What is Ecotourism?

The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) defines ecotourism as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people."
According to Ron Mader from Planeta's Web site most definitions of ecotourism boil down to 3 main components to explain what ecotourism is:
1) It provides for conservation measures
2) It includes meaningful community participation and
3) It is profitable and can sustain itself.
One problem with defining ecotourism is that it has to take into account each countries unique culture, society, and economics. It would therefore be impossible to come up with one exact definition worldwide.
I recently spent a year living in Mexico. There were no recycling facilities that were easily available, but if you look at the culture you see that these are a people that waste very little. So they might be given a zero in terms of recycling, but that would be misleading.
Another problem I see is that if a group of people is on a subsistence level, then how can you spark interest in the environment? When you are consumed with feeding your family, it is hard to worry about the plight of some endangered animal. So perhaps efforts need to be directed on creating jobs and educating local people. I see this as an important point and leads back to Ron Mader's definition of ecotourism, that it include meaningful community participation.
By creating jobs and educating local people it becomes easier to provide conservation measures and make it become profitable and sustain itself.
As with most things, ecotourism is evolving and so is the definition.
One thing that needs to be addressed head on is the impact that ecotourism might have on the local wild animals. Studies show that wild animals get stressed when people are around. It is therefore our responsibility to stay on designated paths and carry binoculars. If we keep our distance, we improve the chances of wild animals prospering.
For some thoughts and ideas about how you can minimize your impact when travelling: Eco Guide
Below you will find a link to amazon with some more reading on eco tourism.