When ecotourism kills

Three years ago, a humpback whale surfaced under the keel of a ship off the coast of Massachusetts, gashing its dorsal fin.

That whale was fortunate compared with the minke whale struck and killed near Barnstable, Mass., in 1998. Both accidents were caused by whale-watching ships loaded with people eager to see the behemoths.

From watching whales in New England to tracking polar bears on the tundra to swimming with dolphins in the Pacific, well-meaning tourists are putting increasing pressure on animals worldwide, new studies show. The problem isn't limited to hordes of people degrading the environment. In some cases, ecotourism unwittingly appears to be killing the wildlife it seeks to protect.

"You can find more than a few instances in which people are just loving these animals to death," says Martha Honey, executive director of The International Ecotourism Society in Washington. (TIES). "Ecotourism is growing fastest in developing countries with the weakest regulations but some of the most stunning environments. We need stronger standards."

That doesn't mean that all - or even most - ecotourism is bad. So far, it has done more good than harm, many experts agree. But there are growing signs that some outfits can easily morph into something that is more about profit margins than penguins. That's when the trouble often begins.

In 2002, local activists in Gabon were patrolling a remote beach to protect sea turtles laying their eggs in the middle of the night. That night several groups of tourists came roaring onto the beach in all-terrain- vehicles to view the scene.

"They were running over the nests and then rushing on foot right up to these turtles," recalls Erin Heskett, with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). "These were [nature visitors brought in by] foreign companies and investors that had come in and set up shop. It was completely irresponsible. They didn't care about the animals."

With more than 60 "green certification" programs worldwide, the World Tourism Organization and the International Ecotourism Society this February announced a new program to harmonize standards.

Such tourism generates so much cash - money badly needed by preservation groups - that even good companies face a dilemma.

"It's a very difficult balance to try to help a community maintain its cultural integrity without destroying the goose that laid the golden egg," says Carole Carlson, senior science adviser at the IFAW, which promotes ecotourism worldwide as a mechanism for preserving wild species.

Together, nature tourism (primarily profit-driven) and ecotourism (geared specifically to helping nature) make up about 20 percent of international tourist travel and is growing 10 to 30 percent a year, much faster than other travel, TIES reports. The direct economic impact of nature travel, including ecotourism, runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars, the World Trade Organization estimates.

Despite such growth, ecotourism has worked well in many cases. Each year, for instance, the Galápagos Islands, off the coast of Chile, receive tens of thousands of human visitors yet have managed to preserve animals and habitat with little damage. And tourism dollars pay to maintain good conditions, experts note.

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