Market approach to conservation

Environmentalism has many faces. One is conservation. And growing numbers of conservationists are adopting market-oriented approaches to protect wetlands, save endangered species and achieve other environmental values.

One of the most important of the market-oriented approaches is ecotourism, the fastest growing element of the adventure travel movement. Ecotourism, accounting for 10-20% of the total tourism market, is defined in the he Audubon Society's recent book, Rebirth of Nature, as "purposeful travel to natural areas to understand the cultural and natural history of the environment while (maintaining) the integrity of the ecosystem and providing economic opportunities that make the conservation of natural resources financially beneficial to the inhabitants of the host region."

Consider the many advantages of ecotourism:

• Ecotourism saves habitat. In Rwanda, the government was under strong pressure to cut the forest habitat of the mountain gorillas (biologist Dian Fossey's Gorillas of the Mist) to make way for crops and cattle. Instead, the Varunga Volcanoes were opened to ecotourists, who were charged $170 an hour to see the gorillas. These fees generated more than $1 million in gate receipts and the influx of visitors provides strong incentives for people living around the area to protect the gorillas, which are now their primary source of income.

A World Bank study for Kenya showed that an average elephant herd generates about $10,00 a year in tourist income, which makes an individual elephant worth about $1 million over its 60-year life span. Using elephant habitat for agriculture would return about 33