Running a country that has giant-winged bugs, toothy reptiles lurking in soupy water and enough humidity to frizz-out anyone’s hair? No problem. You might have a great money-maker on your hands.

Eco-tourism - travel that preserves the environment and promotes the welfare of local people - continues to gain momentum. Impressed by the success of countries like Costa Rica and Ecuador, which have lured flocks of travelers for mountain treks and jungle safaris, a growing number of regions across the globe are turning to eco-tourism as a strategy for economic growth.

Omar Bongo, the president of Gabon, a developing country in west central Africa, has set aside about 10 percent of the country’s landmass for 13 national parks. Green Visions, a tourism and environment protection company, based in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, is pioneering an eco-tourism development plan in Central Europe with “green adventures” that promote environmental principles and support local businesses. Even Greece, better known for its pumping night life and archaeological monuments, devotes a section of its national tourism Web site to “Greek nature” and eco-tourism.

Here lies the problem of tourism, and eco-tourism in particular, in the developing world. The truth is that the most sustainable forms of tourism are urban. It is the towns and cities that have the systems (transport, retail, accommodation) and the diversity and stability of people to cope with tourist influxes.

Yet the demand for and image of eco-tourism is almost exclusively rural: fragile lands, native people, and wilderness. The rural image is one supported by The International Ecotourism Society in the US, which defines eco-tourism as: ‘responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people’.

For Sri Lanka, the false promises in the name of ecotourism have had worrying consequences. Nirmalan Dhas, leader of the Indian Tamil Network, describes the impact: ‘Teams of prospectors equipped with luxurious four-wheel drive vehicles and gear have begun scouring the countryside in search of every last little nook and cranny… some are speedily positioning themselves to purchase the lands and homesteads of peasants who have lived for years along the borders of the rainforests.’

The claim, so often made, seems justified: eco-tourism has the potential to distort and pollute the very cultures it purports to be concerned about.