TOURISM AND CONSERVATION ACTIVITIES

When we travel to our destiny we think how we will enjoy, we will know something new, meet people, eat other food, etc. But nobody thinks about the impact that we produced in this place when we stay there.

For this reason the governments and eco activists have been proposed alternative ways of conserving and promoting the environment. This alternative ways are the balance among economic development and the impact in the ecosystem.

Since 2000 (tourism) begins a meteoric rise, achieving third place among the major economic activity which foreign exchange and, according to other sources, is soon to reach second place. But its renewable and sustainable (unlike mining, main economic activity) allow you to climb to places of prime interest in both government and private care.[1]

Now we going to expose negative and positive aspects of tourism and then we explain how Peru affront and prevent the negative aspects to conserving their land

Negative aspects

These appear as a general situation. That are triggered by the nature of tourism and lack of control.

We could divide it in three categories

Economic impacts

• ·       Unequal distribution of income generated by tourism, both generally and communities.
• ·       The inflow of foreign exchange (who stay in the country) as a result of tourism is minimal, the system "all inclusive package"
• ·       Shifting agricultural labor for tourism.
• ·       Competition from foreign products with the locals.
• ·       Salary level low relative to the high profits generated by tourism.

Sociocultural impact

• ·       Transculturation.
• ·       Crime in general.
• ·       Diseases and vices (prostitution, alcoholism and drug addiction).
• ·       Loss of national identity.
• ·       Loss of use of native languages and dialects (Quechua, Aymara).

Ecological impacts

• ·       Degradation of natural areas for the construction of tourist infrastructure.
• ·       Degradation of critical areas inside and outside protected areas, overuse.
• ·       Pollution in general.
• ·       Increase in the extraction and marketing of flora and fauna to be offered to the tourist.

Positive Aspects

Good management of tourism, such as in Peru, with the collaboration of national, international, government, non-governmental and autonomous institutions, reports the following benefits
We could divide it in three categories

Economic impacts

• ·       Infrastructure development (airports, roads, resorts, etc).
• ·       Employment generation (direct, indirect).
• ·       Generation of foreign exchange.
• ·       Increase and improvement of national handicrafts.
• ·       Increase the number of bilingual people.
• ·       Communication technology (cable, phone, etc).

Sociocultural impacts

• ·       Rescue of colonial monuments.
• ·       Diffusion of folk music.
• ·       Improving the level of knowledge of the native in the cultural and social aspect and offer it to tourists.
• ·       Increase the number of people who learn other languages (German, Italian, English).

Ecological impacts

• ·       Income generation management of protected areas.
• ·       Recognizing the need to obtain, expand and improve the quality of information on natural areas and / or protected.
• ·       Recognize the need for basic infrastructure to offer better service.
• ·       National consciousness about protecting many natural areas.

Conservation activities

As we already know the tourism is one of the strongest things of Peru, because is a country with an ancient history, wonderful places, delicious food, traditional art, a lot of fauna and flora, etc.

The Government has interesting in the tourism because is a generator of wide wealth, for this reason in Peru the tourism is so controlled, the regulations are very strong and everybody is interest in the conservation of the environment, culture, and ancient places.

So, Peru have many public institutions and plans to regulate the impact of the tourism.

They impulse the ecotourism or sustainable tourism in every region both local level and national level. Through the “ministerio del Medioambiente”, “Consejo Nacional del Ambiente”, “Estrategia Nacional de Diversidad Biológica”, “Comisiones Ambientales Regionales”, “Agendas y Planes de Acción Ambientales Regionales”, “Estándares de calidad ambiental”, and other institutions like the WTO.

Peru is subscribed on sustainable tourism that is define by the WTO "a model of economic development designed to improve the quality of life of the host community, providing visitors a high quality experience and maintain the environmental quality of both the host community and the visitor depend. "Also argues that tourism can be one of the answers if it is respectful to the environment, is based on sustaining natural and cultural basis and not waste this resource capital.

For more, see all the information of the conservation plan at: http://fama2.us.es:8080/turismo/turismonet1/economia%20del%20turismo/ultimos/lineamientos%20para%20la%20promocion%20del%20turismo%20sostenible%20en%20las%20regiones.pdf

Bibliography

• "Impacto del turismo en el Peru" (http://sisbib.unmsm.edu.pe/bibvirtualdata/publicaciones/indata/vol6_n1/pdf/impactos.pdf)
• "Buscando un nuevo modelo de ecoturismo" (http://lista-turismo.blogspot.com/)
• "Ley 26410" (http://www.osinerg.gob.pe/newweb/uploads/GFGN/L26410.pdf)
• "Lineamientos para la promocion del turismo sostenible en las regiones" (http://fama2.us.es:8080/turismo/turismonet1/economia%20del%20turismo/ultimos/lineamientos%20para%20la%20promocion%20del%20turismo%20sostenible%20en%20las%20regiones.pdf)
• "Peru: turismo y cultura" (http://tmoperumartell.blogspot.com/)

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[1] Decreto del Consejo Directivo Nº 039, CONAM. “Lineamientos para la promoción del

turismo sostenible en las regiones”. Page 3. Peru.