Ecotourism: good or bad? ⏲️ 6 Minute English

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from  BBC Learning English. I’m Neil.  

And I’m Beth. Nowadays, the word ‘safari’ is often  used negatively. For many people, the idea of  

killing animals for sport is unacceptable. As the popularity of hunting declines,  

safaris are swapping their guns for cameras,  offering tourists the chance to photograph  

wild animals in their natural habitat. In  recent years, nature and wildlife tourism,  

also called ecotourism, has grown massively. But the story is complex. While money from  

ecotourism is supposed to support threatened  wildlife and traditional local cultures,  

the reality is sometimes different.  In this programme, we’ll be asking:  

is ecotourism good or bad? And, as usual, we’ll  be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.  

But first I have a question for you, Beth. Most  tourists on safari are looking for ‘the big five’,  

the name given to Africa's  most iconic large animals.  

But which animals are ‘the big five’? Is it: a) the lion, leopard, giraffe, baboon and buffalo  

b) the lion, leopard, tiger,  elephant and buffalo or  

c) the lion, leopard, rhinoceros,  elephant and buffalo?  

I guess it’s a) the lion, leopard,  giraffe, baboon and buffalo.  

I’ll reveal the answer at the end of the  programme. The balance between the good and bad  

things ecotourism can bring is well understood  by Vicky Smith, whose website, Earth Changes,  

matches ecotourists with environmentally-friendly  travel companies. Here is Vicky talking with BBC  

Radio 4 programme, Costing the Earth. Just because tourism is nature-based, it  

doesn't mean to say it's necessarily responsible  or sustainable. So, there's a lot of animal  

activities in tourism that we know which are,  you know, highly irresponsible and unsustainable,  

like a performing whale and dolphin shows,  or swimming with dolphins, elephant-riding,  

tiger selfies where the tigers are drugged. Genuine ecotourism is sustainable – designed to  

continue at a steady level which does not damage  the environment. Not every travel company which  

calls themselves eco-friendly acts sustainably,  and may still advertise irresponsible tourist  

activities, including tiger selfies – having  your photo taken with a captive wild tiger.  

There are two requirements travel companies should  meet to qualify as genuine ecotourism. First,  

tourists’ main motivation should be to appreciate  and observe the natural world without interfering,  

and second, the money they spend should  support traditional communities. Clearly,  

having your photograph taken with a chained and  drugged tiger does not meet these requirements.  

But not all companies claiming to be  ecotourism behave so irresponsibly.  

According to Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent, who runs  small scale wildlife expeditions to some of the  

most remote places on Earth, it’s possible to  put travel companies on a sliding scale from good  

to bad. On BBC Radio 4’s programme, Costing the  Earth, Antonia discussed her work in Tajikistan,  

a country where ecotourism is making a positive  impact on both animal and human communities.  

At the other end of the scale is Tajikistan,  where I work a lot, which gets less than two dozen  

wildlife tourists a year, and the money these  visitors bring is essential to the conservation  

work that grassroots NGOs are doing. So those few  tourists… their money goes a very long way and the  

animals people are looking at… snow leopards,  rare mountain ungulates like Bukharan markhor,  

they are being observed from a distance, their  behaviour is not being affected in any way, and  

the local communities are genuinely benefiting. Antonia uses the phrase at the other end of the  

scale as a way of contrasting irresponsible  tourist companies with what’s happening in  

Tajikistan. There, animals including  snow leopards and mountain ungulates,  

are being protected by ecotourist projects  run by non-governmental organisations,  

or NGOs - organisations trying to achieve  environmental or social aims outside of government  

control. These NGOs are grassroots organisations  meaning that they are run from the bottom up,  

by ordinary people rather than leaders. Despite getting very few ecotourists a year, the  

money they spend in Tajikistan goes a long way,  in other words, the money is an important factor  

in achieving their goals, which in Tajikistan at  least, means protecting rare wild animals. OK,  

it’s time to reveal the answer to my question. You asked me about ‘the big five’, the name for  

Africa’s iconic safari animals.  I guessed they were: the lion,  

leopard, giraffe, baboon and buffalo. You guessed right about the lion, leopard,  

and buffalo, but the others were the rhinoceros  and the elephant. OK, let’s recap the vocabulary  

we’ve learned from this programme about ecotourism  – travel to places of natural beauty where the  

tourists’ motivation is to appreciate  nature and support the local culture.  

The adjective sustainable describes actions  designed to continue at a steady level so  

as not to damage the environment. A tiger selfie means having your photo  

taken with a captive wild tiger,  not something to be advised!  

The phrase at the other end  of the scale is similar in  

meaning to the phrase, ‘by contrast’. A grassroots NGO is a non-governmental  

organisation which tries to achieve  its aims through the actions of local  

ordinary people rather than leaders. And finally, if something goes a long way  

towards a certain goal, it’s an important  factor in achieving that goal. Once again,  

our six minutes are up. Goodbye for now! Bye!