Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

Very few people travel to visit the Amazon especially in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. In the absence of tourist money these amazing ecosystems are being turned into agriculture and logged. In the protected areas supported by eco tourism the sound of the insects is deafening. But a few miles away in the banana plantations the area is completely silent. Even on “organic” banana plantations every insect is killed.

I walk an old logging trail near my house. 5 years or so ago I was walking and came across a lady slipper. Then another and another. I stopped counting at around 100. I've never seen so many in one place. It was incredible. I stopped taking people there when they've bloomed to help preserve them. It's a free and public place, but on a lightly travelled road so it doesn't actually get much traffic. Anyone that takes that walk at the right time of year will see them, but I've no interest in helping the inevitable happen if word gets out.

Yeah, only publish stories about coral bleaching, animals going extinct, and forest fires. Censor any good news at all costs!

I think it depends. In developing countries, ecotourism even when poorly managed is better for conservation than uncontrolled fishing/farming.

Not in developing countries. Especially not when in the commons (e.g. territorial waters). Awareness + western tourism is often the only way these things get protected.

Hey there Mr. Jambo

What's the point in it existing then? Just for a couple of the chosen few?

I'm aware that lots of people can be destructive, but there's a balance.

Shut up about the exact location, but do tell us about it. Just make it hard enough so the ignorant tourism industry cannot find it.

That and being 175 feet below the surface. You’re not getting “sunscreen” on mesophotic coral.