In TRAVELER’s July/August issue, Mel White describes the international effort to make ecotourism work in Madagascar, where countless unique species teeter on the edge of extinction. The basic principle of true ecotourism is simple: Visitors pay to see wildlife, and their money provides residents with a financial incentive to save the wildlife’s habitat. Otherwise, Madagascar’s forests are cleared for desperately needed farmland.

But what if ecotourism itself endangers the animals and their habitats? In some cases, poorly managed ecotours trample vegetation, disturb wildlife, and provide inappropriate incentives to the local guides. If, for instance, you tip your guide according to how many different animals he can show you, he’ll use any means possible to get wildlife to appear. Attracting creatures with taped bird or animal calls is one way. Harmless now and then, but if the guides do it every day, over and over, it can disrupt animal feeding and breeding. One tour operator in Africa would even use territorial owl calls to attract male owls to the campsite and get them to fight.

This month, the Tourism Forum asks:
Do you think ecotourism does wildlife more good than harm?

—Jonathan Tourtellot Jonathan Tourtellot is a TRAVELER senior editor.