Green profits of tourism.

• Author: Hardman, Chris
• Position: IOjo! - Mesoamerican Ecotourism Alliance - Brief Article

A UNIQUE BUSINESS venture is asking conservationists to think like businesspeople as they work to preserve their region's biodiversity. Members of the Mesoamerican Ecotourism Alliance (MEA)--Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico--are pooling their resources to offer ecotourism products that provide one-of-a-kind experiences while supporting conservation programs.

MEA is a program of the RARE Center for Tropical Conservation, a U.S.-based not-for-profit organization that has worked in the region for three decades. RARE guides MEA conservationists in the development of business plans, competitive products, and effective marketing strategies. The goal is to teach conservationists how to compete with established tourism businesses.

"Marketing is a very big tool. The organizations that form a part of MEA can't necessarily do that on their own," says MEA president Herbert Haylock. "This initiative gives us the opportunity to be able to market a product as a group."

Haylock represents Programme for Belize, a pioneer in offering ecotourism to support conservation in Belize. Through MEA, Programme for Belize and the other member organizations can market their products to European and North American tour companies, increasing their exposure and revenue potential.

"They can share the resources they have, they can increase their marketability, they can increase standards of operation, and then directly link ecotourism to conservation and local community development," says RARE tours manager Jim Dion.

Although RARE currently funds MEA, the business plan calls for MEA to be self-sufficient in five years. MEA trips offer some amazing opportunities for conservation-minded tourists to explore some of Mesoamerica's most beautiful protected areas, and, according to Dion, travel itineraries for multinational, multi-ecoregion tours are a product unique to MEA. For example, a recent tour led by noted ornithologist Robert Ridgely--author of The Birds of South America and Birds of Panama--took participants on an adventure searching...