The East African IYE regional conference was held from March 20-22, 2002 in Nairobi, Kenya.

April 2002 Press Release

Coming Soon:
A report on the proceedings of the EA IYE Conference

The Responsible Business Opportunity

Introduction to Ecotourism: by Dr David Western
The origins of ecotourism are not a revolutionary sector of the industry, in fact, it is evolutionary. Our early ancestors were ecological travellers, migrating from one land to another, living with nature out of necessity; eventually Man evolved into what he is today, primarily a sedentary and social being. The industrial revolution, however, allowed for the emergence of the modern traveller, making space for the eventual build up of mass tourism. Mobility allowed travellers to flock to the first National Parks, created in the 1920's in North America, the resultant enthusiasm, of which encouraged the eventual development of nature tourism, in South America in the 1980's. In East Africa, ecotourism originated as wildlife tourism in the 1970's.

A local effort began to balance wildlife and community through tourism. A system of parks was created that while allowing for the development and support of community through tourism, would maintain wildlife migrations and diversity. The local communities would, thus, be the beneficiaries and custodians of the parks, the visitors being the tourists. Eventually it was sensed that tourism could be diversified to not only include wildlife, but ecosystems, environment and culture.

Ecotourism has reached a number of milestones. As a result, there has been a worldwide growing sensibility to animals, the environment, third world poverty, local peoples, traditional culture, and a trend toward designing with nature and culture. Tour operators market the ecotourism logo, increasing awareness to travellers creating a "do good, feel good leave no trace" motto. Organisations such as The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) and other NGOs have been building agendas and creating awareness, and local and regional ecotourism societies are emerging. Governments are following the lead of these private initiatives and are promoting policies and regulations, which will create ratings and standards.

Recently, the Government of Kenya has been awarded US$38million toward a tourism and wildlife project in which community participation is a must. More and more, we see that as a result of this rapidly growing market, themes have been diversified and new, ecologically designed circuit routes are being developed.

As ecotourism grows and gains in popularity and success, there are a number of challenges that will have to be faced. The problem of the definition of ecotourism must be resolved. Global standards reached ensuring the success of all stakeholders set into motion. How to control the number of visitors to an area without disturbing the ecosystem, the wildlife and the economic development of communities involved; setting up mutual gains for all interested; raising the standards in each sector through interpretation; education and visitor ratings; working bottom-up to define standards, codes and ratings. These are all factors that when resolved have the potential of keeping East Africa, the world's ultimate ecotourist destination.

COMING IN JULY: The entire conference proceedings in .pdf format

Click here to download a .pdf of the summary of the East African International Year of Ecotourism regional conference.

For further information, contact:
Anne Loehr
Eco-resorts
Tel: 254-122-32161
Fax: 1-801-991-7410
Email: anne@eco-resorts.com
www.eco-resorts.com

or

African Conservation Centre: shiru@acc.or.ke
www.conservationafrica.org