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Domestic tourism is on the rise. How to make sure that it does not harm the environment, and how a tourist can minimize the negative impact of his trip on unspoiled places
In 2021, in federal reserves, sanctuaries and national parks in our country 10,6 million people visited – this is 10% of the total tourist flow in the country. Officials are paying a lot of attention to ecotourism and expect the numbers to increase in 2022. But along with the numbers, the heaps of rubbish left by irresponsible tourists will also grow.
What is the problem
Reserved natural areas are clogged all over the world. Annually in US national parks 45 tons of household waste is generated. This volume is enough to fill the Statue of Liberty more than 1,8 thousand times. Britain has seen an “unprecedented rise” in fly-camping, when campers leave their tents, equipment and rubbish in the woods after relaxing in the woods and heading home light.
Ministry of Natural Resources of our country reports that in 2020, 100 hectares of unauthorized dumps with garbage weighing more than 300 thousand tons were found in specially protected areas. For comparison, this is the weight of six Titanic ships.
People go for new experiences, exotic landscapes and beautiful photographs to ever more remote regions: from the Arctic to the Far East. But even in hard-to-reach places there are bottles and packages, new paths and wastelands remain from car wheels, and soap stains appear in once clean springs and lakes. Frightened animals leave their usual habitats. This disrupts the already fragile balance of the wild ecosystem.
Perhaps the loudest discussions today are around the ecological situation on Lake Baikal. Every year, the coastal territory of the lake receives over two million tourists. Prosecutors in 2020 I found here violations in 90% of tourism objects. Most of the camp sites and guest houses operate without complying with environmental legislation, and their sewage still flows into the lake. Due to emissions in some areas of Lake Baikal – we recall, the largest storage of fresh water on the continent – you can’t even swim.
In addition, household garbage accumulates daily on the shores of the lake. Participants of one of the most famous ecological projects of Lake Baikal “The Holiday of Purity” for ten years of existence collected 22 thousand bags of waste, and sent 39 tons for recycling. Every month, thousands of volunteers clean up the coastal areas of Lake Baikal, but the flow of garbage does not stop.
By 2023 the Ministry of Natural Resources wants to increase the number of visitors to protected areas (specially protected natural areas) – from 10,6 to 13,2 million people. Officials plan to attract ₽1 billion for the development of ecotourism in natural places. This money is needed for the arrangement of eco-paths, car parks, sanitary places and recreation areas. A well-established infrastructure, taking into account the characteristics of each national park and reserve, can really reduce the harmful impact of tourism on the ecosystem. But the biggest responsibility still rests with the individual traveler who makes the choice to make their holiday green or not.
Ecotourism as a solution
They started talking about ecotourism back in the 1980s, when the Mexican architect Hector Ceballos-Lascurine offered residents of megacities instead of treacherous and consumer outdoor recreation a more gentle and conscious version of tourism. The architect developed a concept in which a person rests without disturbing the balance of nature, and gives up part of the comfort for the sake of preserving the environment.
The idea of the Mexican was supported by both environmental and tourism organizations, and in 1990 it was created International Ecotourism Society (TIES – The International Ecotourism Society). TIES developed the rules and criteria for ecotourism, which formed the basis for the concept of sustainable tourism development in the XNUMXst century. This means that today this type of travel is the most civilized and most preferred.
According to the definition of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, ecotourism is characterized by the following features:
- travel through relatively undisturbed natural areas;
- environmental responsibility;
- the study of nature and the enjoyment of it;
- “soft” impact on the environment;
- active social and economic participation of local residents.
A true eco-volunteer spends a minimum of fuel to move, cleans up after himself, separates the garbage accumulated during the trip, chooses walking or cycling instead of ATV tours. In addition, he supports local businesses that are just as responsible for nature – they do not exploit animals, do not throw waste into water bodies, and keep the place clean.
Zapovedi is an ecotourist
Together with the author telegram channel “Ecologine” by Elizaveta Yusupovskaya, we have compiled several recommendations and rules that will help make outdoor recreation (and any other trip) more environmentally friendly.
The first rule of a tourist is to take everything you own.
Your toothbrush, shampoo, toothpaste, reusable cup, so as not to litter nature with disposable things. 650 New York hotels annually throw away more than 27 million plastic bottles that might not be there if every guest took their own personal care products on a trip. Therefore, in the west, tourist sites are already actively refusing mini-bottles and other disposable devices in the rooms. This choice can be made by the traveler himself, preferring concern for nature to a fleeting whim.
Elizaveta Yusupovskaya:
“I hate the “buy when I arrive” thesis, since any such purchases while traveling, as a rule, are no longer used at home. So any eco-friendly trip should start with packing a suitcase.”
Minimize your footprint
Another basic rule of ecotourism – wherever you go, leave everything as it was before you. Or do better if you find a discarded bottle along the way. No need to pick flowers, go off the trails and trample new ones, chase animals and insects. An ecotourist is always in the position of an observer and treats the place he has entered with the utmost care.
Plan your route in advance and choose transport
This is important both for your own safety and for maintaining the natural balance, which is very easy to disturb. Often, tourists want to get to hard-to-reach places on an SUV. But this can be a fatal mistake for both the ecosystem and the tourists themselves.
Elizaveta Yusupovskaya:
“I remember how a couple of years ago a group of guys went to Vachkazhets – a natural monument in Kamchatka with a mountain range, a forest and Lake Takhkoloch. Tourists traveled by car throughout the reserve and drowned the car in the lake. Now at the entrance to this park there is a shield forbidding entry by car. I think that any such signs and rules should be observed not even out of fear of punishment or a fine, but out of respect for the place.”
Restriction signs signal that the car will not pass through the territory and will harm the local ecosystem. For example, there may be migration paths of animals on the site, or just a lot of animals live here, which die in large numbers under the wheels of tourists.
Choose the most environmentally friendly mode of transport to the region
The greenest form of transport today is the train. It produces only 2% of the total greenhouse gases. If you prefer a plane, then it is better to choose non-stop flights.
Elizaveta Yusupovskaya:
“But here, when it comes to remote regions with wildlife, everything comes down, unfortunately, to the financial issue. It is not always possible to combine both savings and environmental friendliness.”
Travel like an eco-volunteer
Another feature of eco-tourism is to help preserve wildlife. Eco-volunteers pursue the same goal. This type of volunteering allows you to visit the most remote and incredibly beautiful corners of the world, take care of the sustainability and safety of these places, while saving on accommodation and food, which, as a rule, are provided by the organizers.
Elizaveta Yusupovskaya:
“Ecotourism, as a combination of travel and volunteering, is quite developed in our country. For example, a project “Clean Arctic” has existed for several years now, thanks to it, 110 hectares of Arctic territories have already been cleared of garbage that has been accumulating since the 80-90s.
As part of volunteer programs, children do not always ride around the sights, but one way or another they join nature. Such raids definitely go to Baikal, to the Kuril Islands, to Kamchatka – this applies not only to cleaning up territories, but also to helping in nature reserves. In Kamchatka, volunteers are definitely delivered to hard-to-reach places. It will be very expensive for an ordinary tourist to get there, you have to pay ₽50-60 thousand for a helicopter flight, but this can be done free of charge for volunteer work.”
Ecotourism is, first of all, about conscious contemplation, harmony with oneself and the environment. Only a caring attitude to wildlife will help preserve it in its original form.