What are the Principles of Ecotourism?

Turkey's outdoor and nature sports platform: As Turkey's outdoor and nature sports platform, we provide information about outdoor activities in Turkey and offer detailed guides, unique routes, up-to-date news, and unforgettable events on nature-filled adventures like hiking, trekking, camping, cycling, canoeing, mountaineering, rock climbing, rafting, diving, paragliding, and horseback riding. Meticulously prepared information, impressive routes, captivating photos, and inspiring videos await you for each activity.

Instagram: @turkey_outdoor_org

We're Turkey's popular outdoor activity sharing hub : Turkey's most comprehensive activity platform is at your service for nature lovers, outdoor enthusiasts, and adventure seekers! You can find detailed and up-to-date information about popular attractions in Turkey and around the world by searching our site.

You can send us your event details and photos via these addresses. Take your place on the platform that brings together Türkiye's outdoor enthusiasts! ✨

We're continuing our ecology series. You can also check out our article titled "What does ecology mean?" In this article, we explained the concept of ecotourism, definitions of ecotourism provided by various institutions, the stages of ecotourism development, the ecotourism industry, and the relationship between ecotourism and nature in our previous article. In this article, we'll explore the principles of ecotourism, sustainable tourism, the integrity of ecotourism, nature tourism, wildlife tourism, the sustainability principles of ecotourism, and ecotourism in Turkey.

Ecotourism is about combining conservation, community, and sustainable travel. This means that those who practice, participate in, and market ecotourism activities should embrace the following ecotourism principles:

• Minimize physical, social, behavioral and psychological impacts.
• Build environmental and cultural awareness and respect.
• Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts.
• Provide direct financial benefits for conservation.
• Create financial benefits for both local people and the private sector.
• Provide visitors with unforgettable interpretive experiences that help raise sensitivity to the political, environmental, and social environments of host countries.
• Design, build and operate low-impact facilities.
• Recognize the rights and spiritual beliefs of Indigenous People in your community and work in partnership with them to create empowerment.
• Provide direct financial benefits for conservation.
• Generate financial benefits for both local people and the private sector.
• Provide visitors with memorable interpretive experiences that help increase sensitivity to the political, environmental, and social climate of host countries.
• Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts.
• Design, build and operate low-impact facilities.
• Minimize physical, social, behavioral and psychological impacts on fauna and flora.
• Recognize the rights and spiritual beliefs of indigenous and local peoples and work in partnership to create empowerment.

The concept of sustainability has become a hot topic in recent years. While continuation is the spontaneous continuation of any event or phenomenon, the act of sustaining means that this continuation is achieved by someone else. If something is sustainable, it means it possesses inherent continuity.

Sustainability is defined as the ability of a given ecosystem, or any other system, to maintain its integrity without disruption, degradation, overuse, or overloading of primary resources. To achieve sustainability, resources must be continuously evaluated, protected, and prioritized within this framework.

The UNWTO conceptually defines sustainable tourism as follows. Sustainable tourism development guidelines and management practices apply to all types of tourism in all destinations, including mass tourism and various niche tourism segments. Sustainability principles address the environmental, economic, and sociocultural aspects of tourism development, and an appropriate balance must be struck between these three dimensions to ensure its long-term sustainability.

The origin of the term sustainability is generally attributed to the report titled "Our Common Future," prepared at the meeting of the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987. Also known as the Brundtland Report, the report defined sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (WTO, 1998:20).

In other words, sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. This report, for the first time, combines the seemingly disparate concepts of economic growth and environmental protection.

Sustainable tourism is the concept of meeting the needs of local people and tourists while preserving future opportunities. It refers to the sustainability of tourism. Sustainable tourism is a specific term derived from the broader concept of "sustainable growth" and refers to applying this growth to the specific context of tourism.

Its objectives include maintaining environmental quality, improving the quality of life in tourist areas, providing a quality visitor experience, promoting equity in development, and ensuring and enhancing tourism's contributions to the economy and the environment (Inskeep, 1991:461). Sustainable tourism is a form of development in which the environment, whether interacting with humans or not, is preserved without degradation or modification. Cultural integrity, ecological processes, biodiversity, and life-sustaining systems are maintained. All resources are managed to meet the economic, social, and aesthetic needs of both the people and tourists in the visited region, and to ensure that future generations can meet the same needs. Sustainable tourism development is the long-term and uninterrupted meeting of the needs of both hosts and tourists in the tourism sector, while preserving existing resources and their future values.

