How a Citizen Science Organization Aims to Preserve the Places It Brings Tourists to Study

公民科学组织如何保护其带游客前往研究的地区

Deep in the Peruvian Amazon, the Tamshiyacu Tahuayo Regional Conservation Area boasts enormous biodiversity—pink dolphins, rare monkeys, giant river otters, reptiles, and hundreds of birds and different types of plants. It’s also one of the most prominent examples of a government recognizing that environmental conservation doesn’t require keeping people out. That instead, it’s possible for humans to coexist with nature and help protect it.

在秘鲁亚马逊雨林的深处，塔姆希亚库-塔瓦约（Tamshiyacu Tahuayo）区域保护区拥有极其丰富的生物多样性——粉红海豚、珍稀猴类、巨型水獭、爬行动物，以及数百种鸟类和各类植物。这也是政府意识到“环境保护并不意味着必须将人类拒之门外”的最显著案例之一。相反，人类完全有可能与自然共存，并协助保护自然。

And the region’s protected status is supported, in part, by research conducted by tourists.

该地区的保护地位在一定程度上得益于游客所进行的研究工作。

Biologist Richard Bodmer has been welcoming visitors to his research station along the Yarapa River, on a strip of Indigenous territory between Tamshiyacu Tahuayo and another area co-managed by Indigenous communities, the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, to help track wildlife and collect other ecosystem data for decades. His guests arrive through a partnership with Earthwatch Expeditions, a tour company that connects people with scientists carrying out long-term research projects around the world and invites them to engage in “participatory science.” Earthwatch runs nearly two dozen trips: to study the ecosystems of polar bears in the Arctic, whooping cranes in Texas, trees in Acadia National Park, and large mammals in Kenya, among others.

生物学家理查德·博德默（Richard Bodmer）几十年来一直欢迎游客来到他位于亚拉帕河（Yarapa River）沿岸的研究站。该研究站坐落于塔姆希亚库-塔瓦约与另一个由原住民社区共同管理的帕卡亚-萨米里亚国家保护区（Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve）之间的原住民领地上，游客们在此协助追踪野生动物并收集生态系统数据。这些游客是通过“地球观察探险”（Earthwatch Expeditions）的合作项目来到这里的。该公司致力于将普通民众与全球各地的长期科研项目联系起来，邀请他们参与“参与式科学”。目前，Earthwatch 运营着近二十条考察路线，包括研究北极的北极熊生态系统、德克萨斯州的美洲鹤、阿卡迪亚国家公园的树木以及肯尼亚的大型哺乳动物等。

In the Amazon, research guides the daily activities of the (typically) eight-day itinerary. Participants sleep on a restored vessel first brought to the region at the start of the 19th century to transport rubber. Solar energy is used to power air conditioning and provide hot water for showers. The goal, Bodmer says, is to support conservation strategies that protect ecosystems and the people who rely on them simultaneously. A bonus is that economic activity tied directly to keeping those ecosystems intact helps to remind the government that effective conservation is valuable in its own right.

在亚马逊，研究工作指导着（通常为期八天的）行程中的日常活动。参与者居住在一艘经过修复的船上，该船最初于19世纪初被引入该地区用于运输橡胶。太阳能被用于为空调供电并提供淋浴热水。博德默表示，其目标是支持那些既能保护生态系统，又能保护依赖这些生态系统的人民的保护策略。额外的好处是，与保持生态系统完整直接挂钩的经济活动，有助于提醒政府：有效的环境保护本身就具有巨大的价值。

Every evening, participants identify their research targets: choose a particular animal they’d survey, in a particular location and across a specified radius, during a particular window of time. Searching for parrots and other birds means taking a small boat up or down the river. “There, we would watch and wait,” says Jared Katz, a psychotherapist in Vermont who joined an Earthwatch trip earlier this year with his wife, Jennifer Jewiss. “One of us held a GPS and would call out the coordinates at each of the stops we made that morning, and someone else had a clipboard and grid to record the data. The others of us (and those two as well) watched for flight.”

每天晚上，参与者会确定他们的研究目标：选择在特定的时间窗口内，在特定的地点和半径范围内调查某种特定的动物。寻找鹦鹉和其他鸟类意味着要乘小船顺流或逆流而行。“在那里，我们就是观察和等待，”来自佛蒙特州的心理治疗师贾里德·卡茨（Jared Katz）说。他今年早些时候与妻子詹妮弗·朱伊斯（Jennifer Jewiss）一起参加了 Earthwatch 的行程。“我们其中一人拿着 GPS，在当天上午停靠的每个点报出坐标，另一个人拿着写字板和表格记录数据。我们其他人（包括那两位）则负责观察鸟类的飞行。”

The collection of data over time has led to a greater understanding of the ecosystem. For instance, Bodmer says, birds shifting where they roost might suggest changes in the aquatic landscape; the recent flooding in the region appears to be impacting primates, which move easily across the canopy, less than animals living on the ground.

