Island Explorer
Samoa,
and ecotourism
What's ecotourism?
Is
eco tourism still a valid label for environment friendly touring?
The term ecotourism is
unfortunately often used purely for marketing purposes. Green tourism or nature
tourism are more recent attempts to create a quality label for genuine eco
tourism operators but regardless of the terminology there will always be a
fraction of crooked ecotour operators who shortcut the concept of ecotourism.
Island Explorer is,
just as any other ecotour operator, also dependent on airline traffic and car
driving but we still believe in eco-tourism as a better alternative to
large-scale resort tourism. It doesn't matter what we call our tours, the quality of our tours are
strictly dependent on a pristine
environment. We are therefore concerned about preserving the natural environment in Samoa
and appreciate the strong traditional Polynesian culture in Samoa. We do our
best to minimise our impact on the natural environment and we believe that our
activity contributes to increase the knowledge about the natural environment in
Samoa and give local villages an incentive to preserve the fragile marine
eco-systems.
Some of the most
interesting areas in Samoa for kayaking tours are the mangrove conservation
areas and the more recently declared "marine protected areas" (MPA).
The MPA is an agreement with Samoan villages. The goal is to encourage the use
eco friendly practices in fishing and to minimise the environment impact from
other human activities. One of the highlights of our kayaking tours is
watching the sea turtles at Aleipata. The village council of Aleipata has now
banned turtle hunting. Also scuba-fishing is now banned in the same MPA.
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