Therefore, sustainable tourism:

1) Optimize environmental resources, which is a key element in tourism development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to preserve natural heritage and biodiversity.

2) Respect the socio-cultural uniqueness of host communities, preserve their established and living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to intercultural understanding and tolerance.

3) To ensure long-term economic operations that provide equitably distributed socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders and contribute to poverty reduction, including stable employment and income-generating opportunities and social services to host communities.

Sustainable tourism development requires strong political leadership to ensure broad participation and consensus building, as well as informed engagement with all relevant stakeholders. Achieving sustainable tourism is a continuous process, requiring ongoing monitoring of impacts and, where necessary, implementation of preventive and/or corrective measures.

Sustainable tourism should also maintain a high level of tourist satisfaction and provide tourists with a meaningful experience, raise their awareness of sustainability issues and promote sustainable tourism practices among them. (Source: UNWTO)

It has environmental and socio-centric values ​​and ETHICS.

Creates an ecological and social conscience.

It is NON-CONSUMER tourism related to nature.

Non-consumptive means that ecotourism is not associated with activities such as logging, mining, culling, recreational hunting including fishing. The Mohonk Convention (2000), a proposal for International Sustainable Tourism and Ecotourism Certification, viewed ecotourism as sustainable tourism focused on natural areas, and this added the following criteria to the foundation of sustainable tourism:

Focus on personal experiences of the natural path leading to greater appreciation and understanding. Commentary on nature, local society and culture, and environmental awareness. Positive and active contributions to the conservation of natural areas and biodiversity. Economic, social and cultural benefits to local communities. Encourage community participation where appropriate.

While nature tourism has become a significant part of the tourism sector in recent years, it has also presented numerous challenges for researchers attempting to define the phenomenon. Should the tourism destination or primary motivation determine its categorization? Is there a real need for this when considering both theory and practice?

Nature tourism is a significant part of the global tourism industry and, more importantly, is gaining in importance. The nature tourism sector reportedly accounts for approximately 7% of all international travel, but this varies significantly across specific global regions. It's worth noting that the annual growth rate of global nature tourism is estimated at 10-30%.

It is this region, and more specifically, the concentration of natural resources (and tourism image) within a given destination, that determines such significant differences. For example, in Australia, the nature tourism sector accounts for 62% of international tourists and 16% of domestic tourists. This group stands out for its profitability: in 2008, international 'nature tourism' tourists spent an average of $6,009 per trip, while 'classic' tourists spent only $3,747.

Nature tourism is considered one of the most important factors attracting foreign tourists in many African countries. However, it should be noted that this form of travel does not always reflect positive change. In Akama's (1996) view, nature tourism in Kenya, stereotypically created by Western organizations, runs counter to the needs and expectations of the local population (p. 572). This is because it focuses only on selected natural assets that have been known and promoted for centuries (largely due to colonial transformations and subsequent

They identified seven main forms of this type of tourism (the authors called it fauna tourism):

• nature tourism, where the animal is the transcendent element and other components of a given tourism product are marginal;
• visiting a specific natural habitat rich in species diversity, usually for the purpose of feeding animals;
• visiting man-made sites where animals live in captivity;
• to watch a particular genre;
• walking in defined habitats;
• watching dangerous, spectacular animal behavior orchestrated by humans;
• Describes the hunting of animals in both natural and artificial ecosystems, where they are typically culled for consumption.

In recent years, sustainable tourism development has become a significant part of the tourism sector. Sustainable tourism refers to the planning and implementation of tourism activities that ensure the sustainability of all renewable and non-renewable resources, including natural, cultural, biological, and ecological resources. Sustainability is crucial for meeting the needs of local communities and tourists while preserving the value of existing resources in the future.

