (Marnie et al., 1998). Globally, all tourism in the developing countries earned about US$ 118,518 million in 1995 (Stefan, 1999). Secondly, entrance fees can significantly contribute to the cost of managing the national parks. The fees account for 0.01 to 1% of the total travel costs (Stefan, 1999). Here, we would like to illustrate just how large the entrance fees are. The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve earned US$ 35,750 in 1987, Costa Rica got approximately US$ 168,000 in 1988 while Ecuador received US$ 2.6 million in 1993 (Stefan, 1999) and US$ 4.3 million in 1998 (UNEP, 2002). The New Special laws of Tourism in Galapagos Island requires to put 40% entrance fees for the protected area (Honey, 1999). These incomes are expected to cover a range of conservation-related expenditures (Stefan, 1999). In contrast, the case of tourism in Indonesia (Sheryl & Wall, 1999), all entrance fees were sent to the central government without filtering back to the protected areas. 29
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