No one has mentioned the social and environmental benefits of birding
travel.

In the last few years, I have started to travel abroad on birding tours.
Some of these tours have been to very poor countries. I have asked my
local guides whether they think eco-tourists do any actual good, and
they all agree that money spent on food and lodging, local guides and
park employees, handicrafts, etc., directly benefits the local people.
For example, in Madagascar, one of the poorest countries in the world, a
maid at a lodge catering to eco-tourists can support her entire family
on what she earns. A job like this may seem menial to us, but can be
crucial for an uneducated woman with very few other options. A village
in Madagascar lives off of the income from carvings the villagers make
from sustainably-harvested wood and sell to tourists on the way to a
nearby nature preserve. In turn, these people depend on there being a
nature reserve or other intact habitat to attract the tourists, and this
develops a constituency for preserving these natural areas. When
eco-tourism is an important source of revenue, people see a direct
benefit to themselves in protecting the environment. We see this
happening in the US as well. Sometimes it seems like every town along
the Texas border has its own birding festival. A friend told me he
overheard a conversation in a cafe in Forks, a place not generally known
for progressive views on the environment, in which one local chided
another for complaining about birders. He told him that birders bring
money into the community. Obviously, eco-tourism alone isn't going to
save the world, but the self-interest of people that benefit from it can
be a force for good. It makes me feel a little less guilty for all that
jet fuel.

Rachel Lawson
Seattle
rachelwl at msn.com