Sustainable tourism is also a managerial process concerned with meeting the mutual needs of both local people and visitors without harming biodiversity and cultural integrity. Sustainable tourism is fundamentally concerned with the environment; when considered as a trio of nature, people, and touristic objectives, the managerial process becomes even more crucial. When the relationship between sustainable development and tourism focuses on environmental values, preserving tourism values ​​and passing them on to future generations will occur without any problems in the managerial process.

Within the sustainability-environment-human relationship, the promotion and use of tourism resources, and relationships with potential customers and the local community should be considered within this process. For tourism to be sustainable and safe in the long term, and for environmental values ​​to serve future generations, contributing to the protection and development of the environment should be a primary responsibility of tourism investors and operators.

The specific individuals who chose to participate in these leisure activities were also of interest. An interesting classification has been proposed by Lindberg, which divides them into four categories:

• Scientists, researchers, and tourists who focus on active education and action to improve the state of the environment often form the core of nature tourism;
• Tourists who go on a special trip to see protected areas to understand the natural and local cultural history;
• Tourists whose primary purpose is to learn about a specific, well-known natural attraction;
• They may be ordinary tourists who discover nature by chance as part of a larger trip.
• Each can be categorized by the time spent in a natural setting, the type of nature experience, and the significance of the destination itself.

Consequently, the authors believe that the most effective definition of nature tourism—understood more broadly to encompass all forms, types, and genres—is: 'An environment containing, in any way, even minimally, elements of natural tourism'; thus, it allows nature tourism to be undertaken within an urban setting. Therefore, nature tourism, understood in this multifaceted way, depends on the participant's purpose—even if it is indirect (the natural environment is merely the background, as if it were disposable)—the authors suggest that it should be labeled nature-based tourism; while for tourism involving direct contact with the environment, when nature is the determining factor, they prefer nature-focused tourism.

It's clear that our country is one of the most important tourism destinations in the Mediterranean. Its coastline, spanning approximately 8,000 km, boasts a rich historical and cultural heritage inherited from various civilizations, and its climatic diversity, boasts an extraordinary biodiversity comparable to that of the entire European continent. For example, while there are 500 bird species found in all of Europe, only around 420 have been identified in Türkiye.

In addition, approximately 9,000 of the approximately 12,000 plant species identified in Europe are found in Turkey. Turkey possesses an incomparably rich wealth of natural resources, including mountains, forests, plateaus, coasts, lakes, and streams; flora and fauna; and fascinating geological formations, such as caves and canyons. This wealth makes Turkey a highly attractive destination for ecotourism, a trending topic.

Except for some coastal areas that were opened to tourism early, many parts of our country remain pristine, boasting a wealth of endemic species, flora, and fauna rarely seen anywhere else in the world (Yürik, Undated). When sociocultural values ​​are added to this, Türkiye is a potential paradise for ecotourism. It is our duty to utilize and develop this potential.

Türkiye is just at the beginning of the road in nature and adventure tourism. Ranking sixth in world tourism with 39.8 million visitors hosted in 2014, Türkiye is still at the beginning of nature tourism.

Türkiye, with its rich natural beauty and diverse cultures stretching from east to west and north to south, has yet to fully realize this potential. The nascent holiday culture has led to a delayed discovery of nature and adventure tourism by the masses.

However, with tourism trends shifting towards nature and adventure, this area appears to have significant growth potential. 527 nature tourism areas have been identified in 81 provinces. According to a TÜRSAB report, at the beginning of 2015, the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs identified 527 nature tourism areas in 81 provinces to develop nature tourism.

The country boasts 1,273 natural sites. Türkiye is home to over 420 bird species and also boasts 9,000 of the approximately 12,000 plant species found in Europe. This rich infrastructure allows Türkiye to excel in nature and adventure tourism.

So, where do nature and adventure tourism stand out? In Türkiye, nature and adventure tourism is primarily preferred by middle-income and higher-income, well-educated groups. Adventure tours typically focus on sports like canyoning, mountain biking, trekking, canoeing, rafting, and paragliding. Within the context of nature tourism, rural, agro, and eco-tourism come to mind.

Rural tours, on the other hand, explore elements such as lifestyle, local flavors, and harvest and production processes. Vacationers want to experience and experience local culture and nature.

