Sustainable tourism case study |
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The Galapagos Islands – A case study of Ecotourism
The Galapagos Islands are most famous because
many of the plants and animals found there are not found anywhere else
in the world.
This is because the islands are isolated or cut
off from the rest of the World’s land mass by the Pacific Ocean,
allowing the plants and animals to EVOLVE in their own way for hundreds
of thousands of years.
This was noted by Charles Darwin, and spurred
him on to form his famous theory of evolution.
Approximately 90% of the Islands are designated
as National parks and there are only 20,000 permanent human
residents (although this has risen from 9,000 only 20 years ago), allowing for a high degree of protection of the environment.
The area became the first UNESCO World Heritage
site in 1979 and they are also a biosphere reserve.
The
Galapagos Islands represent a place in the world were ECOTOURISM takes
place.
This is environmentally friendly tourism where
the people involved seek to protect the environment as much as possible
and to allow for some level of education as well.
In many cases of ecotourism, some of the profits
go back into protecting the environment and the tourism is small scale,
with low visitor number densities and environmental approaches to
accommodation and food.
For example, I have stayed in an ecotourism
lodge in Puerto Maldonado in Peru, where tours of the Amazon forest take
place for tourists staying in small wooden huts there is limited
electricity and waste is dealt with on site, and the food at the resort
is sourced locally.
The Galapagos are run along these lines because;
Tourists
visit under strict rules
They can
only visit on small ships of 10 to 16 tourists, most of which are owned
by local people
The tourists
can only visit a limited number of places on the Islands, thus
protecting the rest of the Islands
The tourists
are only allowed to visit in small numbers.
Visitors
also receive information on how to conserve the Islands prior to their
departure to the Islands.
They also
have to pay a £25 fee to promote conservation on the Islands
Despite
all of this, there are still some problems from the overuse of some
sites (honey pot sites), oil spills from boats, and pollution to the
Islands water supply and the water supply is put under pressure from the
tourists use.
However, local people make a valuable
living from tourism and there are few other employment opportunities
available.
Tourists also generate a lot of businesses in
the local economy as guides, restraints, hotels, boats owners and
cleaners all benefit. |
Watch and
take notes on the videos below Attempt this exercise after reading the text opposite Compare the 2 view points on this article Try the post it exercise below |
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National Geographic video on the Galapagos Islands |
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Coolgeography.co.uk by Rob Gamesby is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. Contact - robert.gamesby@st-marys.newcastle.sch.uk |