At first glance, New Zealand’s wild landscapes seem almost perfectly suited to ecotourism, which has become the fastest-growing segment of what is already the world’s fastest growing industry.

But for all the successes, many see storm clouds on the horizon.

In the five years since the International Year of Ecotourism in 2002, anthropogenic climate change has gone from being a disputed theory to an almost universally accepted reality. For New Zealand, the isolated location at the bottom of the world that helped shape our unique environment also means that savvy and educated ecotourists who value sustainability and low-impact have to spew tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to fly here from America or Europe.