Tourism and its Effect on the Daintree Rainforest
Tourism is perhaps the most detrimental environmental force to the Daintree’s vulnerability. The Daintree Rainforest is a massive 1 200 square kilometres and is the largest rainforest in Australia yet it is still facing major environmental impacts because of the sheer amount of tourists visiting every year. Despite the fact that the forest has now been heritage listed as of 9th December 1988 people are still able to buy the land and build on it, whether its apartments, roads or town houses this is unacceptable. Because of all the tourists there is more and more deforestation happening in the Daintree to make space for the increased amount of hotels and
roads that are needed. As well as this the water is being polluted due to the increase of the number of ferries required for transport. How are the biotic and abiotic factors being affected, and what is actually happening because of tourism? Each year there are more than 400 000 tourists that visit this area; this has many negative consequences on the biotic as well as the abiotic factors of the environment. With interest in the Daintree Rainforest growing, more transport is required and thus increasing the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Not only buses, coaches, cars and 4WD’s but an extraordinary amount of ferries are also used for getting people to and from the rainforest. These ferries are polluting the water ways from which the trees of the rainforest receive much of their nutrients as well as it being a huge supply of drinking water for the animals of the Daintree. This problem is affecting both abiotic and biotic factors of the rainforest, the abiotic being the pollution of the waterways and air, and the biotic being the polluted water from which the animals are drinking. As a consequence of human impact on the environment there are now OVER 120 native plant and animal species that are threatened. Studies have been conducted and it has been concluded that there are now only 2000 cassowary’s left in the wild. Tourism to the Daintree cannot be stopped however the impact that humans have on the environment can defiantly be minimised. Impact on the animals, and therefore the ecosystem Tourists have a massive impact on the animals that inhabit the Daintree Rainforest. As stated in the previous paragraph deforestation is not unfamiliar in this area. As a result of this, animals such as the Bennets Tree Kangaroo, White Lipped Frog and the Ulysses Butterfly are all losing their homes and gradually moving from threatened to endangered species, and the cassowary is already endangered. If anything was to die out there would be massive problems with both the ecosystem and the food chain. If we want to avoid putting even more on the endangered species list action must be taken now, no matter how big or small! |
Strategies that are currently in place to reduce our impact on the Daintree Rainforest
There are now certain boundaries and restrictions that have been put in place to minimise the impact that we (humans) have on the Daintree Rainforest. As well as a lot of programs and organisations with their mind set on buying it back. Rainforest Rescue’s ‘Daintree Buy Back and Protect Forever’ Project buys parts of the rainforest that are of high conservation value and at risk of development. They then begin a nature refuge on the rebought land which under the laws of the Queensland government, protect the area forever. “Our vision is to buy back and protect all remaining high conservation value properties in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest by 2030.” To help them reach this goal they sell things such as cards and have websites from which you can donate money including this one. Similar to this the 'Australia Rainforest Foundation' aims to purchase privately owned land in the Daintree so that they can protect it from development. Other than programs targeting deforestation the Queensland government has now set a limit on the number of ferries able to cross the water every week. This reduces the amount of pollution being released into the water and therefore cleans up the purity of drinking water for a lot of animals. Our effect on the Daintree Rainforest is colossal both short term and long term. Every day we are polluting the air and the waterways just to get tourists there in the first place. In the long run we will be short a couple of hundred species all because we were careless about the way we do things. 120 native plant and animal species are already facing massive threats. The Impact of Tourism on the Daintree Rainforest Tourism in the Daintree Rainforest is having massive effects on both the biotic and abiotic factors of this environment. Stopping tourism entirely would be impossible and ridiculous as it has so many positive outcomes, however we CAN think about new ways to minimise our footprint so that future generations can experience the same remarkable thing that those other 4million people did over the last ten years. |