Ecotourism and Conservation

The Paria Springs Model
www.pariasprings.com

Lecturer: Courtenay Rooks - Naturalist
11th March 1999

Introduction
Ecotourism and sustainable development some say are oxymorons. How can tourism, which has destroyed and continues to destroy many of our planet’s most beautiful and delicate ecosystems, be involved in conservation? Can true ecotourism effectively conserve, or be a partner to conservation of a natural area or a culture if it is done with careful planning, implementation and a sincere effort to make the bottom line more that just financial rewards.

First let me explain ecotourism’s evolution. There have always been people who wandered the earth in search of experiences with nature. It may have been to experience nature as an observer or to hunt. One of the more famous nature tourists was Charles Darwin. How did this form of nature tourism turn into ecotourism? During the 60s’ came the flower power generation of hippies. They wanted to experience nature to the fullest, first hand, and to include everyone in their experiences. They became the first people in large numbers and as a generation to ask what are we doing to our planet, in doing so became the first generation of environmentalists. By the late 70s’ they had settled down, and gotten good educations and jobs. During the early eighties they got into making wealth but by the mid to late eighties they started to ask themselves; what have I become? With their new wealth they started to take vacations that reflected their roots they wanted to go on Camel trains, or Birding tours of the Caribbean or Latin America. These people started to push the tour companies they used to travel to nature destinations to act in an environmentally, and culturally responsible, and responsive fashion. The tour operators had to respond since these tourists represented a lot of potential earnings. This was the genesis of Ecotourism.

What is Ecotourism?
There are many different definitions of Ecotourism.
The Ecotourism Society says “Ecotourism is responsible travel to natural areas which conserves the environment and improves the welfare of the local people.”
IUCN defines it as “Environmentally responsible travel and visitation to relatively undisturbed natural areas, in order to enjoy and appreciate nature (and any accompanying cultural features - both past and present) that promotes conservation, has low visitor impact, and provides for beneficially active socio-economic involvement of local populations.” This definition is from Hector Ceballos-Lascurain who originally came up with the word “ecotourism”, he says he was thinking of liking eco from conservation and eco from economy in a form of responsible tourism.

Certain key components can be seen from these definitions: Responsible travel, nature, conservation, culture, and beneficial to local communities.

Responsible Travel: Vacation travel where the tourist acts in a responsible fashion. They do not: use lodgings that drain the local economy by exporting all their profits, discard their waste indiscriminately, hire few locals, or fail to practice sustainability. They want meaningful interactions with locals, showing them respect and concern for their dignity. Ecotourists will assist the promotion of local conservation efforts both financially and with physical effort. Some will take these issues home to the First World countries as their own crusades. Most of the effort to save the Amazon comes from ecotourists in the North.

Nature: This dates back to ecotourism’s roots of the tourist’s desire for interaction with nature and a desire to interact with the world’s last wild areas. They now have specialty interests such as SCUBA diving, birdwatching, kayaking, natural history or adventure hikes.

Conservation: Ecotourists are looking for a destination that is actively engaged in the conservation of the natural areas around the lodge or country where they are staying. This also extends to conservation of culture, especially old or indigenous cultures and peoples. Mostly, the ecotourist is willing to put his money where his mouth is. Over 95% of ecotourists will financially support a worthy local conservation effort.

Culture: Real interaction with local peoples, not some native dance done on the deck of a massive cruse ship. But real interaction, staying with them, enjoying an evening at the local bar, helping them cook a meal, discussing local difficulties and assisting with solutions.

Benefits local communities: A very high percentage of the tourist dollars must go back to the local communities. Where possible they hire local guides, stay at locally owned lodgings, and they support programmes that uplift local communities both financially and through physical effort.

All the different key components in ecotourism must be present for it to be considered a true ecotourism destination. For example, if you do a wonderful hike into a rainforest, but contribute nothing to its conservation, you have practiced nature tourism not ecotourism. Or if you visit an indigenous community using a foreign guide and contribute nothing to the local community, you have done a community tour. ALL the components must be there for it to be real ecotourism. In the same way a tourist must act responsibly to consider him/herself an ecotourist, one must educate themselves on how to act responsibly and what are the ecotourism issues.

Conservation:
Conservation efforts around the world experience many difficulties.
Lack of finances: Conservation always comes way down on the list government spending. What government will put 50 million into conservation of some agoutis or ocelots rather than repair of roads? No matter what we do this is how politicians look at it. They will spend money in areas that will get them votes and as yet the conservation push is not that strong.

Another problem is that Third World countries where most of the world’s remaining wildernesses are located are notorious for not knowing how to access first world funding for conservation efforts, as I have found recently in my Paria Springs efforts and after 14 years at IMA.

No political support for the effort. Given voter’s opinions on conservation it will be a long time before a Trinidadian politician will be voted into office because he is seen as “green”. In the US their President is seen as “green” representing the nation’s consciousness as a whole, but the Republicans, seen as anti conservation, have most local seats. This is because when we see the nation as a whole we see it must be conserved, but when you say we must not build that new industrial complex to conserve the near-by wetland, we vote for jobs. In the USA with the current Presidential race Gore is seen as a friend of the environmental movement but it is still not strong enough to give him the win. In Germany the Green Party won the last election but has had to rescind on many promises to stay in power. Look at the EMA; here we have enough political will to start the EMA, but not enough to give it teeth.

Understaffing. Since small budgets are given to conservation efforts they cannot afford to hire the required personnel to effect conservation through adequate studies and stopping of illegal activities in conservation areas, i.e., logging or mining. Forestry is an excellent example of this.

