Ecotourism and Law The island is losing its scenic beauty fast amid invasion of commercial tourism that

has led to a proliferation of hotels, resorts and shops, and has been stripping the island of its natural cover to satisfy the increasing human greed. The government must stop all unauthorised construction works, unabated extraction of marine resources and pollution of the natural habitat of wildlife on and around the island at the earliest, conservationists suggested. 'The St Martin's Islands is about to lose its existence although there are laws and rules to protect it from human greed.' professor Ainun Nishat, country representative of the IUCN-The World Conservation Union, told New Age Sunday. 'There are government agencies and laws. But the laws are hardly enforced.' Thirty-six privatelyowned hotels and resorts have already been built on the small quiet island and four others are under construction, according to sources at the island. None of the builders bothered to take environmental clearance from the department concerned. Private companies are also advertising to sell dozens of duplex cottages and resorts on the islands. Syeda Rezwana Hasan, executive director of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, called for recovery of land in the island from human interference and its proper maintenance. 'The construction works must be stopped as fragile eco-system of the island cannot sustain commercial tourism,' she told New Age Sunday. Ecotourism can be promoted only keeping the carrying capacity of the island in consideration, she said. Considering its rich natural biodiversity, the government in a gazette notification declared the island an ecologically critical area on April 19, 1999. Eco-tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world today. It is a form of natural resources based tourism focused on experiencing and learning about nature. The term ecotourism can be well described with the following five criteria: nature conservation, low impact, sustainability, meaningful community involvement, and environmental education. Environmental education must be fulfilled to perform ecotourism and is the step towards the process of understanding the natural ecosystems. The aim of environmental education is to teach and educate the people about the natural environments and ecosystems in order to live sustainable. Bangladesh is an attractive eco-tourism destination in south Asia. The present study discusses the implementation of environmental education to the society with the development of eco-tourism in Bangladesh. The people of the country are taught by educational programs, workshops, media, awareness activities, advertisements, and some other way for this purpose. So, collective efforts are necessary to foster clear learning regarding environment and concern about economic, social, and ecological aspects of eco-tourism.

Forest-based tourism is regarded as an effective tool for sustainable conservation of forest resources and its biodiversity. It plays both conservation and revenue earning roles. Conservation roles are played in two ways: by keeping intact, and somewhere by improving, the existing forest resources to attract the tourists and secondly by involving the poor forest dwellers, who were removing trees and other non-timber products for their livelihood, in different income generating activities within the ecotourism area. Tourism in Bangladesh is not a fully flourished, rather a developing industry. In recent times, with the gradual development of infrastructure facilities and increasing exposition, Bangladesh is fast emerging as a tempting tourist spot. This article is aimed at critically exploring various issues of forest-based tourism industry of the country, analyzing its problems and future priorities. The following section of the article describes potentials

and attractions of popular tourist spots in different forest areas and the succeeding sections critically analyze, among others, contribution and interrelationships of the stakeholders and their roles in sustainable tourism development. Existing strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats are discussed subsequently. The article ends with policy implications and concluding remarks with future priorities.