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Those interested in wildlife conservation or in helping local communities now increasingly have the chance to join conservation expeditions and make a difference on their holidays. Patricia Ash, Founder of www.greenstop.net reports
Mass travel is here to stay. Cheap package holidays will not disappear but people are beginning to look for new ways to use their free time in a satisfying and fulfilling, as well as enjoyable, manner. The English Tourist Board believes that when people travel in the future it will be over further distances and for longer periods of time. With people travelling greater and greater distances, they will expect unique experiences at the other end - and they will have the environment very much at the forefront of their minds when they do.
Many smaller and independent travel companies have been proactive in developing just the holiday for this market: a holiday that combines visiting natural and unspoilt areas of the planet with a positive contribution to the environment.
Some companies lead the way by running worldwide wildlife conservation expeditions. Their 'trips' are neither tours, photographic safaris nor excursions. They are genuine expeditions with real biological conservation content and thus come with a 'feel-good' factor for participants. People travelling with such an organisation can be secure in the knowledge that they will not only have an exciting adventure, but will also be productive in contributing to the conservation of part of our global natural heritage. These companies offer adventure, remote locations, different cultures and peoples, but also the knowledge that those who get involved will have played an active part in conserving part of our planet's biosphere.
The term 'expedition', much used and abused by the tourism industry today, has a whiff of adventure, far-flung continents, discovery, research and perhaps even a bit of danger. Until recently expeditions were the domain of scientists and professional explorers, but with an increase in leisure time and interest in conservation issues, conservationists increasingly draw on volunteers as helping hands.
Biosphere Expeditions is one of a number of organisations that enables ordinary people without prior training (biological or otherwise) to take part in such a conservation expedition. In short, conservation work for those who want to do something active and direct for our planet's wildlife. But it's not just the sheer workforce volunteers can provide that makes the difference. The expedition can be large, because conservation research has discovered volunteers. Each volunteer pays an expedition contribution, which finances the project. In this way, the expensive DNA testing essential to the research projects, as well as the logistics of an expedition, can be funded. In addition, continuing conservation work is possible when the volunteers are not there (almost all projects are on-going and year-round with volunteers joining in when their help is most needed). Here is an extract from a Biosphere report on their work in Peru:
We study monkeys, frogs and macaws to monitor human impact on the ecosystem. Our expedition team is at base camp, a congregation of small bamboo huts with a waterfall as our luxury power shower, waiting for nightfall. Tonight we will concentrate on frogs, because they are good indicator species for the overall state of an ecosystem. For a few years now their numbers have dwindled and no one really knows why. More data are needed and so we collect specimens, weigh, measure and identify them, and let them hop away again. We count monkeys in the trees and macaws at their clay licks where they congregate in their hundreds.
In Africa companies are also combining tourism with important conservation projects. The Eselenkei Conservation Area is the result of one such project where the company , Porini Ecotourism enters into lease agreements with landowners in order to establish a "Conservation Area" on their land and then develops the infrastructure (access roads, network of game-viewing tracks, culverts, waterholes, campsites, tourist facilities etc) to enable Ecotourism activities to be operated. The community is thus assisted in utilising the land and wildlife as a resource and receives economic benefits (such as income and employment opportunities) as a result of conserving wildlife and the natural habitat.
As a result of the establishment of the Conservation Area, the local community has already seen some benefits arising as they have been receiving a quarterly rental since May 1997 in addition to employment opportunities and assistance towards community projects. This has caused a change in attitude on the part of the community towards the concept of wildlife conservation. There is no longer any snaring or spearing of wild animals on the Group Ranch land and the community are enthusiastic about encouraging wildlife to move into their Conservation Area. For the first time in very many years, elephants are returning in considerable numbers to in Eselenkei.
The Gallman Memorial Foundation has a wide range of options for the conservation minded tourist as well as for the conservation professionals. The Centre/Field Station is a unique refuge situated on Ol ari Nyiro, (place of dark waters in Maasai), a 100,000 acre private wildlife reserve and nature conservancy that overlooks the spectacular Great Rift Valley on the extreme west of Kenya's Laikipia region. You can choose from Entomology, Ornithology, Ethno-botany, Organic Farming& Re-forestation, essential oils, ecology and archaeology and enjoy the wildlife and wonderful setting at the same time.
Throughout the world travel companies and organisations are re-thinking their raison d’etre and are including social responsibility policies into their business plans. Even if the companies offer strictly leisure only holidays or are in the business of selling holiday essentials, some now make a small donation from the booking fees received to local projects. Others, however, have gone even further and have planned trips around such projects and they make a considerable donation to the project from the income received.
Make a Difference Adventures
claim to "transcend the boundaries of the traditional adventure travel market" and "to combine our high level of expertise to create interactive, fun, responsible yet affordable itineraries for the adventurous traveller". The company also donates a percentage (between 10% and 20%) of trip costs to the project associated with that particular trip. Travellers can choose from Africa, China, India and Thailand and customer reaction is resoundingly positive:
"We cannot thank you enough for introducing us to this incredible country, for helping us to appreciate and to wonder at its astonishing history and culture. Your knowledge and insight, conveyed with humour has made a difference and added such value. We came to India, but we thank you for bringing India to us".
It would seem that the smaller independent travel companies are listening to the demands of the discerning traveller seeking a worthwhile future for tourism. For once, let’s hope the masses will abandon the cheaper package alternatives and follow suit or at least consider more seriously the issues being raised. Wildlife and those communities that are being pushed out by tourism will surely thank them.
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