In the world of sustainable travel, the term ecotourism is a slippery fish. Just take it from environmental anthropologist Amanda Stronza, who wrote her Ph.D. about the term back in 1999, roughly a decade after the “ecotourism” idea was coined.
The professor at Texas A&M University has since published numerous studies about sustainable tourism models and conducted years of research on humanity’s complicated relationship with natural and vulnerable environments. One thing that sets her perspective apart is that it’s rooted in practical guidelines for humans as part of the natural, living world.
This diverges from some more extreme eco-ideologies that might insist anyone who cares about the environment must avoid flying at all costs, maybe go vegan and scrutinize every individual print they leave on Earth or emit into its atmosphere. While this more dogmatic ideal surely has some merit for the natural world — and kudos to anyone happily ...
