{"id":25872,"date":"2026-07-28T14:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T07:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tvpalm.com\/?p=25872"},"modified":"2026-07-28T14:34:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T07:34:20","slug":"can-tourism-really-protect-a-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvpalm.com\/fr\/can-tourism-really-protect-a-forest\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Tourism Really Protect a Forest?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Streams
Streams in Tay Con Linh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I don’t believe a business can protect a forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If one day we no longer exist, I still hope Tay Con Linh will be as green as it is today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a forest can only survive because of a tour company, then it isn’t a forest with a future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A forest must be protected by the people who live alongside it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We only hope to contribute a very small part of that story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After many years walking alongside forest rangers, Dao people, and families living at the foot of Tay Con Linh, I’ve come to understand something very simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one gets up each morning thinking they’re going to go protect nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ranger just shoulders his pack and enters the forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dao woman just goes up to the field to pick tea, the way her mother and grandmother did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A father simply tells his child not to cut trees in the headwater forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These actions repeat, day after day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quietly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Known by very few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it is precisely these ordinary things that have kept the forest alive until today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other side, a forest doesn’t disappear in a single day either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn’t begin with the sound of a saw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It begins when people no longer see their future in that forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When protecting the forest means becoming poorer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When young people have to leave the village to find other work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a tree is seen only as money that can be sold today, rather than water, shade, and soil for many years ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not a story unique to Tay Con Linh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a choice that very many mountain communities around the world have had to face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s why I don’t think tourism was born to save nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s too large an expectation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But tourism can do something smaller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And perhaps more realistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Help the people who are protecting the forest have one more reason to continue their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A guide can make a living from his knowledge of his homeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A family can have extra income from their own kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An ancient Shan tuyet tea tree continues to be cared for because it holds long-term value rather than being cut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When these things happen, tourism doesn’t protect the forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People protect the forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tourism just helps make that choice more sustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s also why we don’t try to run as many trips as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not because more people in the forest means more love for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes the opposite is true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A forest becomes just another destination when too many people enter without anyone truly listening to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We choose small groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We decline itineraries that don’t fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don’t promise sightings of the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not because that’s a way of standing out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But because we believe nature shouldn’t have to change to meet human expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is humans who need to learn to behave appropriately toward nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone once asked me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘What do you hope for most after a trip?’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a five-star review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a beautiful photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not even that they come back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I hope for most is that, many years later, standing before some forest somewhere, they will naturally speak a little more softly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walk a little more slowly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally not break a branch just to take a photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally ask permission before pointing a camera at someone they don’t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not because anyone reminded them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But because it has become a reflex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Tay Con Linh can leave in a person just that one small change, I think the trip has had meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe one day you’ll have forgotten the name of the stream you crossed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forgotten the climb that tired you out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even forgotten the name of the guide who walked with you the whole way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe you’ll also have forgotten us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s perfectly normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I only hope that one day, in a forest far from Tay Con Linh, you’ll suddenly slow your pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not because there’s a sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not because someone is asking you to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But because you know that every forest has its own rhythm of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And humans, if they truly love a place, sometimes the right thing to do is not to leave their mark on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to leave so that place remains untouched \u2014 just as it was the day you first stepped into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that happens, then for me, that is already the most beautiful meaning of travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not bringing many people to a forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But from one forest, having more and more people who know how to care for other forests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is also the greatest gift Tay Con Linh can give to all who have passed through here.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n 5\/5 - (148 votes) <\/div>\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Streams in Tay Con Linh I don’t believe a business can protect a forest. If one day we no longer exist, I still hope Tay Con Linh will be as green as it is today. If a forest can only survive because of a tour company, then it isn’t a forest with a future. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":24683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-journal"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvpalm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvpalm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvpalm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvpalm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvpalm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25872"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tvpalm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25878,"href":"https:\/\/tvpalm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25872\/revisions\/25878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvpalm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvpalm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvpalm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvpalm.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}