How Tourism Can Protect the Rainforest | Global 3000

2010-08-04 137

The Amazon basin is home to trees, water and scores and scores of rare animals and plants. It is also the location of an enormous oil reserve. Decades of exploitation have devastated large parts of the rain forest, but up to now, Yasuni National Park in eastern Ecuador has been spared.It is home to one of the most species-rich places on the planet. In 1989, UNESCO named the park a biosphere reserve. With sustainable tourism, the area's native inhabitants have found an environmentally friendly way to keep the travel business booming.