ABSTRACT
This chapter places ecotourism within its broadly historical context, in order to chart the major philosophic and social currents that have contributed to its development. We approach this chapter’s question by looking closely at the human/nature relationship and the interaction between them for, as we have seen in Chapter 1, ecotourism by definition relies on the natural environment as its basic resource. This, however, tells us little, for the logging, mining, pastoral and fishing industries all rely on the environment in fundamental ways. However, differentiating specific activities is crucial in determining the relationship between human activity and the environment, especially in understanding the specific values that such activities embody and this will help us to understand the shift in value of nature that ecotourism embodies.
