Ecotourism Certificate students Reflections Log

The following is a record of students comments while in their work placements. They have studied the Certificate in Ecotourism at Tai Poutini Polytechnic in 2007 and are reflecting on the reality of the workplace they are in an how their training is being applied.

Radio NZ interview on Conference

Brian Mckenzie was interviewed on Radion NZ after the Ecotourism Conference 2007 and below is the link to the podcast

http://www.radionz.co.nz/__data/assets/audio_item/0005/1050944/mnr-20070803-0852-Eco_Tourism-wmbr.asx

EcotourismNZ Conference 2007

EcotourismNZ has just held a conference on the West Coast, Shantytown to be exact and it was a great success.

We at EcotourismNZ would love to get some feedback and discussion following some of the workshops to continue dialogue on the many issues arising in this new and exciting industry.

There is not  a clear definition of Ecotourism throughout the industry but at Tai Poutini we have devised what we think is a good start, this has 5 points

1 - The activity has a light footprint on the environment

2 - The local community benefits from this tourism activity

3 - Has an educational dimension

4 - Activities Include considering the local culture

5 - Involves interaction with the natural and heritage environment

What do people think of these as a start, we are interested in any more suggestions and ideas.

Don't forget the Blog session we are running with Ron Mader and Planeta.com in September.

Ecotourism in my back yard.

Students from our first year Outdoor Recreation course use a rather nasty hill situated at the back of  Tai Poutini Polytechnic. While an arduous test of strength  staggering up 2ks of 1 in 3 gradient the environment gives the student an excellent opportunity to view the regenerating bush. The Massive grove of Mamaku (Cyathea medullaris) which is by and large sheltered from the nasty cold southerly.  In spring this walk is particularly spectacular with a large amount of the native Clematis indivisa

The views to Pt Elizabeth and down on to the town of Greymouth are also worth mentioning and I know the students appreciate these on the down hill.

I

Geoff Button Talks Ecotourism

Ecotourism, what is this word that is popping up all over the world as we try to stop the ever accelerating degradation of our natural environment? That is not such an easy question to answer, many definitions have been given and they are nearly all correct in their own way. One that springs to mind as not being an apt definition was the bus labelled Ecotour leaving Sydney Airport which visited a couple of theme parks, when the driver of the bus was asked how it was an Ecotour, his response was that it was  an economy tour of the theme parks in the Sydney area.

In short, as we see it at EcotourismNZ, an Ecotourism Operation would be striving to

• improve the experience of the tourist by having smaller sized groups, include an interpretive dimension to bring the site to life, in short, the stories of the land need to be told 
• the negative impact on the environment is minimised and hopefully we can involve tourists in the rejuvenation of the site they are visiting.
• ensure the benefits of having tourists visiting an area is beneficial to the local community through employment and profits going back to improve local services. A great example of this is in Costa Rica (http://www.american.edu/ted/costtour.htm)
• Have some engagement with the natural or heritage environment whether it is walking along a forest track, paddling a kayak along a pristine West Coast river or visiting an old settler’s cottage and imagining how life was for them.

We have all these stipulations as to how to behave as Ecotourism operators and this can be a bit daunting, examples of this may be the lack of recycling available on the West Coast, does this mean that all operators on the West Coast are not true Ecotourism operations, maybe, but do we need to be so purist in the early stages of the industry? We need to welcome tourist operators aspiring to be Eco sensitive and network together to find ways of minimizing our negative impact and not bash those that don’t quite make the grade first up.

The Government agency that is charged with administering many of the sites we visit with our clients is of course the Department of Conservation (http://www.doc.govt.nz/). They need to have a long term view of the DOC estate and this can put them at odds with many operators who are turned down for an application that appears to be sound. Some say that DOC have some people who are a bit vehement and anti-business and in few cases this may be true, but a majority of the time they are just following their brief from the government who also have a responsibility to future generations.

The more we work with the DOC, the stronger that relationship becomes and we need to forgive them if we don’t agree with all their decisions as they are not about to go away.