How to minimize your impact on fragile places

No matter what you do, your mere presence will make some impact on any given environment, so keep that impact short term and minimal. These tips apply to remote wilderness as well as your own backyard.

Hiking

Keep erosion to a minimum: don't be tempted to create a new track or take a shortcut. Stay on the existing trail where possible even if it's muddy or there's room to walk alongside.  

While you're admiring the view, try to keep one eye on your feet! Particularly at high altitudes and latitudes, native flora can be very slow-growing. It can take years to regenerate after being crushed by your muddy boots.

Take your rubbish home with you if it can't be properly disposed of along the way.

Take a strong water bottle and boil or purify your drinking water, rather than buying bottled water: the scourge of the 21st century is shaping up to be discarded plastic water bottles...

Toilet Hygiene

Tent pegs make good shovels: if you get caught short on the trekking trail, dig a hole at least 15cm deep (or 30cm in hot areas), on the lower side of the trail, preferably at least 100 meters from it.

Take a cigarette lighter and burn your toilet paper. If there is a risk of fire, or the ground is too hard or stony to dig a hole, use leaf litter or rocks to cover.

Make sure you're at least 100 meters away from any watercourse.

Washing and water pollution

If bathing or swimming, consider the sensibilities of local people - both regarding what you wear and the fact that you're using 'their' water. Bathe downstream from water collection points or villages and avoid using soaps (particularly ones containing phosphates) in fresh waterways.

Wildlife watching

Be aware of suggested or legal approach distances and other recommendations for observing wildlife. A basic rule of thumb is if the animal is altering its behaviour due to your presence, then you're too close. The best wildlife watching is when you get to see the animals' natural, often quirky, behaviour. Invest in a long camera lens and binoculars.

Don't be tempted to buy souvenirs made from wild animal products, including skins, ivory or bone. Not only is it illegal to import or export them in most cases, you're likely to be supporting poaching practices that have had devastating impacts on animal populations. Similar principles apply to wooden products: check you're not purchasing a chunk of old-growth rainforest.

“Responsible tourism is not the full or only answer to the future sustainability of tourism. But unless we shift our attitudes to tourism and travel we'll lose the wild places, the traditions and the eccentricities of the world. Life will be far more homogenized and far less surprising, and our spirit will be the poorer for it”.