随着时间的推移，数据的积累使人们对该生态系统有了更深入的了解。例如，博德默指出，鸟类栖息地的改变可能暗示着水域景观的变化；该地区近期的洪水似乎对灵长类动物的影响较小，因为它们可以轻松地在树冠间穿梭，而对生活在地面的动物影响则更大。

What stands out about Bodmer’s Amazon riverboat trip is that travelers spend time in a region that’s now government-protected and Indigenous-managed—in part because of the findings of his previous research groups.

博德默的亚马逊河船之旅最引人注目之处在于，游客所停留的区域如今已成为政府保护区和原住民管理区，而这在一定程度上要归功于他之前研究小组的发现。

The actual ecofriendliness of ecotourism varies a great deal. In general, small-scale operations, local ownership, and community involvement are key, says Gyan Nyaupane, who researches ecotourism, protected area management, and Indigenous Peoples and serves as the director of Arizona State University’s Center for Sustainable Tourism.

生态旅游的实际环保程度差异很大。亚利桑那州立大学可持续旅游中心主任、研究生态旅游、保护区管理及原住民问题的吉安·尼奥帕内（Gyan Nyaupane）表示，总体而言，小规模运营、本地所有权和社区参与是关键。

And while the easiest way to minimize your carbon footprint and protect natural resources is to not travel, and often the most appropriate way to engage with remote communities is to leave them alone, the reality is that governments want to see economic growth. “What is the best approach to economic development? Is it better to mine these places? Or build dams, clear land for agriculture?” says Nyaupane. “Ecotourism is probably more sustainable than any other extractive industry.”

虽然减少碳足迹和保护自然资源最简单的方法是不去旅行，而与偏远社区接触最合适的方式往往是互不打扰，但现实情况是政府希望看到经济增长。“什么是经济发展的最佳途径？是开采这些地方更好吗？还是修建水坝、开垦土地用于农业？”尼奥帕内问道，“生态旅游可能比任何其他采掘业都更具可持续性。”

Across the ecotourism and conservation-focused travel sector, location affects how sustainable the logistics can be—electric vehicles may not be available in some environments, for example, or the base camp for the trip may not use renewable energy. That always creates tricky math—when is something a necessary part of the process, and when does it resemble something closer to hypocrisy?

在整个生态旅游和以保护为重点的旅游行业中，地理位置会影响物流的可持续性——例如，在某些环境中可能无法使用电动汽车，或者旅行的大本营可能无法使用可再生能源。这总是会带来棘手的算术题：什么时候某些事物是过程中的必要部分，而什么时候它又更像是虚伪的表现？

In the Amazon, Bodmer gets closer than many to aligning daily activities with the greater purpose of environmental conservation. The research station was recently converted to 100 percent solar power, according to Earthwatch Expeditions, and Bodmer says they’ve eliminated diesel fuel—not a small feat in remote regions, where diesel-powered boats are common and generators ubiquitous—and that they source most of their food locally. It runs air conditioning only when it’s especially hot, and otherwise, unlike many companies that accommodate clients’ comfort and convenience to a fault, tourists have to learn to be hot.

在亚马逊，博德默比许多人更接近于将日常活动与环境保护的宏大目标保持一致。据 Earthwatch Expeditions 称，该研究站最近已全面转为使用太阳能。博德默表示，他们已经淘汰了柴油——在柴油动力船只和发电机随处可见的偏远地区，这绝非易事——而且他们的大部分食物都是本地采购的。只有在天气特别炎热时，他们才会开启空调；而在其他时候，与许多过度迁就客户舒适度和便利性的公司不同，游客必须学会忍受炎热。

“They could have run air conditioning 24/7, with generators, no problem at all, but that wouldn’t have felt good,” says Katz. “It was hot and absolutely uncomfortable at times. But it was well worth it to me, because I knew we were being better stewards.”

“他们完全可以用发电机 24 小时开着空调，一点问题都没有，但那样感觉就不对了，”卡茨说，“有时确实很热，非常不舒服。但对我来说这非常值得，因为我知道我们正在成为更好的守护者。”

(Earthwatch Expeditions is updating other trips to lower their impacts as well, the result of an agreement it signed this year with Natural Habitat Adventures. The company says it’s investing in the development of electric safari vehicles for trips in Africa and working on an all-electric skiff in the Galápagos Islands, for example.)

（Earthwatch Expeditions 也在更新其他行程以降低其影响，这是其今年与 Natural Habitat Adventures 签署协议的结果。该公司表示，例如，他们正在投资开发用于非洲旅行的电动游猎车辆，并正在加拉帕戈斯群岛研发全电动小艇。）

“Field assistants” like Katz and Jewiss pay a flat fee, currently set at $4,795—that will jump next year to meet the costs of Natural Habitat’s initiatives—to spend the week with Bodmer and contribute to the research that he and colleagues in the region have done over time. That body of research is considered to have had a significant impact on global conservation strategy in the last couple decades.

像卡茨和朱伊斯这样的“实地助理”支付一笔固定费用（目前为 4,795 美元，明年将上涨以支付 Natural Habitat 的倡议成本），与博德默共度一周，并为他和该地区同事长期以来的研究做出贡献。这些研究成果被认为在过去几十年里对全球保护战略产生了重大影响。