posted by Catherine on Jan 17
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Many travel writers now agree on what should be your benchmarks for selecting an ‘eco’ holiday and I have selected some of the easier to achieve targets and briefly discuss them below.
Eco-Holidays are not just about the environment anymore, they involve the whole community: all ages, all communities and all encompassing.
Gone are the days when you were praised for not washing your towels every day or seen as eccentric for volunteering abroad, these trips are becoming more and more popular - and people want to make sure that they are doing their best to support the places that they visit.
After all - we only visit the places we think are worth visiting - so why destroy them?
Listed below are 4 key areas that your eco holidays should score well on, and below there is advice relating to each one that you can easily achieve without too much effort on your part.
A) It should be fair.
This means that you are not just going somewhere for your own gains regardless of anything else, and your choice of accommodation of transport aren’t damaging either. You and your hosts are aware of their impact on that environment and you have taken this into account.
B) It should be community-centred.
By thinking about your impact on the communities in your destination, you are considering how your actions could affect their lives and or their future. Make sure that your hosts are thinking along the same lines.
C) It should be sustainable.
Ideally, your hotel/host/tour company should not be depleting or degrading their environment to the extent that future generations cannot enjoy it as you did yourself, or by destroying it completely.
D) Decisions should be ecologically sensible.
Your resort/hotel/host/tourguides decisions should offer the most logical choice for the destinations ecology. For example, offering a shower instead of a bath or offering travel by horse instead of 4-wheel drive!
Here are some simple steps to help you achieve these goals when travelling.
A) Take your vacation in your own country.
If you stay at home you are reducing your impact on the entire planet by not adding carbon emmissions to the already toxic skies or seas. You are also not likely to affect any communities other than the 1st world destination you live in, and that is better able to deal with your ecological demands and the waste that you generate.
B) Try to find different, less popular destinations.
By offering other destinations your tourist dollar, you are helping smaller communities to prosper. Many local people cannot get a store or hostel in the busiest locations as the rents are too high or they are dominated by foreign companies (like Cancun). By staying in these towns you can make a real difference to local communities and people’s lives.
C) Avoid travelling in sensitive areas without a guide.
If you wander into a nature reserve alone, for a start you may not see hardly any wildlife at all, but more worryingly, you will not necessarily know the correct paths and walkways. You may think it’s ‘ok’ to take that short cut through the trees, or to wade across that shallow pool - but you could be damaging the very environment you came to see. What if you make a ‘noticable path’ where you shouldn’t have and more people mistakenly follow it? Within months damage may be noticable and habitats destroyed.
D) Check that the food you eat is locally produced.
If you feast on US brand named food the whole time you are travelling - what are you offering to local farmers? By buying locally grown produce and locally made products you are feeding that money straight back in to the destinations economy. And who needs Hersheys chocolate bars anyway when there is so much tropical food to chose from?
Obviously these are only a few of the tips that you can take to make sure that you find yourself the most suitable eco holidays. And, there are many other things to consider when choosing your vacation, but this just covers a few basics for you.
