Halt in ecotourism threatens conservation efforts worldwide. (2020, January 11). The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/halt-in-ecotourism-threatens-conservation-efforts-worldwide/2020/06/11/8c73b18c-a409-11ea-b473-04905b1af82b_story.html

Many rural countries who depend on ecotourism, for example, Cambodia, lost their form of income and the sufficient money to fund certain ecological projects. From the covid shelter in place norms certain wildlife sanctuaries and national parks are closed and not only is there less protection of the wildlife but all the people who worked there are currently unemployed. Ecotourism which was effective for helping the environment is now halted in many countries.

This article is similar to the specific example in the fourth article. The lack of ecotourism is now becoming another environmental problem in and of itself. In my opinion, we should not be so dependent on one solution just in case situations like corona happen again. In that sense, we need to create more effective solutions for lower income countries besides ecotourism. These impoverished countries are now losing thousands of dollars they could have been making had Covid not happened. Overall, ecotourism was a good solution but it is currently not as effective due to the pandemic we have going on currently.

Bendana, C. (2020, June 26). Tourist treks helped save gorillas. What happens in lockdown? The Christian Science Monitor. https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2020/0626/Tourist-treks-helped-save-gorillas.-What-happens-in-lockdown

Ecotourism has offered a source of income for locals in places where nature is more apparent. In addition, ecotourism can be beneficial to the animals themselves, in this case gorillas. The population is already very low and having ecotourism can lower poaching. In today’s society with Covid there are less visits and there are drastic negative effects. In East Africa, places where there are different park’s for the gorilla, there are showings of the first cases of gorilla poaching in years and the loss of jobs and money for the conservation.

Covid 19 has led to the loss of numerous jobs but this is the first time I think I realized the effect it had on the environment in relation to animal conservation. Ecotourism can be so positive towards funding a lot of environmental causes and the lack of tourism can have such a negative effect since many are already used to that steady income. I think the whole economy and efforts towards helping the environment is going to be partially ignored while people hyperfocus on the effects of Covid. This just demonstrates how important ecotourism is to our society and the world.

Lewis, N. C. (2020, July 27). This country regrew its lost forest. Can the world learn from it? CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/27/americas/reforestation-costa-rica-c2e-spc/index.html

Where in the 1940s around 75 percent of Costa Rica was forest it was cut by loggers down to around a half or third by 1987. The country has then invested in regrowing efforts and launched government programs in order to replant the forest that was once cut down. The government gives land to farmers to replant and it not only boosts the economy of the farmers but also the ecotourism of the land. Around 3 million people visit each year simply to see nature and as a result the economy gets more money and the government can spend more money on projects related to protecting the environment.

This is a good example of how we can utilize the environment in a productive way which not only benefits the people but also the environment at the same time. The profits from replanting the trees are apparent in the tourism and the farmers who get to work on that land are also paid decently. The whole country has the idea of conserving what they have and if we had the same mindset we could apply these ideals of conserving land to perhaps more polluted areas. The replanting of the forest does not make up for the countless amounts of deforestation, but it can show new environmental ideals can be useful. In addition,ecotourism can be useful to support those concepts.

Importance of Ecotourism in 2020: It’s More Important than Ever Before. (2020). TravelExperta. https://travelexperta.com/2020/01/ecotourism-2020-important-ever.html

The article mentions the definition of ecotourism as traveling sustainably and good for the environment. It can be difficult in this day in age for people to travel with that sort of sustainability. In addition, there are several companies that put false advertisements who try and capitalize on the term ecotourism. Several tips are mentioned on several things to look out for to make sure a trip is accurately supporting the environment.

The concept of ecotourism seems like a good idea to support several endangered species and parts of the environment that need help. In a sense, traveling to those specific locations can contribute to funds which end up helping going towards that conservation of biodiversity. On the other hand, there can be false advertisements which can lead one under the impression that they are helping the environment when in reality they are just giving money to the company. The overall tips had a general sense of being educated about the location and making sure to do research. I think it is very important to be educated towards the correct ways to do ecotourism otherwise it defeats the whole purpose. 

Behavioural responses of white sharks to specific baits during cage diving ecotourism. (2020, July 7). Nature.Com. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-67947-x

The article mentions several locations including, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and Mexico, where they utilize white sharks for ecotourism. The study goes into debt on how ecotourism affects those sharks and how the specific bait that is used correlates to behavior and other elements. The specifics of the experiment include sightings within 2012 to 2014 with 121 white sharks and thousands of sightings. The location that was used in this study was Guadalupe Island, Mexico.

I think what is really interesting about this article is that it tries to study the sharks change in behavior when led by different bait. Ecotourism can lead to not only changes to the environment but also in the way animals behave if we are not careful. Although the study does not show many results in behavior and there could not be enough evidence to accurately make assumptions about a certain bait, I think that this experiment really captures the essence of harmful behavior as a result of not thinking of the consequences of interacting with natural animals. For the sake of profits, humans alter the food chain and feed certain animals which changes natural survival extinct to dependency on humans. Overall, humans’ effects on animals is very apparent when it comes to ecotourism if in the wrong context.