About 4 years ago I listened to a graduate student colloquium on
"eco-tourism," given by Clive Muir at NMSU. he had looked into the
particulars of ecotourism to find that in many places it is meaningless,
just a marketing tool. For example, several places didn't wash your towels
every day to conserve water and soap, etc., and called that ecotouorism,
another place had you live in a cabin in the jungle of Guyana "with" a
native family, who turned out to be your hotel servants. So I would remain
skeptical of anything that calls itself ecotourism.
-Tc
Anthony R. S. Chiaviello, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Professional Writing
Department of English
University of Houston-Downtown
One Main Street
Houston, TX 77009
713.221.8520/713.868.3979
"Question Reality"

> ----------
> From:         John Foster[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent:         Thursday, January 25, 2001 12:26 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: Conservation: You get what you pay for
>
> > Jim again:  Somewhere in the not-too-distant past on this list, I made
> the
> > statement, "Global conservation programs are paid for by countries with
> > money," a claim that raised at least one or two eyebrows here.  :-)
> But
> I
> > think Simpson is making a similar argument.  Conservation programs don't
> > pay for themselves . . . .  Nor is it clear how programs of "castigating
> > the rich" and other such anti-wealth policies (as discussed here on the
> > list last month) will actually pay for such things as biodiversity
> > protection.
> >
> > Thoughts, comments, reactions?  (I just thought I'd ask--it's been
> rather
> > quiet lately.)    :-)
> >
> > Jim T.
>
> I don't know Jim. Ecotourism is big business here in BC. It is estimated
> to
> be a least a $1 billion industry. Many of my friends are employed in the
> industry here running backcountry ski and hiking lodges. There are the dog
> sledders, the kayakers, and so on. What I find remarkable is that it is
> not
> the rich nations, the patrons of the poorer nations, that are essentially
> the cause of this wealth generation, but rather it is a combination of
> persons living in both 'hemispheres'. I have travelled extensively in
> Latin
> American countries and know for instance there are a lot of persons that
> spend money in Costa Rica, for instance in venues like "Key Largo" which
> was
> and is still a 'cat house'. There are 5000 prostitutes in the city of
> Costa
> Rica [Tico Times]. Their clientele are not the young and adventurous young
> bucks from the Marines, the clients are older, often retired, and these
> clients do not value kayaking, mountain climbing or horse back riding.
>
> When a North American goes to a restuarant and orders a shrimp pizza they
> are sending their ecotourism dollars to places like Ecaduor, and Costa
> Rica,
> where shrimp are harvested not from indigenous mangrove swamps and
> estuaries, etc., but more often, and increasingly from man-made shrimp
> farms
> that have been built by destroying mangroves. Half the worlds mangroves
> have
> dissappeared because of this. The WWF has encouraged and invested in the
> establishment of extensive areas of teak plantations in Costa Rica on
> former
> depleted agriculture lands where rainforests previously existed. These
> plantations are not biologically diverse forests but more like orchards
> tended frequently by labourers. In the north of Costa Rica is a truly
> remarkable area called Guanacaste, and this area is referred to as a dry
> tropical forest. In the past this area was used for raising cattle. This
> is
> the area where there are hematophagous bats that suck blood from cattle
> and
> people occassionally. The conservation organizations and the government of
> Costa Rica have removed most of the cattle from the conservation areas
> with
> the result that the very tall grasses have fully restored. This area is
> one
> of the most affluent areas of Costa Rica now because of conservation.
> There
> is only one little fishing village on the coast not far from Nicaragua.
> The
> value of the tourism is enormous and recently there was a proposal to
> build
> an international airport to serve destination tourist. The whole plan was
> turned down because of the value of conservation. The impact of a large
> tourism facility, which would have been much like Cozumel, Mexico, would
> have destroyed the ecology along the coast.
