He doesn't see animals merely as objects a lion as a large wild creature with four legs and a mane, and divorced from its environment. Those are questions that an ecotourist might ask. Reconciling the interests and priorities of the First and the Third World. It made a powerful impression on me, but I don't think squalor should be part of an ecotour. That's a subject for sociologists and journalists.
Poverty is a disgrace for humankind.
Ecotourists want to see the finer things in life, and how traditional people live not the miserable adaptations of poor people trying to have a modern existence. Maybe what's required is a new kind of tourism, which you might call sociological tourism, or tourism of poverty. Your current definition of ecotourism speaks of economics, not just ecology. Sure, it concerns the economics of these areas. But the central experience must be one of enlightenment through discovering beauty.