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ECOTOURISM CHARTER - Guidelines for Private Operators

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Tour Operators / private entrepreneurs

Minimize negative impact of tourism related development on environment and natural resources

• Be responsible towards sustainable management of physical environment and protection of natural attributes (flora and fauna) of the area being visited.
• Prepare and implement site-specific plan in conformity with prevailing legal framework policy guidelines, and local customs aimed at resource protection, community benefits, and visitors' satisfaction.
• Design and build tourist accommodations and facilities in a manner that it contributes to ecological well being of the natural environment and minimizes negative impacts.
• Should be willing to use non-wood fuel for their operations and ensure that none of their support staff uses wood-based fuel.
• Should be willing to bear full or partial cost of introducing non-conventional energy in the villages falling within their area of operation.
• Should be willing to enter into an agreement with host communities (viz. Joint Forest Management Committees) for supply of local food material and dairy products and allowing them to sell their local handicrafts and artifacts from operators' premises.
• Should extend reasonable employment opportunities to local people and take steps to give and upgrade skills among villagers.
• Should have an environmentally sound garbage disposal and waste recycling mechanism in place (including waste water).

Prepare eco-travelers to minimize their negative impacts while visiting sensitive environments and cultures before departure

• Offer visitors the educational materials they need to learn about the places and people to be visited and introduce the importance of contributing to the conservation of places being visited.
• Educate visitors about the full range of natural and cultural phenomenon to be observed.
• Educate visitors to consider the effects of their visits in advance and to modify their behavior while traveling, with the objective of minimizing impacts.
• Provide introductory information on the people and ecosystems to be visited in pre-departure packages. Stress the importance of reading pre-departure information, such as selected bibliographies, and review additional resources for each destination.
• Keep information objective and well-grounded using examples of phenomenon visitors might encounter.
• Provide general travel ethics addressing standards for behavior in natural areas and with local cultures.
• Provide information on the equipment, clothing and personal supplies suitable to the regions being visited.
• Warn against bringing disposable goods that contribute to the solid waste burden in the region.
• Provide information on products to avoid that are illegally traded.
• Provide information, as required, on avoiding the accidental transport of foreign, exotic species into isolated ecosystems being visited.

Prepare travelers for each encounter with local cultures and with native animals and plants

• Pave the way for reciprocal sensitivity between cultures by teaching tourists to be unobtrusive while they are encountering environments and cultures.
• Provide visitors with the opportunity to learn more about the social and political circumstances of the region being visited.
• Provide visitors with the opportunity to learn more about local environmental problems and conservation efforts.
• Provide quality orientation and enough leaders to manage the group according to the sensitivity of the environment visited.
• Give quality interpretation at all times; explain local cultures and describe natural history. Encourage interaction with local people while overseeing contact to avoid cultural errors.
• Conduct briefings before each stop, including behaviors to avoid, restricted practices and zones, special alerts for fragile and endangered species, specific distances to maintain with local wildlife, and local regulations.
• Use of time on road and in cities for educational discussions of all kinds including balanced discussions of local issues.

Minimize visitor impacts on the environment by offering literature, briefings, leading by example, and taking corrective actions

• Help visitors to minimize their negative impacts by enhancing their understanding of the fragility of the environment.
• Obtain and distribute available guidelines for each natural area visited.
• Allow protected area staff to introduce guidelines if possible.
• Brief visitors on proper behavior - on trails, in campsites, around wild animals, around fragile plants - and with trash, with human waste, with fires, and with soaps.
• Advise all travelers on the level of difficulty of each excursion to prevent damage to the environment caused by lack of experience or ability to maneuver in unfamiliar terrain.
• Discourage unrealistic expectations of observing rare wildlife and plants by interpreting all aspects of the ecosystem.
• Advise against collecting souvenirs from natural areas, such as feathers, bones and shells, unless it is specifically condoned by local authorities.
• Advise against purchasing specific crafts that are produced from threatened natural resources.

Minimize traveler impacts on local cultures by offering literature, briefings, leading by example, and taking corrective actions

• Interpret local cultural values and history of local cultures.
• Provide a set of cultural guidelines created by the company, specific to the area being visited. Where available, obtain and distribute guidelines written by local communities.
• Advise visitors to accept differences, adopt local customs, and be unobtrusive. Discuss appropriate behavior when photographing.
• Discuss appropriate behavior when purchasing goods, tipping, and responding to begging.

Use adequate leadership, and maintain small enough groups to ensure minimum group impact on destinations. Avoid areas that are under managed and over visited.

