Ecotourism involves traveling responsibly by conserving resources; supporting small, local or family-run businesses at the destination; and leaving little or no trace of your presence.
Ecotourism commonly incorporates efforts to support research, raise funds or create awareness of environmental causes in a specific region. One example: promoting sustainable logging rather than large-scale extraction of rain-forest timber in Costa Rica.
Some businesses promote their products and services as "eco" or "green" solely for monetary gain. It's wise to research a company's claims and its ethics and business practices. For example, in the 1990s Walt Disney World destroyed native wildlife habitats and imported animals from Africa to build its Animal Kingdom theme park, even though it promoted the park as a "green" attraction.
Ecotourism brings more people, and thus more traffic and consumption, to previously remote and isolated areas. No matter how hard a traveler may try to minimize his impact, it's impossible not to have some effect on the environment and culture.
While there are no clearly defined parameters that would allow researchers to gauge accurately the impacts of tourism, some are trying to monitor impacts and put them into context. For example, experts from Duke University are studying how ecotourism affects animal populations in Guatemala. On the Galápagos Islands, supporters of ecotourism are attempting to demonstrate how the revenue tourism generates can support animal research.
