Ecotourism benefits nature and reduces poverty - earth - 12 December 2007 - New Scientist Environment

12 December 2007
Magazine issue 2633

Ecotourism, sometimes criticised as the voyeuristic indulgence of rich first-worlders, really does benefit the environment and the people who live in protected areas. A review of four marine conservation initiatives shows that they have helped reduce poverty and created tourism-based jobs, says Craig Leisher of Nature Conservancy, an environmental group in Arlington, Virginia.

The report, Nature's Investment Bank, co-authored by Leisher and published on 29 November, is based on interviews with more than 1000 people in four recently protected marine zones in Fiji, Indonesia, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands. In every case, the conservation schemes had boosted fish catches and helped create new jobs.

'In some sites, the scale of improvement was dramatic,' says Leisher. 'In Fiji, for example, local incomes doubled over five years following introduction of a protected fishery.' In Indonesia's Bunaken National Marine Park, meanwhile, ecotourism schemes created many new jobs in restaurants and hotels and ..."

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Ecotourism benefits nature and reduces poverty - earth - 12 December 2007 - New Scientist Environment