A public that sees conservation as good but still litter and have their “wild meat” when they want it. If you talk to any Trini they will tell you that conservation is good, they need to stop loggers, stop hills from burning, while they toss away the doubles wrapper or empty their car’s old oil down the nearest drain. The waste left after the Benny Hinn meeting was horrendous, but you have to understand that these are some of our most caring citizens.

Pressure to utilize the area in other unsustainable developmental ways. Unfortunately wildernesses by its very nature have some resource that other want to utilize. It is beautiful so lets build a 50-story hotel here and sell nature. Oh, wow, look at those wonderfully big cedar trees.

Education. This is a critical issue, most will tell you that education is the way forward, but we are a long way off from environmental issues being taught as a subject in schools. People will not start to act in an environmentally responsible way until the have a real grasp of the issues.

How can ecotourism assist?
This will show what real ecotourism to positively affect conservation.
Lack of finances. As first world countries become more and more environmentally conscious, more desirous to take vacations far away from their concrete jungles doing their new found hobbies of birding, hiking, cycling etc. They will want to spend their US dollars on a vacation in our forests, wetlands, savannas, i.e., ecotourism sites. If Government set up proper National Park systems they can gain funding to conserve these parks through the ecotourism dollars earned from visitation. Most ecotourists in order to have a “feel good” feeling about their vacation they are willing to have some of their vacation budget spent on conservation of the area they visit. Ecotourism destinations can set up systems to have money sent local conservation organizations for many years after they have left.

Understaffing. As a part of community efforts an ecolodge can train or support the training of locals to become wilderness rangers, or managers. Most ecotourism destinations will lead tours through conservation areas, their mare presence can deter illegal activities, or if the tour leaders see any illegal activities they can report these activities to relevant authorities, making the need for rangers less. The ecotourism developments can also fund research into the ecosystems of the conservation areas and supply this information to the authorities to use to effectively manage these areas.

A public that sees conservation as good but still litter and have their “wild meat” when they want it. As I see it Ecotourism developments have a duty to educate the local communities on the real issues of conservation. What is the agouti’s or ocelot’s role in the ecology of a rainforest, and what are the true implications of throwing a piece of plastic out your window. All the environmentalists I know understand the implications of their actions.

No political support for the effort. As more and more people are employed in ecotourism then if a politician wants to stay in power he must ensure that these job are secure and more are created by assisting ecotourism and not supporting unsustainable uses of natural areas. This was clearly demonstrated in Toco with the propose development of the Port.

Pressure to utilize the area in other unsustainable developmental ways. If we can show local communities that if they cut down a tree they may make TT$500, but if they leave it the may make the same $500 this year and the next and the next, then they make $600 and $700 off it. This will convince them it is better to conserve rather than destroy. The same applies to governments.

Education. A local might visit Paria Springs for a day of relaxation but will leave with the knowledge of what are the implications of cutting down rainforests, but also with a sense that I have a responsibility to conserve my heritage and I have the power to effect the changes needed. This comes not just from education or from the experience of nature. Trinidadians have been doing both for many years, ecotourism will assist by combining the two; educating while experiencing, this has a much stronger impact.

The Paria Springs Model:

Aims and Objectives:
The aims and objectives of Paria Springs Eco-Community is to be a truly Environmentally Sound, Sustainable tourism Development, that, in partnership with the local community, is dedicated to the preservation of the environment, biodiversity, ecology, culture and community. These aims and objectives are expected to be achieved through Ecotourism, Permaculture, Science, and Education.

Ecotourism will be established on Paria Springs involving the whole community. The facilities will be constructed of natural products in harmony with its natural surroundings. A traditional cocoa house will be constructed to become the Administration building. Mouth watering local cuisine will be served at the Restaurant, constructed of wood and overlook a small cliff. Accommodations will be rustic duplex cottages built of earth in the ancient Carib Amerindian tradition, Ajoupa, with comfortable beds, solar heated showers and ceiling fans, each with its own private deck with hammocks. The layout of the facility will be similar to that of a traditional Carib Amerindian village, with the guest rooms forming a semi-circle around the main administrative building. The tourism business aspects will be managed by a limited liability for profit company called Paria Springs Eco-Community Limited.

Paria Springs Trust, who’s aim is conservation of biodiversity and culture through research, a non-profit company, will manage the Science, Educational, Permaculture aspects of the project. With this is in mind the following aims and objectives of Paria Springs Trust were developed.

Development and promotion of research projects that cover a wide variety of disciplines which are geared towards the development and promotion of all aspects of conservation and community.

The co-operation with national and international, public and private organizations in the development and promotion of the research projects.

The attracting of funds to Paria Springs Trust from national and international, public and private organizations, for:
The development and promotion of the research projects.
The purchase of lands for the purpose of conservation of biodiversity and culture.
Advocacy and steps towards mitigating unsound and unsustainable environmental practices.

Empowerment and mobilization of the community through education, and the planning and implementation of common goals through community programs in an enabling environment.

Development of Permaculture.

Some of the research projects already initiated are:
Censuses on flora and fauna:
Identification of endangered flora, fauna or habitats:
Studies into how the community uses the natural products;
Research into quantifying and monitoring of carrying capacity for ecotourism;
The forest web;
Reforestation of disturbed areas.
Developing Paria Springs as a permaculture site. This will be used to education the community is environmentally sound farming practices, so it will remain as a farming community ad-indefinitum.
Paria Springs Trust will encourage researchers interested in conducting other research projects in this area as we have already been doing. Examples of this are; Evolution of White-bearded Manakin Lekking Systems, by Lisa Shorey (1998 to 2001); also, The Testing for Bioluminescence in Proctoporus shrevei by Vassili A. Zakhartchenko (December 1998).

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List of EcoTour Operators