Ecotourism, sometimes criticised as the voyeuristic indulgence of rich first-worlders, really does benefit the environment and the people who live in protected areas. A review of four marine conservation initiatives shows that they have helped reduce poverty and created tourism-based jobs, says Craig Leisher of Nature Conservancy, an environmental group in Arlington, Virginia.
The report, Nature鈥檚 Investment Bank, co-authored by Leisher and published on 29 November, is based on interviews with more than 1000 people in four recently protected marine zones in Fiji, Indonesia, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands. In every case, the conservation schemes had boosted fish catches and helped create new jobs.
鈥淚n some sites, the scale of improvement was dramatic,鈥� says Leisher. 鈥淚n Fiji, for example, local incomes doubled over five years following introduction of a protected fishery.鈥� In Indonesia鈥檚 Bunaken National Marine Park, meanwhile, ecotourism schemes created many new jobs in restaurants and hotels and as diving guides.
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鈥淚n Fiji, local incomes doubled over five years following the creation of a protected fishery鈥�
The common factors in each case were the heavy involvement of the local community in the creation of the protection zone, the legal designation of 鈥渘o catch鈥� zones where fish could breed, and the policing of these zones by government agencies. In all four cases, action was taken after a collapse in fish populations through overfishing by outsiders.
鈥淭here was some anecdotal evidence before, but now we have convincing evidence and the reasons why it works,鈥� Leisher says. 鈥淏efore the introduction of the marine protected areas, the locals had neither the capacity nor the authority to tell outsiders to go away.鈥� Once known breeding grounds were protected, fish populations grew rapidly and spilled over into zones fished by locals, enabling them to net bumper catches.
