Ecotourism: Supporting conservation and livelihoods
The benefits of ecotourism are many but the idea revolves around three main advantages for the area in which it operates. The first tenet is that the ecotourism venture must help to conserve the environment. Second, local populations must be direct beneficiaries of the venture through benefits such as education, income, and preservation of local culture. The third principle of ecotourism is that it provides educational benefits to those that visit the area but also to the local population creating a deeper investment in conserving the area by both tourists and locals. These three components of ecotourism make it a valuable tool in the work that the Amazon Conservation Association is doing to help our ongoing mission to help protect the biodiversity of the Amazon while also supporting the livelihoods of local communities.