>
> Instead the Costa Rican government is doing something different. The type
> of
> tourism that is being developed there is 'low impact' with very small
> 'centros-ecologicos'. These are usually small family owned operations
> which
> cater to small groups of people or individuals. The average one is really
> much like a small 'finca' or 'beach side' cabinas [go to Bahia Drake for
> instance and it will be difficult to return] and a 'central area' or
> 'cosina'. The centro usually has a range of activities that it will
> provide.
> They usually refer the tourist to another 'entrepreneur' who is a nature
> interpretor that speaks either spanish or english, or a person that has
> horses to ride and so on. As well as the many Ticos there are many
> non-Ticos, some of whom have taken up citizenship, and some of whom are
> newly arrived, which cater to tourists.
>
> The overall impression after having been in these Latin American countries
> is that the small scale family eco-tourism  businesses are very low impact
> especially in comparison to Hawaiin stye and Cozumel style tourism which
> caters to the Sea-do, car driving, and heavy parting crowds that like to
> socialize with their own english speaking, non-indigenous comrades. The
> whole ecotourism industry is very large, much larger than most people
> understand that live and work in the commercial and ivory towers would and
> could appreciate.
>
> It is not the 'dollar' value that is that large, it is the 'human value'
> that is large. Almost all the ecotourist guides that I have hired are very
> affluent in the sense that they usually have a university education, speak
> more than one language, or they are living with money in their pockets,
> money in the bank, and have lots of leisure time and good health. They are
> much more 'rich' in many ways than the average North American because they
> do not have mortgages, and 8-4 jobs, 5 day work weeks, and do not have to
> work half as hard as most people to simply 'get by' here in North America.
> Many of the Canadians, US citizens and Europeans that I met in Costa Rica
> and Peru told me that they moved to get away from the 'materialism' and
> the
> 'boredom' of the 'rat' race and meaninglessness of the culture here. They
> say they would never return to whence the came, and none of the persons
> that
> I met have returned. I would not return if I was in their situation. Life
> is
> better there in the tropics or in the high Andes than it is here in many
> ways. Ecotourism is an ancient industry, and if you go to the north of
> Peru,
> to Piura, Chimbote, and Trujillo, you may want to forget all about the
> North. And when you are their along the coast, that is what happens, you
> do
> forget the past, and you learn about a new past, a past that you thought
> does not exist any longer. They still fish along the coast with
> 'cabollitos'
> or small horses. These are small boats made from reeds and they have been
> used for over 2 thousand years. On Lago Titicaca there are small islands
> with people living on them that never seem to be busy at much else than
> watching livestock, fishing, and knitting. The men there stand around
> knitting. The women spin the wool. The yonger people are going to
> universities and trade schools more often because they have good paying
> ecotourism jobs. [remember a dollar goes 4-5 times as far in these areas
> than here in NA]. One village I stayed in had an electric generator that
> was
> installed by the government. At night though the village was dark, and I
> asked them why the village was dark, why the electricity was turned off?
> They told me that the did not want the noise and the lights and preferred
> the lamps from kerosene. They said that the noise and the glare of the
> lights were 'awful' and I had to agree. The stars in the sky over this
> island and huge lake were ;0 unbelieveable because of the elevation of
> 4750
> meters above sea level.
>
> My Greek friends said the area reminded them of Greece, and they told me
> that they felt at home. The houses are made from adobe with walls that are
> two feet thick. The is virtually never any frost and there is no need to
> heat the homes. There island was inhabited thousands of years ago and
> there
> are stone walls arranged in squares on the tops of the hills where sacred
> festivities are enacted on behalf of the gods in the skies. To my thinking
> there is something timeless about these areas and cultures that I cannot
> comprehend because in our culture change is constant....one day I will
> awake
> and because there is so much change I will not recognize where I am nor
> who
> I am. I feel that [dread] that I will be mistaken myself for someone else,
> I
> may not recognize myself [Kafkaesque] but in Peru they instantly know me
> as
> Juan. (well having blue eyes and blond hair it is easy).
>