Eco-packers
Backpacker Essentials: October, 2006

The travelling world is being asked to examine its collective conscience and evaluate the long term impact of travel on the globe. Jo Hegerty buys into the discussion.

‘Tax on international flights will increase by 150 percent and domestic flight prices are expected to double overnight when the environmental impact levy comes into effect on Friday 27 November.’
Travelnews.com, 12 November, 2020.

Forget Thailand, ditch Dublin and wave goodbye to Perth; flying could get pricey. Observers are calling for air travellers to pay the price – to the environment – for their flights or to give it up all together. This would throw the travel industry back to the 1950s, that is, a time without backpackers.

I have to say, I was pretty miffed when I saw Tony Wheeler’s name, co-founder of Lonely Planet, headlining the chorus of those saying ‘flying is bad’. It’s alright for him – he’s been everywhere already! It was Wheeler and his wife Maureen who inspired me as a spotty 14 year old to announce to my family, ‘I’m going trekking in the Himalayas.’ They laughed. Little did they know that I had an LP Nepal stashed under my pillow – my inspiration, my bible. That book taught me that travel was my right; it would improve me and broaden my horizons.

Today the horizon is scarred with a web of vapour trails and I find myself 16,000 kilometres from home, in England. The last leg of my journey starts with a 12-hour flight to Singapore, then on to Port Moresby, Cairns and Sydney, meaning that I will personally be contributing to 7.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. That’s the same amount of greenhouse gas produced by two vehicles over an entire year.

I’m not alone: there are 700 million international travellers a year, a figure expected to double by 2020. The planes we take are noisy, polluting things run on kerosene, which leaves carbon dioxide at a high altitude where it heats up the earth. But the temptation to hop a flight is hard to resist; flight prices can be ridiculously low, even on a backpacker’s budget. This is particularly the case in Europe and the UK where it’s significantly cheaper to fly to Scotland from the south than it is to get the train.

I’m not a jetsetter, that’s for sure. My backpacker budget reads something like, ‘One flight per 20,000km’, but the fact of the matter is that I come from a large island far from anywhere and flying is a necessary evil. Even Wheeler accepts that plane travel is unavoidable: ‘I’m not going to stop,’ he says, ‘But every time I jump on a plane I think “oh no, I’m doing it again”’.

The united front of the guidebook militia (Rough Guides’ Mark Ellingham shares Wheeler’s views) is a good thing for the planet. Their shock tactic worked and it’s not just pollution on the agenda, words like ‘sustainable’, ‘responsible’ and all with the prefix ‘eco’ are creeping into travellers’ mindsets – not just the tree-hugging types, but tourists and backpackers alike.

I have to confess that until now I assumed that being a backpacker automatically made me an earth-friendly traveller. A recent survey by Tourism Queensland entitled Ecotourism, the Internet and Backpackers, confirmed my suspicions, describing the budget traveller as a ‘probable ecotourist’. That’s me to a T: accidental environmentalist.

I’ve trekked on reclaimed-tyre paths, washed from a bucket when water is scarce, and as for getting around: 65 people to a minibus is totally energy efficient. See, I must be an ecotourist, allow me to switch on my solar-powered halo.

The International Ecotourism Society defines ecotourism as ‘Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and promotes the wellbeing of local people’. Respect for the land, river or forest is something that comes easily to most backpackers – it’s been drilled into us by Lonely Planet, after all, and ‘grass roots travel’ by its nature benefits local communities. It’s their rooms or beds we rent, their food we eat and craft we haggle for. And we tend to stay close to the ground when travelling, choosing buses and trains over planes through sheer necessity. Sure, if I’d had an extra $50 I would have hopped on a flight rather than endure the 26 hour bus ride from Laos to Surat Thani, but I didn’t and the earth is better off for it, apparently.

Until now, when people bemoaned the negative impact of tourism, usually citing Koh Samui, Machu Picchu or Spain’s south coast as examples, I thought ‘that’s not my fault’, but this new era of responsible travel awareness has made me think twice: maybe being broke and full of goodwill just isn’t enough.

