Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Neil.
And I’m Beth. Nowadays, the word ‘safari’ is often used negatively. For many people, the idea of
killing animals for sport is unacceptable. As the popularity of hunting declines,
safaris are swapping their guns for cameras, offering tourists the chance to photograph
wild animals in their natural habitat. In recent years, nature and wildlife tourism,
also called ecotourism, has grown massively. But the story is complex. While money from
ecotourism is supposed to support threatened wildlife and traditional local cultures,
the reality is sometimes different. In this programme, we’ll be asking:
is ecotourism good or bad? And, as usual, we’ll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.
But first I have a question for you, Beth. Most tourists on safari are looking for ‘the big five’,
the name given to Africa's most iconic large animals.
But which animals are ‘the big five’? Is it: a) the lion, leopard, giraffe, baboon and buffalo
b) the lion, leopard, tiger, elephant and buffalo or
c) the lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and buffalo?
I guess it’s a) the lion, leopard, giraffe, baboon and buffalo.
I’ll reveal the answer at the end of the programme. The balance between the good and bad
things ecotourism can bring is well understood by Vicky Smith, whose website, Earth Changes,
matches ecotourists with environmentally-friendly travel companies. Here is Vicky talking with BBC
Radio 4 programme, Costing the Earth. Just because tourism is nature-based, it
doesn't mean to say it's necessarily responsible or sustainable. So, there's a lot of animal
activities in tourism that we know which are, you know, highly irresponsible and unsustainable,
like a performing whale and dolphin shows, or swimming with dolphins, elephant-riding,
tiger selfies where the tigers are drugged. Genuine ecotourism is sustainable – designed to
continue at a steady level which does not damage the environment. Not every travel company which
calls themselves eco-friendly acts sustainably, and may still advertise irresponsible tourist
activities, including tiger selfies – having your photo taken with a captive wild tiger.
There are two requirements travel companies should meet to qualify as genuine ecotourism. First,
tourists’ main motivation should be to appreciate and observe the natural world without interfering,
and second, the money they spend should support traditional communities. Clearly,
having your photograph taken with a chained and drugged tiger does not meet these requirements.
But not all companies claiming to be ecotourism behave so irresponsibly.
According to Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent, who runs small scale wildlife expeditions to some of the
most remote places on Earth, it’s possible to put travel companies on a sliding scale from good
to bad. On BBC Radio 4’s programme, Costing the Earth, Antonia discussed her work in Tajikistan,
a country where ecotourism is making a positive impact on both animal and human communities.
At the other end of the scale is Tajikistan, where I work a lot, which gets less than two dozen
wildlife tourists a year, and the money these visitors bring is essential to the conservation
work that grassroots NGOs are doing. So those few tourists… their money goes a very long way and the
animals people are looking at… snow leopards, rare mountain ungulates like Bukharan markhor,
they are being observed from a distance, their behaviour is not being affected in any way, and
the local communities are genuinely benefiting. Antonia uses the phrase at the other end of the
scale as a way of contrasting irresponsible tourist companies with what’s happening in
Tajikistan. There, animals including snow leopards and mountain ungulates,
are being protected by ecotourist projects run by non-governmental organisations,
or NGOs - organisations trying to achieve environmental or social aims outside of government
control. These NGOs are grassroots organisations meaning that they are run from the bottom up,
by ordinary people rather than leaders. Despite getting very few ecotourists a year, the
money they spend in Tajikistan goes a long way, in other words, the money is an important factor
in achieving their goals, which in Tajikistan at least, means protecting rare wild animals. OK,
it’s time to reveal the answer to my question. You asked me about ‘the big five’, the name for
Africa’s iconic safari animals. I guessed they were: the lion,
leopard, giraffe, baboon and buffalo. You guessed right about the lion, leopard,
and buffalo, but the others were the rhinoceros and the elephant. OK, let’s recap the vocabulary
we’ve learned from this programme about ecotourism – travel to places of natural beauty where the
tourists’ motivation is to appreciate nature and support the local culture.
The adjective sustainable describes actions designed to continue at a steady level so
as not to damage the environment. A tiger selfie means having your photo
taken with a captive wild tiger, not something to be advised!
The phrase at the other end of the scale is similar in
meaning to the phrase, ‘by contrast’. A grassroots NGO is a non-governmental
organisation which tries to achieve its aims through the actions of local
ordinary people rather than leaders. And finally, if something goes a long way
towards a certain goal, it’s an important factor in achieving that goal. Once again,
our six minutes are up. Goodbye for now! Bye!