-It involves travel to natural, often remote,destinations. These are often protected areas where development is limited.
-Ecotourism destinations focus on recycling, water conservation, and using renewable energy sources.
-It buids environmental awareness. As visitors explore an area,thay also learn about it.
- It provides aneconomic incentive to preserve the environment and raises money to help protect it.
-It creates financial opportunities and jobs for the local population.
Costa Rice was one of the fist ecotourism success stories. At one time, Costa Rice had the highest rate of deforestation in all of Latin America. Howwever, since ecotourism, there has been a dramatic reduction in deforestation. Now,more than a quarter of Costa Rica's land is protected fromdevelopment. Costa Rice is now the world's top ecotourism destination. Amazingly,this small country of four million people has about 1.5 million vistors per year.
Stacy Davison is one of the million-plus tourists who chose to visit Costa