Next week I’ll be in Papua New Guinea, considered one of the final frontiers of tourism. It’s wild, beautiful and uncharted (according to my Lonely Planet), so needs to be visited with a responsible attitude – and this means more than taking along a bio-degradable soap.

Before booking tours, renting a bed, buying meals and everything else that we do when we travel I need to stop and think, ‘does this cause any harm to the natural surroundings? Will it benefit the community? Does it affect the locals in a negative way?’ It’s quite a change to when I first set out four years ago. The questions in my head then were: ‘am I being ripped off; will I get bitten by fleas; are there hot showers?’ In short: me, me, me.

There’s not a lot I can do about having to fly home – I don’t think the UK Home Office would accept ‘environmental reasons’ for setting up permanent residence, but I can pledge to be a responsible traveller from here on in.

Which leaves me with my 16,000 kilometre trail of pollution.

One answer, the best that anyone’s come up with after abstinence from flying, is carbon offsetting. The idea is that you pay a company or charity an amount befitting your crime and they ‘reinvest’ it in the earth. Rough Guides and Lonely Planet have pledged to donate money to Climate Care to offset the CO2 emissions of their 650 staff as they travel the world updating their guidebooks, handing out energy-efficient light bulbs in South Africa and stoves in India on their behalf. There are similar home-grown schemes in Australia, such as Green Fleet or Carbon Neutral, which focus on reforestation within Australia.

No-one’s touting carbon offsetting as a solution to climate change – having 30 trees planted in NSW is one thing, knowing that China plans to buy 2,600 new planes in the next 20 years is another – but it’s something that everyone should think about. After the round-the-world flight, insurance and all your gear, what’s another $200? Especially if it means that we can continue to travel the world.

Because that’s the reason that Wheeler is calling for change: so that future generations of travellers can get out there and experience the world in all its humbling glory. Backpackers have led the way in modern travel, let’s take it to the next level – and don’t forget the biodegradable soap.
Responsible Travel Tips

Do…

· Travel: it’s the only way to learn about the world and it brings vital income to poorer nations.

· Read up before you go, learn the customs and social etiquette. Don’t rely on your guidebook, get on the net and talk to people who’ve been there.

· Check that the tour you’ve booked is truly eco-friendly and that the locals will benefit. Don’t be afraid to ask for their responsible travel policy.

· Hire local guides, eat in local restaurants, shop in markets for produce and souvenirs.

· Question establishments where children are working. Are they being kept out of school because chasing the tourist dollar is more lucrative?

· Use biodegradable soaps and detergents.

· Stay on marked trails and watch your feet. Some mosses, for example, take hundred of years to grow.

· Use public transport.

· Be aware of the environmental issues in that country. Is your hot shower being heated by logged wood in Nepal, for example?

· Bargain sensitively.

· Tell the locals that their homeland is beautiful; it will inspire them to protect it.

Don’t…

· Think that your way is the best or only way; take your lead from the locals.

· Be a slob. Locals make an effort to look their best, why should you wear ripped or grubby clothes?

· Upset the balance. Think about your actions, would it damage the place if locals followed suit?

· Use soap within 50m of a fresh water source.

· Touch or feed wildlife, or pick the flowers.

· Forget you’re a guest in someone else’s country.

· Waste water or energy.

· Litter, even if the locals do.

· Don’t take anything with excess packaging.

· Buy products made from endangered species, hard woods, shells or ancient artefacts that may have been stolen, check out www.cites.org to know what is restricted in that country.

· Fly if there’s another way to get there. Chances are the journey will be as interesting as the final destination.

Resources

 * Code Green: Experiences of a Lifetime. Published by Lonely Planet. Also see lonelyplanet.com/responsibletravel
 * responsible-travel.org has everything you need to know. Read every page before you next travel.
 * Learn about the certification standard that’s leading the world at ecotourism.org.au
 * The International Ecotourism Society ecotourism.org
 * worldsurface.com is an online travel magazine focusing on sustainable adventures and experiences.
 * Use the Green Fleet ‘Tree Totaller’ to calculate your carbon dioxide emission and work out how many trees you need planted to offset your emissions. greenfleet.com.au
 * carbonneutral.com.au is a non-profit Men of the Trees organisation that plants trees on your behalf.