Benefits of sustainable ecotourism in Thailand
Eco tourism is the conscious and deliberate effort of both
tour operator and their guests to minimize the adverse impacts
of traveling to or in natural areas.
Every effort must be made to lessen damage or alterations to
the indigenous ecosystems and cultures.
All tour activities have some impact on the environment and
the culture where they operate. Eco tourism programs should
provide benefits to local community, but they should mainly
focus on the environment. In doing so, the community will
yield returns as a result of the sustainability of such tours.
Traditionally, tangential businesses benefit from tours to
any given area. Transportation and food services are two
examples. Both of these however, are usually the direct
opposites of eco tourism. Transportation services historically
are run on fossil fuels. However, the impact can be minimized
by strict emission standards. This is less likely to happen in
less developed countries.
Food services can lessen their impact by using biodegradable
containers. Unfortunately, Styrofoam is much cheaper that
their biodegradable counterpart. It is often up to the
consumer to make their statement before changes can happen.
Sadly, the most effective and easiest way to make changes is
to hit the perpetrators in the wallet by not buying the
vendor’s products. Alternatively, and a much more
compassionate approach is to give monetary incentives to
promote sustainable conservation efforts.
Conservation progress stresses the need for broadly
distributed local benefits as incentives for conservation.
Without this, the local community may continue to support
activities that produce unsustainable activities.
Principles of the definition
Beware of the mass tourism operators speaking the language of
sustainable eco tourism. Some of them have even received
international awards for their ability to fill out
applications with flowery verse.
Moo, my wife, does some guiding as well. Her main task is to
interface with all the boatmen, bungalow owners, and anyone
else we come in contact with. Her method for getting things
done and for getting things changed is to make friends
first... then wiggle her way into getting what is needed.
This works for food and rooms, but more importantly for
getting trash picked up and other environmentally damaging
items corrected. She is invaluable.
So, we satisfy the criteria for having 'locals' employed.
They run trips without me many times. I go on certain trips,
but not all of them. I trust the guides skills and judgment
implicitly. They are all very safety conscious.
Paddle Asia is a small company with a family atmosphere. I am
the only foreigner in the company.
Benefits
Real eco tour operators are concerned and do everything in
their power to make sure that their tours don’t have a
negative impact on the environment and the local culture.
Being life-long naturalists and animal lovers, Paddle Asia’s
foundation is built on the principle of putting nature first.
It is true that one could argue that just visiting natural
areas, to some degree has a negative impact. This can’t be
denied. However, by showing our guests the wonders and beauty
of these destinations, we are generating awareness. This
awareness will hopefully, in turn, spawn a desire among our
guest to help preserve these few remaining natural wonders.
We run a lot of school trips, especially international school
groups. In fact, International
School Programs are a huge part of our business. We
combine community service projects with our school group
programs. Kids are the future. International school students
are the most likely to be the movers and the shakers of
tomorrow. They need to experience something other than
shopping malls. They need to know that there is more to life
than material gain. We have changed the lives of many
youngsters. This is what Paddle Asia is all about.
Environmental
Education and Interpretation
Our guests return home having learned something about the
extraordinary environments where we run our tours. They gained
knowledge of the culture. We strive to provide information
that is clear and relevant.
Personal development and involvement
A true eco tourism operator puts most of the money generated
from the business back into the community. Ultimately,
sustainability means a lifestyle that is in balance, a
lifestyle that can easily be maintained in the future.
Community Service Involvement
Paddle Asia reinvests large amounts of money back into the
communities where we operate, such as Ko Yao Noi. We also
offer unique opportunities for young people such as our Environmental
Awareness Poster Contest. We worked with the Phuket
Educational Department in order to bring student
representatives from all of the schools in Phuket. We were
ecstatic about the outcome.
Paddle Asia has always been focused on building a strong
affiliation with the local community. We have succeeded.
We certainly don’t think that we have done all that we can do
to further ourselves as one of Southern Thailand’s leading eco
tour operators.
If you would like to give us some input as to what you feel
is important for a genuine eco tour operator, we would love to
hear from you.
