Ecotourism


 * Ecotourism** is a form of tourism involving visiting fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas, intended as a low-impact and often small scale alternative to standard commercial tourism. Its purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide funds for ecological conservation, to directly benefit the economic development and political empowerment of local communities, or to foster respect for different cultures and for human rights. Since the 1980s ecotourism has been considered a critical endeavour by environmentalists, so that future generations may experience destinations relatively untouched by human intervention.Several university programs use this description as the working definition of ecotourism