Mood Swings Toilet training By Jenny Jobbins Last year was International Eco-Tourism Year, an event which, like so many other ideas which sprout in the UN, was widely ignored. I suspect this was because tourism to governments and Big Business means mass tourism and huge hotel complexes, the very antithesis of the eco- business. There is some confusion among tourists, operators and Tourism Ministry officials as to what eco-tourism really is. A senior tourism official asked me recently what was the difference between that and "nature tourism". I admit it is complex. Is touring the Galapagos Islands eco- or nature tourism? To my mind it is one or the other, depending on how the holiday is run. Or white-water rafting? Nature tourism, I would say. Hunting? Ditto, of course, though an oxymoron -- and one that gives many morons an excuse to kill off some of Mother Nature's other offspring. As I told the man from the ministry, I would define "nature tourism" as that which focuses on man's personal interaction with nature, or with its natural elements, and "eco-tourism" as that which minimises man's impact on the natural world. Some activities, like bird watching, are both "eco" and "nature". It is hard to imagine a group of twitchers in anoraks, armed only with binoculars, harming the environment. But put them in a bus or on a flight to a Bird- Watchers' Paradise in the South Pacific and set them up in a five-star hotel and a problem emerges. It begins with the glossy brochure and includes the gasoline they use and the imported food they consume. In other words, adventure travel is muddying the environmental waters. Undergoing a bit of physical hardship instead of lying with your feet up beside a swimming pool doesn't make you an eco-tourist. I went to a press conference recently where eco-tourism was described as an alternative to the overcrowded attractions of the Nile Valley and the Red Sea. This is illuminating if one considers that it is only 25 years since Red Sea tourism had its beginnings, and maybe 15 since mass tourism there took off. One feels that tour operators are drawing tourists away from mainstream resorts so they can go and wreck the environment somewhere else. At Socotra Island off the south coast of Yemen, we were told, there is now a concrete airstrip so "eco-tourists" can see one of the previously most unvisited and unspoiled spots on Earth, home only to a few fisherfolk. "What does this have to do with conserving the environment?" I asked the speaker. "Good point," she replied, without providing an answer. Eco-tourism means sustainable tourism. It means staying in locally-owned accommodation, eating local food, shopping for local arts and crafts and maximising local labour. What may be the ordinary and familiar to residents can appear something of exotic value to the visitor, and tourism revenue raises residents' perception of their assets. Eco- tourism means minimising environmental impact in the way of garbage, air pollution and imports. It means taking pictures, not stealing shells or corals. It leads to a two-way understanding of other cultures and positive interaction with native peoples, not exploitation of them or their resources. Whether the visitor ends up tired, cold, hot, wet, dirty or with aching muscles is irrelevant. It's good to see that Egypt's deserts are being seen and enjoyed by more and more visitors. But they, too, are showing signs of overcrowding. "It's easy to put a cigarette butt in the garbage," Wally Lama, wife of veteran explorer Samir Lama, said the other week when she and I were discussing the problem. "Butts and orange peel should never be thrown in the desert. And you don't drive your car up the side of a white mountain [in the White Desert] and make a new track. What kind of nonsense is this?" Sadly, though, lots of cowboy desert guides do. They also bury or burn garbage, sometimes both, because they are too plain lazy to carry it back. The Lamas ask their clients to sign a declaration that they will not take anything from the desert, even a pebble. "The desert is a national park, like a museum," Wally said. "You must pick up every scrap of garbage and not steal anything." She says that since the Swimmers' Cave at the Gilf Al-Kebir became a popular destination following the film The English Patient she has seen people throwing water on the rock paintings to bring out the colours for a better photo. Guides turn a blind eye to such vandalism. Extra tracks in the desert are also a main gripe of mine. Why drive over fresh sand when you can use the tracks of the car before you? Another is firewood. Why guides burn wood from the desert is beyond me -- responsible travellers are the ones who carry wood from the oases or Cairo. My other gripe is pit stops. Go behind a rock by all means -- it's a fact of life and we all have to do it. But don't choose the exact spot which makes the best picnic ground for miles around. And don't even think of burying the toilet paper -- it will re-emerge with the next breath of wind -- or, worse, just dropping it. It is perfectly horrible to conceal oneself behind a rock in the middle of nowhere and find the person who used it before you left shreds of toilet paper. Either take a Ziploc polythene bag and put the paper in it, or carry a box of matches and burn it on the spot. Please, please don't leave it for me or Wally Lama to find.
