Ecotourism is a relatively new concept and it is still often misunderstood or misused some people have abused the term to attract conservation conscious travelers to what in reality are simply nature tourism programs which may cause negative environmental and social impacts while the term was first heard in the 1980s the first broadly accepted definition and one which continues to be a valid "nutshell" definition was established by the (international) ecotourism society in 1990 responsible travel to natural area that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people as awareness and experience of the activity has grown so has our need for more comprehensive and detailed definition most recently (1999) Martha honey has proposed an excellent more detailed version ecotourism is travel to fragile pristine and usually protected areas that strives to be low impact and(usually) small scale it helps educate that traveler; provides funds for conservation; directly benefits the economic development and political empowerment of local communities;and fosters respect for different cultures and for human right.