Is it ethical to travel to ecologically sensitive environments? Photo / Getty Images
Is it ethical to travel to ecologically sensitive environments? Photo / Getty Images
Is it ethical to travel to ecologically sensitive environments? Jessica Wynne Lockhart finds out.
If you logged on to TikTok, YouTube or Instagram in November and the algorithms detected you had even a vague interest in travel, chances are your feed was flooded with scenes from Antarctica. It seemed like every travel journalist and influencer on the planet was cavorting with penguins. American blogger Natasha Alden, for one, made a TikTok video about crossing the Drake Passage that racked up more than 16 million views.
While I can’t deny that I was envious (who doesn’t want to go to the world’s last truly wild place?), it also gave me pause. I’d always perceived trips to the icy continent as somewhat out of reach. Yet, Antarctic holidays are suddenly being marketed as just another cruise. It made me wonder about the effects of tourism on such fragile environments—and what will happen when bookings explode thanks to social media amplification.
As it turns out, the number of visitors has already more than doubled over the last 10 years. According to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), more than 100,000 people are projected to visit in the 2022-2023 season.
The number of visitors to Antarctica has more than doubled over the last 10 years. Photo / Getty Images
Tourism to Antarctica has always been strictly regulated and monitored, including by the IAATO, which works in concert with the Antarctic Treaty System. But these numbers are unlike anything ever seen before—and some scientists are sounding the alarm bells.
In February 2022, an article in Nature Communications journal reported that black carbon (soot from vehicles and other machinery, which causes snow to melt faster) was found at considerably higher levels near popular tourist-landing sites, compared to elsewhere on the continent. And while tourists only spend a minimal amount of time at landing sites under tight supervision from tour operators, another recent study from researchers at North Carolina State University found that common tourist behaviour may be disturbing chinstrap penguins—whose colonies have declined by up to 77 per cent since 1971—and causing them to temporarily desert their eggs or young. Based on their findings, the researchers have since formed the Antarctica Tourism Action Group, a platform for researchers to make evidence-based recommendations for the management of tourism.
Antarctica isn’t the only vulnerable environment that suddenly seems to be on everyone’s list. Over the last 40 years, tourism to Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands has grown from 20,000 arrivals per year to more than 270,000. With these arrivals (and on the cargo ships that haul goods from the mainland to cater for them) have come unwanted visitors; some 1600 invasive species have been introduced since the 1970s. And that’s not even taking into consideration the carbon cost of travel to such a remote locale.
The number of chinstrap penguins has declined in recent years. Photo / Getty Images
But while the effects of tourism on ecologically significant environments are undeniable, the reality is that travel to these destinations is much more heavily regulated than elsewhere in the world.
In Antarctica, IAATO members follow guidelines set out in a roughly 1700-page-long field operations manual, which covers everything from how close tourists can be to icebergs, to the proper disinfecting of clothing to prevent the spread of invasive species and pathogens.
“We’re promoting safe, environmentally responsible tourism,” says Amanda Lynnes, IAATO’s director of environment and science coordination, and a penguin biologist. “We truly believe that Antarctica is so awe-inspiring and that [a visit] can define lives and give people a sense of their place in the world.”
In addition to carefully selecting a tour operator, individual choices can further reduce your impact. In the Galapagos, it bears considering that waste generation has increased from 17 tonnes per day in 2010 to 26 tonnes per day in 2019, according to the Galapagos Conservation Trust. That’s an increase of 66 per cent in less than 10 years—with other recent studies finding that at least 13 endemic species have ingested or become entangled in plastic on the islands.
Tourism to Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands has grown to more than 270,000 annual visitors. Photo / 123rf
“Be aware of the garbage that you are producing, the products that you’re buying, and how you support local economies by distributing your consumption,” suggests Diana Burbano, a researcher from Montreal’s McGill University. Burbano recently spent nine months living in the Galapagos, examining the sustainability of tourism development in the islands. She says that in addition to understanding how your holiday affects the environment, it’s also important to recognise this, in turn, affects local people.
“[Tourists] are sold this pristine idea of the Galapagos, its evolution, and Charles Darwin—but there are still people there; there are communities,” she says.
It’s advice that bears considering regardless of where you’re travelling. The reality is that there shouldn’t be a hierarchy of places deemed environmentally important. In an ideal world, we’d treat every destination like it was as fragile and as worth saving as Antarctica.
