What is eco-tourism and why are we so obsessed about it?

You probably know you should choose a company that claims to be an eco-tourist company when you’re travelling.

Afterall, eco-tourism seems to be the latest buzz word when it comes to marketing tours.

You probably also know that you should tread lightly on the earth and be respectful of all the world’s creatures, especially when you travel, but do you know what eco-tourism actually means?

At RAW Africa Eco-Tours wildlife is very close to our hearts. It’s why we exist. Our founder and director, Brooke Squires was a wildlife specialist (a rhino expert to be specific) before setting up RAW, a company that doesn’t just want you to see the world, we want you to make small changes to the way you travel – and encourage others to do the same – so that you can reduce your impact on wildlife and local communities.

So you could say that we are obsessed with eco-tourism.

If you look up eco-tourism in Google you’ll find thousands upon thousands of suggestions and explanations. That’s a lot of information to wade through.

Eco-tourism is probably best described as travelling lightly through natural environments. It’s the ‘take only pictures, leave only footprints’ approach to travel.

But let’s break that down even further.

Every day more and more people travel the world. Who doesn’t want to see a lion in the wild? Or walk with mountain gorillas. But when too many people travel, particularly if they leave rubbish behind, encroach on the land formerly frequented by wildlife or even inadvertently let poachers know where wildlife is by enabling geotagging on their phones, they’re no longer ‘treading lightly’ or ‘leaving no trace’.

By encouraging your driver on a tour to get closer to a wild animal than the animal is comfortable with, you could be encroaching on its space or forcing it to walk a path it wouldn’t normally take. You could be increasing its stress levels or getting between the animal and its pack or family.

Good tour leaders or safari drivers will understand wildlife behaviour. They will ensure the welfare of the animal or wellbeing of the community is always a priority.

Eco-Tourism is about working alongside communities to ensure their way of life is protected and the environment they live in remains sustainable.

At its best, there should be an educational component to eco-tourism, so that as you travel you learn to better understand the impact even small actions can have on communities and wildlife. Things like saying ‘no’ to plastic straws will have a minimal impact on you but will reduce the number of straws ending up in waterways and ultimately threatening ocean wildlife. As someone once said “one straw never hurt anyone – said 8.5 billion people”.

Ecotourism isn’t just about the impact on wildlife though, it can also be about where you stay or the villages you visit. Staying at places that are locally owned and operated helps to keep local people employed and helps ensure tourism dollars stay in the country or region you’re travelling to.

And buying locally and ethically made products when on the road can help to give local communities different streams of income to ensure their future livelihoods and prospects.

Ms Squires says eco-tourism or travelling with minimal impact is becoming more important as pressure on our wildlife and wild places increases.

“Imagine going to Kenya (or any of the amazing countries across Africa) and knowing when you left that you left the wilderness a better place than when you arrived, that’s ecotourism.”

But she says remembering to do all the right things to travel sustainably can be overwhelming.

“Most travellers want to do the right thing, but often they don’t know where to begin,” she says.

“That’s ok, at RAW we’ve got you covered. We make it easy to be a true eco warrior.

“What makes me happy when I travel with our guests is when I see people using locally made bags for shopping or asking for drinks without the straws. That’s awesome and it can honestly be that simple to support wildlife and communities on your African journey.”

Travel should be fun, it should open you up to new experiences, it should make you go ‘wow’ but it shouldn’t impinge on local communities or the natural environment.

Learn more about how RAW Africa Eco-Tours makes a difference every time we travel here.