Appendix - Adventure Guide to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands - page 445

Socioeconomic &
Political Issues
It is important to note that conservation efforts such as creating
parks and bio-reserves can no longer proceed independent of develop-
ment projects. As human populations continue to rise and encroach
upon the remaining natural environments, and as countries place in-
creasing demands on natural resources, conservation and develop-
ment efforts will continue to merge. This is where ecotourism comes
into play.
Many of the heavy hitters in tropical conservation lie outside the
realm of national and international government in the form of large-
scale nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). They are extremely
powerful, often funded by wealthy foundations and donors, and are
serving agendas thatmay be out of touchwith the local communities.
Big organizations may know statistics and have scientific knowledge
of the field sites in question, but theymay not have a sense of the envi-
ronment at the local level. Often, they lack indigenous knowledge and
fail to understand the natural relationship between locals and their
environment. In addition, these organizations tend to address the af-
fected natural resources from a point of view similar to that of foreign
businesses and governments. In any case, the local impacts are often
ignored or misunderstood.
Conservation efforts across the globe have failed because of this ten-
dency to view the problems from thew outside, through filters that
are incompatible with local conditions. Often, large reserves are cre-
ated on lands that encompass indigenous peoples, whose rights are
ignored. As a result, the local people are often displaced, not allowed
to provide for their own families, and even viewed as a threat to bio-
logical diversity and nature-based travel. At the local level, communi-
ties are struggling simply to maintain their natural resource base
while putting food on the table.
We need to build a bridge between community-level development/
conservation and large-scale foreign assistance. This must occur at
all levels, from international financial institutions and unilateral
government projects to NGO conservation programs, if we are to ob-
tain true progress. At the micro-level, even within specific countries,
socioeconomic, political, and environmental conditions vary dramati-
cally. Fortunately, this realization has led to a growing number of