Ecotourism campaigns Have Succeeded As Witnessed In Arsal, North East Lebanon
Ecotourism in Lebanon really took off as a serious tourism activity in the year 1997 when people began to take annual trips to Arsal which is a huge village in North East Lebanon. The aim of the ecotourism campaigns used here were to add strength to the relations between the local community and those of the Association for Rural Development in Arsal (ARDA) that is a major player in environment and development activities, and is a non-government organization (NGO) as well as partner to Reforestation Network. They were to introduce the unique culture and also nature to friends of Arsal and also provide to ARDA a means to generate income.
Need For Better Organization And Coordination
In the recent past, this region has witnessed growth in ecotourism which has raised the need to have a well managed ecotourism campaign so that this sector can be better organized and there can also be better coordination with those that provide services and also to even certify these processes so that one knows which the proper services are.
Thus, in the year 2000, an organization known as Green Line set into motion the wheels that were to help in the development of ecotourism that ultimately took the shape of an ecotourism campaign that involved municipalities, youth groups as also NGOs. The program so developed included agro-tourism in the form of olive oil production, bee keeping as well as processing of cherries and apricots, and also ecotourism that was taking place in places such as Horsh Ehden, Kammoua, Barouk cedars as well as the valley Nahr Ibrahim.
This ecotourism campaign aimed at highlighting as well as publicizing ecotourism as a concept as well as a method to conserve natures resources while providing a means of earning an income to the local peoples. It also meant needing to coordinate between ecotourism providers and different municipalities as also governmental bodies and NGOs so that a viable network to sustain this form of tourism could be formed.
There have been a number of notable achievements that have resulted from this ecotourism campaign including of course assessing and developing ecotourism sites in places such as Mtein, building teams of experts in ecotourism and also being able to secure adequate sources of finance in the form of income as well as support.
In addition, this ecotourism campaign has been able to organize Training of Trainers (ToT) workshops meant to impart knowledge to teachers, staff involved in administration as well as for parents from many schools. It is ecotourism campaigns such as this that raises hope for being able to conserve nature in different parts of the world, while also sustaining local communities as well.
Nature Tour Operators
It also meant needing to coordinate between ecotourism providers and different municipalities as also governmental bodies and NGOs so that a viable network to sustain this form of tourism could be formed.
Most often, such protected areas are used in promotion of nature tourism so that people can enjoy as well as experience in its true form. However, while ecotourism was initially invented to help preserve the environment, there are actually a number of reasons why ecotourism is bad. However, are these groups aware of the environmental damage that is caused by bad ecotourism? Ecotourism is a new concept to many, as even though its been around since at least the 1980s, its still not nearly as popular a concept as some feel it should be. Also, such ecotourism grants may generally not be given to undergraduate expeditions and there should also be strong emphasis on field work for conservation applications, and the grant is usually given to those that bring new skills and conservation education opportunities to the area where ecotourism is taking place.
What exists today is a sad travesty and a perversion of what the Delaware River once was.
Alarmism never works and will more than likely backfire if employed. And, of late ecotourism is being promoted as an alternative to mass tourism, and thus there is a case for nature tourism and ecotourism to be viewed as a means of protecting, conserving and developing natural environments and also a way to provide economic benefits to local peoples and communities. There are a number of ecotourism debates that try to highlight the less than satisfactory state of affairs one experiences in ecotourism because such people feel that living in a capitalist society does not go hand in hand with doing much positive things for ecotourism and that not enough is being done with regard to conserving nature and providing significant benefits as well as conserving the host nations revenue and natural resources.
The global ecotourism conference also discussed education and global branding of ecotourism.
However, in practice the term is used by tour operators to market their products and relates to any form of tourism that is associated with nature. The term ecotourism was first brought to the attention of the world when a person named Hector Ceballos-Lascurain coined this word, which describes nature as being the focus of travel tourism which generally takes visitors to places that are relatively obscure and undisturbed, and where the focus of eco-tourists is to become more educated. As everything that one does in life will have a positive and negative side, ecotourism will naturally have a negative side as well, though one can take heart from the fact that these are not so great as to cause any great upheaval in the ecotourism industry or the local environment and population. While private beaches that charge a fee require people to be clean and considerate of their surroundings, public beaches have no private funding, so people often end up littering. |
