Eco-Touring: The Ultimate Guide

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

Eco-Touring describes wonderful places that one might choose to visit
for their ecological interest and richness. This updated and expanded
edition covers 30 nature destinations around the world (the original
publication won the World Wildlife Fund’s Panda Book of the Year Award
in 1994). Many of the destinations are in national parks or nature
preserves. Each is described in about five pages of text accompanied by
exquisite photographs. One page is devoted to basic tourist information
about the area.

Reducing complex ecosystems to a few pages necessitates superficial
and/or focused treatments. For example, Jasper National Park appears as
a nature destination under the title “Bear country.” The description
includes a black bear–cyclist encounter, as well as observation of a
wolf–moose encounter and of no fewer than four grizzly bears fighting
in a meadow. All of these events are said to have been witnessed from a
vehicle, which the author declares to be the “easier and safer” way
to see the park. However, the chances of visiting Jasper front country
during peak season and encountering all of those events without leaving
a vehicle are very slim. The description reads more like a distillation
of several individuals’ experiences. Therefore, the intensity of
experience described for all of the destinations must be taken with a
grain of salt.

Overall, this is an attractive book that does whet the appetite of
anyone looking for ecotourism destinations. Recommended for public
libraries, research libraries supporting ecotourism, and coffee tables
everywhere.