Facing the Wild: Ecotourism, Conservation and Animal Encounters

Description

What do wild animals mean to humans? Will they survive both rampant habitat loss and extinction caused by human encroachment and, as ecotourists, our enthusiasm for them? With ecotourism now the fastest growing segment of tourism, and encounters with wild animals - be it swimming with dolphins, going on safari or bird watching - ever more popular, these are critical questions. Yet until now little has been known about why people crave encounters with wild animals and the meaning for the ecotourism industry, conservation efforts and society at large. Facing the Wild is the first serious empirical examination of why people seek out animals in their natural environment, what the desire for this experience tells us about the meanings of animals, nature, authenticity and wilderness in contemporary industrialized societies, and whether visitors change their environmental perspectives and behaviour, as the custodians of wildlife parks would like them to. The book explores the contradictions and ambivalence that so many people experience in the presence of 'wild nature' - in loving it we may diminish it and in the act of wanting to see it we may destroy it. Ultimately the book makes a case for 'respectful stewardship' of a 'hybrid nature' and provides insight for both practitioners and ecotourists alike.

Chilla Bulbeck is Professor of Women's Studies at Adelaide University where she teaches gender studies and social sciences. She has taught Australian Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University and Tokyo University.

"The main body of this survey of attitudes toward animals consists of information the author systematically gathered through surveys from visitors to zoos, reserves, and wildlife tourism destinations in and around Australia. Women's studies professor Bulbeck (Univ. of Adelaide) found a wide variety of views, most of them, given the context, favorable toward animals. Ideas of animals and human-animal relationships ranged from the 'cute and cuddly' to the heroic (people in wilderness) to materialist (meat). People loved dolphins and pitied disappearing marsupials. Bulbeck grounds the book in recent philosophy, especially feminism and ecofeminism, thus bringing in a much wider and deeper range of views. She recounts debates on the 'authenticity, ' 'naturalness, ' and emotional impact of animal experiences but does not include much biological grounding; this is a book of ideas, not zoology. Bulbeck concludes that humans have to take care of the Earth, now clearly bent to human use and under full human management essentially everywhere; however, she refrains from taking sides or spell out narrow agendas. Useful to anyone interested in seeing the range of viewpoints; oriented to professionals, but accessible to general readers. Summing Up: Recommended. Most levels/libraries."--E. N. Anderson, University of California, Riverside in CHOICE