The Impacts of Ecotourism or Nature Tourism Activities upon the Elephant Species

Document Type:Thesis

Subject Area:Tourism

Document 1

It is no doubt that the socioeconomic variables have a decisive bearing on the effects of ecotourism. Ecotourism has a significant impact on the environment as it helps in realizing its conservation and at the same time ensuring that there is social development. The same has a role in the increment of the entrepreneurship and employment at the local level. While the task addresses environmental concerns with regards to the conservation of the ecosystem, it focuses on the specifics of ecotourism on the protection of the elephant species. Evidently, elephants are the giant mammals on land, and the African elephant is known to the most extensive weighing tons to the tunes of eight. Ashley, C. , & Roe, D.  Enhancing community involvement in wildlife tourism: issues and challenges (Vol.

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IIED. The paper considers ways and means of enhancing the participation of the local populations in wildlife tourism. The publication opines that for there to be any meaningful benefit generation for purposes of environmental conservation, there need to be specific conditions, and these conditions have to be met. The publication also holds that the site must in all circumstances, be competitive regarding tourism. The publication also notes that the wildlife conservation sites must have managers who are up to the task and must have the capacity of implementing the sustainable policies of tourism. It maintains that ecotourism must at all times, ensure that it collects revenues and that these revenues be in a position of supporting and servicing the park and providing that planning and management is done in a professional manner and in a conservatory manner where they have the mindset of ensuring that the wild is well taken care of to avoid extinction.

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The publication also notes that the rural areas that are known for their ecotourism destinations fail in most cases, to capture and tap sufficient levels of expenditures from tourism. These developments are seen to provide environmental impacts that are associated with the accommodation, travel, as well as recreational activities within the industry. The publication notes that the typical impacts of ecotourism in the Australian parks as well as in the reserves include such factors as soil erosion, as well as compaction, the damage to vegetation, water pollution, disturbance to wildlife, vandalism, noise, and an increased frequency of forest fires. The minimization of the degradation of the environment that is associated with recreation and tourism may call for the need to have appropriate land zoning, surveillance and regulation of activities and access, the direct protection of the secluded areas of the park, and education of managers both on the park and elsewhere on the importance of guarding the environment and the wild.

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The publication also recommends that there is need to have incentives that would encourage recreation types of the low impact such as having the wilderness travel activities and the naturalists, thereby discouraging the high impact kinds like motorized social and building activities. Lorimer, J. Owen-Smith, N. G. I. H. , Kerley, G. The publication summarizes the ecological principles as well as the management responses indicated in the task, to counter the misconceptions that have played out in the popular media. Above all, it emphasizes the need to have the wild conserved. Tipprasert, P. Elephants and ecotourism in Thailand. In Giants on our hands: Proceedings of the International Workshop on the domesticated Asian elephant (pp. Monitoring the Elephants Ensuring that the elephants survive on a long-term is not a matter of having protected conservation areas and guaranteeing these conservations are not ecologically sustainable.

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The elephant’s populations should co-exist harmoniously with individuals living in adjacent communities. Iconic organizations such as the worldwide life (WWF) are assisting the local communities to establish new protected areas or primarily the conservation zones, and also enhancing management effectiveness within the existing protected areas. Government agencies in collaboration with tourism entities such as the WWF provide the local community with civic education on how best to minimize on human-elephant conflict (Brandon, 1996). The communities are given extension services to protect their crops through elephant monitoring. For instance, similar initiatives were undertaken in Mount Kenya forest, May forest complex, and Aberdare forest, and as a result, the elephant population has significantly improved (Tipprasert, 2002). In Africa, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) has partnered with the government, Non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), and local bodies to enhance their anti-poaching initiatives which are expected to give direct support to rangers and local communities within specific conservation areas.

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Such commitments are scheduled to minimize on the illegal poaching activities that spur ivory trade. The initiative is supposed to protect elephant species cost-effectively through the best combination of tools and approaches. The initiative focuses on the number of trained rangers, park guards, and other qualified personnel (Tipprasert, 2002). The more the elephant the animal spends moving away from human beings and motor vehicles, the less time the animal has to spend doing its typical behaviors such as feeding, socializing, or resting (Lorimer, 2010). For instance, the African elephants are known to be the most enormous consuming around 300 pounds of vegetation and drinking more than 50 gallons of water in a day. Elephants are social creatures co-existing in vast herds, and their interaction with peers plays a dramatic role in the animal’s development and mental situation.

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However, reactions from human population tend to limit the time taken to commit towards these crucial behaviors, and as a result, their health is negatively impacted (Lorimer, 2010). When it comes to eco-tourism development for elephants several factors should be considered. Conclusion One of the main threats faced by elephants is habitat loss precipitated by burgeoning human population growth that increases demand for agricultural land use. During the 60’s most of the rural lands wild and sparsely populated, however, with an increase in human population coupled with periodic insurgencies, the movement of wild animals has been curtailed, since villages and communities are developing closer to national parks and different wildlife migration corridors. As a result, wildlife and human have found themselves to be in direct conflict.

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