Many routes attract attention in nature and adventure tours, such as Küre Mountains, Black Sea Plateaus, Yenice, Lycian Way, Çorum Gastronomy Road, Kocaeli Nature Walking Routes, Kayseri, Yenice Forests and İğneada Longoz Forests.

Meanwhile, the Cittaslow movement, which advocates for sustainable tourism and offers a model for local development, is also spreading in Türkiye. Currently encompassing 182 members across 28 countries, the Cittaslow movement aims to bring the Slow Food philosophy to the urban arena. Cities that respect nature and embrace their history, culture, and local producers can earn the Cittaslow designation. In Türkiye, Akkaya, Gökçeada, Halfeti, Seferihisar, Perşembe, Taraklı, Vize, Yalvaç, Yenipazar, and Şavşat have received the Cittaslow designation. Göynük in Bolu is also a Cittaslow candidate.

Paragliding and rafting remain popular in Türkiye, and both the surface and underwater worlds are home to historical and natural treasures. The number of diving sites is increasing every year. According to data from the Ministry of Tourism, there are approximately 40,000 caves in Türkiye.

Paragliding is particularly popular in Baba Mountain in the Ölüdeniz region of Fethiye, as well as in Denizli-Pamukkale, Ankara-Gölbaşı, Bolu-Abant, Eğirdir, Kayseri, and Eskişehir-İnönü. Artvin, Rize, Muğla, Düzce, Tunceli, Antalya, Denizli, and Kayseri are popular rafting destinations, while the 169-kilometer Çoruh River course stands out worldwide.

Türkiye, too, is not pursuing a sustainable policy. Lacking a strategy for nature and adventure tourism, Türkiye is also failing to adequately promote this area. All of Türkiye's rival countries in the Mediterranean basin are advancing with plans and strategies focused on ecological tourism.

Nature and adventure tourism, which primarily appeals to the domestic market, needs to be promoted to attract more tourists from abroad. We aim to encompass all categories within the definition of nature and adventure tourism, such as green tourism, alternative tourism, highland tourism, ecotourism, active tourism, nature sports tourism, and adventure and adrenaline sports tourism. In short, we're referring to all forms of nature-related tourism whose importance is often overlooked and underappreciated in Türkiye.

Nature and adventure tourism can be enjoyed anywhere in Türkiye. At its core lies nature, people, culture, and experience. This experience can be offered to visitors anywhere with unspoiled nature, undisplaced people, and vibrant culture.

IMPORTANT WARNINGS

• In all outdoor activities and nature sports, safety is your primary responsibility. No article or video can replace sound practical training and personal experience.
• Especially in extreme outdoor sports, you are primarily responsible for your own personal safety. Always prioritize your personal safety and the harmony and safety of your team.
• In all cases, be on the side of nature , keep the environment clean, and never harm wild animals or the nature where wildlife thrives.
• Never damage natural, historical, or tourist sites. Don't leave your trash behind wherever you go. Return your trash to your destination in the same bags you brought it in, or throw it in a trash container.
• In Turkey, forest entry restrictions are frequently enforced , and administrative penalties are imposed on those who do not comply. You should verify current forest entry restrictions with the provincial Regional Forestry Directorates.
• Technically, all outdoor activities in nature require prior permission. Our advice to our readers, campers, hikers, and all outdoor sports participants is to at least contact law enforcement before embarking on any activity and inform them of the nature activity and routes they plan to undertake.
• Your opinions, thoughts, suggestions, and requests regarding the outdoors and nature are valuable to us. Feel free to write to us.
• You can subscribe to our site to receive the latest information about outdoor and nature activities.

www.turkeyoutdoor.org: Turkey's outdoor and nature sports platform. We invite you to an unforgettable nature adventure! As Turkey's most exciting outdoor and nature sports platform, we offer detailed guides, unique routes, up-to-date news, and unforgettable events on nature-filled adventures like trekking, camping, cycling, canoeing, mountaineering, rock climbing, rafting, diving, paragliding, and horseback riding. Meticulously prepared information, impressive routes, captivating photos, and inspiring videos await you for each activity.

Write to us using the links on our contact page, not only about the article you read but also about any topic related to outdoor and nature that you would like to see published and discussed .