Health Patio

Leave No Trace

A new name and wrapping for an old idea, ecotourism is a spreading buzz word. The idea is to travel without negatively impacting the visited site. Indeed, many ecotourists attempt to help revitalize the area by buying from local business, helping the locals to improve their communities, and by practicing ecofriendly hiking and camping. While many nature-hungry tourists have made their way into tropical forests, coral reefs, and the Sahara with the ‘leave no trace’ attitude in mind previous to the ecotourism movement, the term has provided new parameters and less research for interested parties. Here are a couple of resources for ecotourists:

Nature Tours
Environmental Adventure Company
Pachijal Reserva Ecologica
Big Blue Unlimited

Remember, you don’t have to spend thousands to go on an ecofriendly trip. If you’re planning your own wilderness expedition, here are some guidelines adapted from Zack Chouteau’s How to Have an Eco-Friendly Vacation from ehow.com:

1. Transportation: Consider taking shared transportation with a group and/or going by mass transit such as trains and buses. Avoid stopovers in airplanes as the most harmful carbon emissions are given off on take-offs and landings.
2. Leave no trace: Don’t leave a ‘footprint’ of your visit. This means cleaning up any debris from your camp, never littering.
3. Animal husbandry: Be unobtrusive when bird-watching, do not feeding wild animals, and stick to any laws and limitations regarding hunting and fishing.
4. Erosion: Stick to pre-existing paths whenever possible rather than taking shortcuts through wild forest or vegetation.
5. Volunteer: Tie in a volunteer effort with your vacation–or build your whole trip around such an endeavor.
6. Water conservation: When abroad, cut back on water use if possible. Drinkable H20 is in far smaller supply in many countries outside the U.S., and tourists always tend to consume more of it than locals.
7. Shopping: If you’re souvenir shopping, avoid anything possibly made from an endangered species such as carved ivory or animal skins. Purchase local produce as opposed to imported items when snacking.

Tags: ecotourism, hiking, leave no trace, tourism