Ecotourism Project  Project plan: November 4  What do you intend to do?  How do you intend to do it?  Field visits completed:December 2  Where have you gone?  What have you seen?  What questions did you intend to answer?  What questions remain?  Draft due:December 18  Written Project due: January 13  Oral Presentation:January 13

More on protected areas

6/25/20153 Ecotourism intersections with conservation  WWF  Protected area management  Sustainable development in buffer zone areas  Environmental education for consumers  Influencing policy decisions  Most urgent point  protected area management

6/25/20154 Questions for planning…  How does a protected area plan for ecotourism?  Where are the examples?  Where are the models?  Where are the guidelines?

6/25/20155 Ecotourism Diagnostic and Planning Guidelines  Why develop a strategy/plan?  To guide the development and management of ecotourism  Why?  To ensure the protected area is not overrun by tourists  To establish mechanisms to generate employment and revenue for the protected area and surrounding communities  To create opportunities for environmental education for visitors  To allow protected area managers to either encourage or discourage ecotourism as appropriate – both in # and activity

6/25/20156 Ecotourism Diagnostic and Planning Guidelines 3 phases for this strategy 1.Assess the current tourism situation and potential 2.Determine a desirable tourism situation and identify steps to reach this situation 3.Write an ecotourism strategy document

6/25/20157 Phase 1: Assess the current situation  Features inside park boundaries  Issue areas are natural resources, park infrastructure, visitation, and park personnel  Bridges outside park boundaries  Issue areas not in the park managers’ immediate jurisdiction that also directly or indirectly impact tourism within the park

6/25/20158 Phase 1: Assess the current situation  Features inside the park boundaries ? the park’s natural resources ? the visitation info and levels ? the park infrastructure ? the park personnel  Bridges outside park boundaries ? Interaction between the park and local communities ? Infrastructure within the country (this park & others) ? National perspective (legal, policy, budgetary) ? Private sector involvement

6/25/20159 Phase 2: Determine desirable tourism level and create a plan  Workshop or set of workshops  1 st : evaluate obj. of tourism to the park  2 nd : reach a consensus on # & activities  3 rd : create an ecotourism strategy (action plan outlining necessary steps)  4 th : establish a monitoring system

6/25/ Phase 2: Determine desirable tourism level and create a plan  Who is invited to the workshops?  Reps from the park, community, tourism industry, MoE, MoT, and environmentalists  Features inside park boundaries  Monitor the ecological impacts of tourism; conduct inventories for sites/ecosystems/or species  Create a system to record visitor stats; plan series of visitor surveys  Create a master plan of current and future infrastructure in the park; list priority activities (use local products and services)  Decide on skills for park personnel; decide on level of training in tourism management

6/25/ Phase 2: Determine desirable tourism level and create a plan  Bridges outside the park boundaries  Continue interaction with communities; reps in tourism development plans  Provide assistance / support to communities  Be sure communities are benefiting  Decide what regional dvlpmts to be built  Lobby appropriate groups  Decide on potential coordination with other tourism attractions

6/25/ Phase 2: Determine desirable tourism level and create a plan  Bridges outside park boundaries  Name the party that is officially in charge of tourism management in the park  Determine tourism zones for the park  Determine entrance fee for the park  Examine the national budgeting system for the parks  Determine budget allocations within the park itself  Decide which tour operators to work with  Decide what info the park wants or needs about tourism demand  Provide assistance and support to communities that want more info  Decide how to promote and market the park

6/25/ Phase 3: Write an ecoutourism strategy document  Record the info, publish it, and distribute it  This will become the official ecotourism plan for the area.

6/25/ For the Exam  if you were to change the current definition of ecotourism and specifically to incorporate the perspectives of a biocentric environmental scientist, how would you do it? What would be your new definition? (karim)  each of you, looking back to your own region (however you define ‘region’), how would you devise an ecotourism strategy?  Name the major reserves in Lebanon; Propose the creation of a new reserves  Look into transformation of industrial area into an ecotourism / conservation / - impeding environmental health …

Environmental, economic and socio- cultural impacts of ecotourism

6/25/ Misrepresentation of ecotourism  Accidental misrepresentation  Deliberate misrepresentation –greenwashing  Lack of effective accreditation schemes  Public’s lack of familiarity  Absence of restrictions on the use of the term

6/25/ Question to class  How would you identify when the travel industry is greenwashing and when it is really Green?  [note: engage in active listening.]  Then: what to do?  Interested in doing a survey of Lebanese hotels?  Time: minutes

6/25/ Direct Benefits of EcoTourism  Role as an incentive for promoting and rehabilitating natural environments  Potential for funding that it provides to manage and enhance protected areas and other ecotourism settings  Assistance provided by ecotourism to manage and improve ecotourism venues and to act as ‘environmental watchdogs’

6/25/ Indirect benefits of EcoTourism  Increased support for environmentalism and protected areas  Environmental benefits derived from protected areas established/kept for ecotourism

6/25/ Borneo  One of the world’s most biodiverse areas  w/ a decrease demand for local products, tourism emerged as new market for biodiversity  Partnership between ecotourism agency and local community  1996: 26 families - $82,000