• Be sensitive to total number of groups visiting sites simultaneously. Informally census the number of groups encountered on trails or roads within protected areas and keep track of sites with rapid increases. Notify authorities or landowners if the number of groups is growing rapidly.
• Monitor negative environmental impacts, including trail erosion, improper waste dumping, littering, water pollution, species harassment, illegal collecting of plants or animals, feeding of wildlife, or wild animals that have become abnormally tame or aggressive. Notify authorities or land owners both verbally and, if need be, in writing.
• Assist land managers in monitoring key, indicator species, or offer logistical assistance to researchers working on tourism impacts.
• Design itineraries and promotions to avoid overselling popular sites, particularly those that are inadequately managed for visitation during peak seasons.
• Watch for accumulated cultural impact and work to prevent or buffer them. Indicators include; inflated prices for goods in communities; hostility towards tourists from local communities; black markets, drug dealing and prostitution catering to the tourist industry.

Ensure managers, staff and contract employees know and participate in all aspects of company policy to prevent impacts on the environment and local cultures.

• Establish an environmental code and objectives manual for the company.
• Confidence in the personnel who are leading the organization and the tours.

Give managers, staff and contract employees' access to programs that will upgrade their ability to communicate with and manage clients in sensitive natural and cultural settings.

• Establish clear guidelines for staff regarding opportunities and company support available for training, via internal training programs (natural and cultural history) and via training programs available locally (language skills and first aid, accounting, mechanics).
• Establish an operators' consortium for training. - Establish a relationship with a local educational facility and work to integrate needed training components into the curriculum. - Work with nongovernmental organizations to establish an ecotourism training program.

Be a contributor to the conservation of the regions being visited.

• Provide corporate contributions to local non-profit conservation initiatives and protected areas through direct corporate donations, partnerships, technical assistance, education programs, publicity, facilitation, direct staff involvement, and becoming involved in joint initiatives. *
• Facilitate visitor contributions to local conservation initiatives during the trip by: providing literature on projects in the regions being visited and guidelines for in-kind contributions; arranging briefings and visits to local projects with project staff; or offering opportunities for visitors to volunteer.
• Facilitate visitor contributions to local conservation initiatives after the trip by: sending follow-up mailings to clients with local nonprofit membership literature, brief descriptions of projects that need assistance, upcoming opportunities to do volunteer services, or opportunities to work at home by being an ambassador or fund raiser or organizer for local projects.
• Encourage writing to government and corporate organizations whose policies are damaging to the environment or local cultures in the areas visited by providing addresses and contact names.

Provide competitive, local employment in all aspects of business operations

• Hire locally owned businesses including transport (vehicle and boat rental services), accommodations (hotels, lodges, camps), and restaurants.
• Buy local supplies from food and craft vendors and avoid all products made from endangered or threatened species.
• Hire local office and field staff. Pay competitive wages, above minimum wage for the region, and offer acceptable benefits.
• Contribute to community enterprises and development efforts that support a wide variety of local residents, with special sensitivity to indigenous groups.

Offer site-sensitive accommodations that are not wasteful of local resources or destructive to the environment that provide ample opportunity for learning about the environment and sensitive interchange with local communities.

• Ensure all aspects of the visitors' experience are in harmony with the natural and cultural environment.
• Review the following check list of considerations when booking new accommodations.
• Select accommodations that are in compliance with environmental regulations.
• Review facility's level of destruction to natural surroundings.
• Consider facilities efforts to maintain a scale in keeping with the local environment and to reflect national or local cultural design motifs in architecture and interior design.
• Review facility's use of energy saving devices and renewable energy resources.
• Review facility's treatment of solid and organic waste. Ensure that solid waste is safely disposed of and that recycling programs are in place where possible. Ensure that all waste products are treated to prevent effects on natural resources.
• Determine if restaurant is composting and using other techniques to reduce waste such as avoiding paper products and Styrofoam.
• Determine if facility is offering meaningful opportunities for locals.
• Check into training programs offered by lodge.
• Review opportunities for locals to have sensitive cultural interchange, on their own terms, with visitors.
• Look for locally produced craft and food items available for sale on the premises or used in facility restaurants, and ensure that all products from threatened natural resources are avoided.
• Check for the interpretive/educational materials inside the facility that are available to guests. Look for field guides, videos, books, pamphlets, and check lists of species found locally.
• Check for availability of interpretive services outside, such as self-guided trails and guide services.
• Check for the facility's sensitivity to interpretive opportunities; i.e. how well the facility has interpreted its own land's natural features and natural resources, or the local cultural backgrounds and perspectives of its own staff, for visitors.
• Ask if owners contribute to conservation or community development efforts with financial, technical or logistical support.
• Avoid sites that bait animals, or that keep exotic species or the property that were trapped in the wild, especially threatened or endangered species.

Download Complete Charter (PDF Format) - Ecotourism Charter