09 Aug What will be the future of wildlife travel?

Predicting the future and what will happen to wildlife tourism in the up and coming decades is something we can answer now if we carry on as the way things are…

In the last 100 years, we have had a huge collapse in biodiversity across the world. The planet has lost 52% of its wildlife since 1952 and 97% of its wild tigers since 1900. If we continue like this, then before we know it, we will not be able to go to these places to see wildlife and also see wild tigers, the only wild animals we and our future generations will be able to see, will be in museums or in zoo’s! Unfortunately this is a very sad reality and something we only have ourselves to blame.

We have film stars, royals, sports stars and hugely successful entrepreneurs doing their part to support the loss of species by donating millions of dollars to fund conservation projects, anti poaching patrols and protect the wildlife in various regions. But yet all of this is not enough. The ‘small percentage’ of the global population, which is helping and supporting the way we recognise the natural world is not going to save them from disappearing. What can have an impact on protection is our habits and the way the ‘big percentage’ goes about caring for these animals and wild places.

How can we protect and save wildlife?

Tourism, if done right, is the absolute solution to save wildlife and in-particular save Tigers. The tourist has the ability to elevate the wildlife’s worth. We have used the term eco-tourism for many years, which is now slowly dying out. The term has become so watered down with its true meaning being lost. Lodges and operators use it to promote themselves and to put them under the general umbrella, to justify that conservation solutions are being effectively carried out for many lodges and operators I imagine would be hard to do. We reckon the term ‘eco tourism’ will soon be replaced by ‘Conservation Travel’. The replacing of this term for wildlife operations will happen because at this rate we need it to. The definition of conservation travel is a form of travel that connects the traveler with nature.

Walking with the forest dwellers (Veddas) at Gal Oya Lodge, puts the traveler in direct contact with locals who live off the lay of the land.

How is this going to happen?

Wildlife travel predominately relies on the operators and agents advising and providing their expertise to the traveler to take them into the wild for that awe inspiring experience and moment the traveler is so deeply wishing for. It is now the responsibility of the agent and the operator to make sure that the experience they provide is sustainable and responsible- connecting the traveler to nature and making sure they walk away incentivized and wanting to help to keep that magical encounter alive. The agents need to be accountable for the operators they choose and the operators will then follow suite to supply the demand of the traveler. Conservation travel looks to influence the traveler and to engage him/her with a conservation project and to return from their holiday wanting to protect the animal and place they have just seen and visited.

To view Leopard at dusk with night vision goggles in Sri Lanka is the perfect way to connect with nature.

The problem we are facing at the moment, is not the experts in the conservation industry. The experts know how to save tigers and other endangered wildlife; it is now about making the wildlife matter to a particular country, putting enough political pressure for the decisions that determine the rules and regs of the national parks to go in favour of the wildlife!