ECOTOURISM: Where Nature Rules

Ashok SILWAL

The word ‘eco’ is an abbreviation for the word ‘ecology’ which is the science of relationships between organisms and their environments.Today, the word ‘eco’ is ‘fashionable’ and is used indiscriminately for a lot of things! Basically it is all about doing no harm to the earth , to the environment .

Today, for a few years now, we have all been more sensitive to the issues of protecting our environment, more turned towards nature and ecology. We are more aware of the irreversible damage that our behaviors can cause. So today, the term ‘eco’ is applied to everything:

-eco products and goods such as furniture, coffee cups, bamboo sunglasses or toothbrushes and many everyday objects have abolished plastic.

-eco clothes and shoes made with recycled materials.

-eco fruit and vegetables grown without chemicals.

-eco cars increasingly using electricity as propulsion.

-eco energy like wind, sun, preserving a sustainable environment.

-eco construction material like wood, bamboo, green thermal insulation, recycled rubber and more.

Energy especially is a big issue for achieving ecological welfare and sustainability and renewable energy sources which are healthful, clean and often cheap.

There are an infinite number of eco-friendly (friend of ecology) products and services today, applied to various sectors and especially to the one that particularly interests us here, the tourism.

There are many qualifying terms which recall the same intentions, the same points of view, the same purpose of respect for nature, for care of the environment.

You hear about: responsible tourism, green tourism, slow tourism, sustainable tourism….. all forms focusing on not harming the environment, conserving it, conserving the biodiversity, turned towards nature and ecology.

As Advisor of Village Tourism Promotion Forum Nepal and also as Tour-Trek Guide and Instructor, I’m particularly sensitive to these issues, to these aspects because I believe that they can be great expectations for a different tourism away from the beaten tracks and mass movements.

I’d rather see a video of a single boy collecting plastic bottles along a path than the endless queue of mountaineers to climb Everest!
And it is in this spirit that, in recent times, with friends or alone, sometimes with guests, I have followed and experienced more eco-friendly itineraries, taking the time to observe, to photograph flowers, insects, to lie down on a lawn to look at the sky or at the landscapes, ‘where nature rules’.

I talked to the local people who had almost never seen a tourist guide before, I stayed at people’s home eating as a family. Anywhere, I enjoy nature in outstanding sunrises and sunsets, in waterfalls making my feet happy in the fresh water, walking and walking in forest in my own path with Buddha in my heart, without stress, without a precise destination to reach at a certain time… silently…

I also guided people, I mean foreigners, who were looking for this type of tourism in contact with nature, local culture, local people, not contaminated habits and traditions, meditation too.

Sometimes, the comfort wasn’t the best, sometimes the paths weren’t perfect but the experience was always true, authentic, very enriching and with unexpected enthusiasm, kindness and curiosity.

I think that many Nepalese would be happy to learn about their country in this way. I have always met young people full of joy.

Ecotourism also has a lot of resources for schools or family groups. There are very beautiful one/two days routes and it could be a way to teach right and respectful attitudes towards nature and at home too.

What about these eco-friendly habits ?

-reduce, reuse, recycle.

-use public transportation or prefer environmentally friendly means of transportation.

-choose bio products.

-turn off lights and electronic devices when not in use.. reduce energy consumption.

-avoid food waste.

-encourage others to be eco friendly….

In tourism field, it means for example as emblematic: an eco-resort with no air conditioning!

Tourism is one of the fields in which to talk about ecology, sustainability, responsibility, green, slow..…. are not empty words but they have very constructive and beautiful applications: from the participation in the rice culture to walking on somewhat isolated paths, from picnics to traditional dancing and singing around wood fires, from bathing in waterfalls to visiting some local temples, from observing works with animals to meeting little girls and boys returning from school…. and everywhere an amazing, beautiful nature, taking the time to enjoy it.

Eco tourism can really offer special moments of fullness of happiness, pieces of life when there is no need for something else to happen.

…
Silwal is Langtang Goodwill Ambassador.