Northstar

NEWS www.travelweeklyweb.com Industry Insights: Going green is in In this column, we feature leaders in the industry who share their insights with TravelWeekly Asia on travel and tourism. This week Fanny Lai, ex-group CEO, Wildlife Reserves Singapore shares her thoughts on green tourism. Why is green tourism growing in popularity? We should fi rst defi ne what green tourism or ecotourism is. To some it could mean a holiday that consumes the least carbon foot prints, eg. cycling instead of flying. To others it could be volunteering to save people and animals, it could also refer to wildlife-based activities such as hunting and fishing. But for me, it means watching wildlife (fl ora and fauna) in wild places – Wildlife Tourism. Wildlife Tourism is fast growing worldwide. For example in 1991, around four million people watched whales, by 1998 this had risen to nine million, its tourism revenue grew more than three times and benefi ted 500 communities. Watching animals is an inspiring and memorable experience. People are excited by seeing whales or turtles, spectacular bird life, elephants, gorillas, lions or migratory zebras. Wildlife tourism became affordable and accessible now due to larger demand from more city folks who aspire to re-connect with wilderness. Will this 'popularity' affect the green environment and why? As more people are travelling, all forms of tourism activities should be sustainable, including mass or niche segments. We need to be conscious of the environmental, economic and socio-culture aspects of tourism development, to achieve the right balance between these three elements so as to guarantee its long term sustainability. What can be done to conserve nature and yet promote its appreciation? • Make optimal use of environmental resources that constitute a key element in tourism development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to conserve natural heritage and biodiversity. • Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to intercultural understanding and tolerance. • Ensuring viable, long term economic operations, providing social economic benefits to stakeholders that are fairly distributed, including stable employment and income-earning opportunities and social services to host communities, and contributing to poverty alleviation. At Wildlife Reserves Singapore, who is the custodian of Singapore Zoo, Jurong Bird Park and Night Safari, we focus on the conservation and education of native endangered animals; each year, we donate $1 million to conduct conservation and research projects to save native endangered species, we provide wildlife lessons for 200,000 local students and deliver capacity building workshops to park operators in our region. Our animal exhibits simulate their natural habitat with educational sign board to act as living classrooms and our fi eld staff and animals keepers sharescientific information with guests to inspire them to support nature conservation. Cultural activities are held year-round to stimulate understanding and empathy. 6 | ■ TRAVELWEEKLY ASIA | 12 JULY 2011 Fanny Lai, ex-group CEO, Wildlife Reserves Singapore How is the ecotourism sector faring and what can be done to improve it? If we do not manage wildlife tourism properly, the disturbance could cause changes in wildlife's behaviour and physiology or damage their habitats. Four things we can do to improve the sustainability of wildlife tourism: • Improve understanding of the biology of species and monitoring the effects of tourism on them. • Improve guide training and interpretation. • Evaluate the conditions required for wildlife tourism to be a viable option for generating revenues for conservation and benefits for local communities. • Improve planning and management of tourism in protected areas and wildlife viewing sites. Can ecotourism be lucrative or is this a fallacy? We can generate profi t from Wildlife Tourism in a sustainable manner and use the funds for conservation and education. At Wildlife Reserves Singapore, we promote wildlife tourism. We are profi table, but not for profi t. Which countries have the most well-preserved natural environments? There are too many wonderful wild places in the world be named here. My favourites are bird watching on the Galapagos and Peru, red crab migration on Christmas island, Komodo dragon on Komodo Island, Indonesia, penguins on Philip Island, Australia, tigers in Chitwan National Park, Nepal, lemurs on Madagascar and orang utans free ranging in Singapore Zoo. Tourism continues to grow and expand, it is inevitable that it will create more pressure on the environment, wildlife and wild places. Tourists and tourism planners must learn to set limits on demand and development, assessing and reducing human impact, and striving to achieve the right balance between the environment, social, culture and economic conditions. www.travelweeklyweb.com " Our animal exhibits simulate their natural habitat with educational sign board to act as living classrooms and our fi eld staff and animals keepers share scientifi c information with guests to inspire them to support nature conservation. "

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