From Exploitation To Friendship: Creating Eco-tourism with Doug Thompson, Robin Kobaly, Diana Hart

MP3 Download A small group of visionary naturalists is helping indigenous people develop new industries that preserve their culture, and their environment. Doug Thompson, and Robin Kobaly are at the center of the emerging eco-tourism movement. They bring people from all over the world to visit the Grey Whales of Baja, Mexico. But it's not about intruding on the animals' habitat. With stringent controls on the number of visitors and the length of their stay, guests venture out in tiny boats, then watch and wait for the whales to come to them. The experience changes lives for the humans who come face to face with the largest animal on earth. And the future of the whales is changed as well, as fisherman and their families discover they are richer in every way when they let the cetaceans live. It's good news for all of us, for as Robin Kobaly explains, "When we come back from wilderness, that's when we seem to bring our best inspirations to help humankind, and our own selves, too. If we do