RE: Do wildlife tourism actually make people want to conserve nature? A new study suggest that it does!
With my background in economics, I am firmly in the camp that believes wildlife tourism is KEY to conservation.
It’s not about tourists simply seeing the beauty of wildlife that will make them suddenly care, because that’s garbage. People care about themselves and money. That’s all. Therefore, the key to conservation through wildlife tourism, is by giving ownership of land/wildlife to communities, you make them suddenly worth something. This ownership now gives the community an incentive to conserve so as to protect their assets and income.
A more controversial opinion I have is around how we should protect endangered wildlife from poaching... We should actually allow hunting! (Hear me out here 😉). By granting ownership over the land and endangered wildlife within it, the community is going to want to conserve the species within so as they don’t lose an income stream. If, for top dollar, a hunter wants to shoot a certain species then they are granted permission to do so, but only animals that can’t breed or are causing problems etc. The money made then can be reinvested back into conservation of the species for tourism efforts.
Controversial I know, but in my opinion, tourism via ownership is key to conservation efforts 🌲.
Thanks for sharing your point of the matter with the rest of us, @forexbrokr :)
I can't say that I agree to all of what you're saying, but I get where you are going with this. By giving the power to the local people, they are surely going to be interested in protecting the area, but there are of course a few problems with this method as well. For instance not all animals that needs protection are something that tourists are willing to pay to see. Some areas will only have "boring" species that no one will want to visit, and then why would the locals care about protecting it?
The thing you are saying about hunting is pretty much already happening. Shooting a lion or other big animal in Africa can cost as much as $100,000, and a lot of it is going back into conservation and to the local people. It's surely controversial, but it is paying for a lot of the conservation effort (in Africa especially).
Love your work as always mate. Really gets me thinking.
Thanks, it means the world to me when people tell me that they appreciate reading the posts I write! :D