Rainforest Live Topic Essays

Rainforest Live '97

Topic Essays from Queensland, Australia
Faculty and Student Topic Essays

From the week ending March 7, 1997

People have had a growing desire to experience nature and to help conserve it. However, there are also those people who want to expand on our capitalist ideals. Some people call that ecotourism. There are two sides to the ecotourism story.

Ecotourism in Australia, as well as all over the world, relies on people who want to commune with nature in a strictly tourist role. From what I have learned, the Australians have a great respect for their environment and most are willing to conserve it. Australia is home to a great variety of ecosystems such as the rainforest and the outback, some rare animals such as the kangaroo and platypus, and one of the great wonders of the world the Great Barrier Reef. As a result, ecotourism in this country can be a great learning experience and it has become a booming business.

However, there is opposition to the idea of ecotourism. For one, the increasing business also requires the expansion of facilities which calls for the development of the local area and that usually means loss of habitat. The development of trails and access roads are also required destroying even more habitat and in some cases isolating species that cannot cross open areas. Noise and sometimes careless tourists can disrupt the ecosystem and harm the species that are living there. In some ways ecotourism has become a fad.

The real results of ecotourism on the environment are yet to be seen. In the years to come we will have to decide if it is worth the risks and possible changes that occur to the environment we are visiting.

What is Ecotourism?
by Ken Weagle
Center Director

What is Ecotourism? From my experience in Canada, the USA, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia, ecotourism is viewed in many ways by many people, and the concept varies depending on where you are. Generally ecotourism is considered to be a non-consumptive use of our natural resources, where tourist come to view or “experience” an ecosystem. One of the best examples of this is the use of the Great Barrier Reef for SCUBA diving and snorkeling. Every year millions of people visit Far North Queensland, Australia for the sole reason of visiting this natural wonderland of coral and fish.

Another natural area in Far North Queensland that attracts international tourists is the Rainforest.This is one of the few areas of the world where you can still find relatively natural rainforests that go right to the edge of the ocean which contains coral reefs. All in all an attractive picture and who would not want to visit here.

What does this mean to the environment? What harm can a million divers do to the reef? What harm can they do to the Rainforest? One must remember that whenever there is contact between man and natural systems there is an impact. The extent of the impact depends on the number of people, the duration of the stay, and the mode of travel and accommodation. The Great Barrier Reef is now degrading because of two factors, first from water pollution from land (this mainly affects the reefs closer to shore) and second from tourism. Any day in Cairns you will see possibly 50 boats that are carrying people to dives on the reef. Each of these boats has to anchor (anchoring will cause significant damage to the coral), each will possibly spill a small amount of fuel or sewage (polluting the coral beds), and with the boats becoming much larger their wakes damage the shallow coral heads of the area. Regulations are controlling many of these problems but it can easily be seen that as the usage increases so does the damage; and as damage increases the resource that once attracted the tourists is lost and tourists will no longer want to visit the area.

In the rainforest the visitors come to see the magnificent trees, the colorful animals and experience the grandeur of the setting. As the number of visitors increase the roads must be increased in size, the animals leave the area because their quiet home is disturbed, and as the number of visitors increase the grandeur of the setting is lost because of traffic and the number of visitors. Again the reason people visit an area is destroyed by the visitors themselves and tourism is reduced.

This makes us wonder if ecotourism is truly a non-consumptive use and is as good for an ecosystem as some people would have us believe. In summary, ecotourism can improve the economic situation of an area but it cannot be considered to be free of impacts. Just as with logging (a consumptive use of our forests), ecotourism must be planned so that it is sustainable. With ecotourism sustainability means that the number of people visiting an area will not damage it to the point that it no longer has its natural beauty.

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