NATURALIST AT LARGE 



Traveling Green 



Tourists who want to vote with their pocketbooks 

 for sustainable practices can consult networks that certify 

 ecotourist operators. But who certifies the certifiers? 



By Carol Goodstein 



The palm-lined shores of Bocas 

 del Toro — a group of small is- 

 lands on the Caribbean side of 

 northwest Panama — attract a bountiful 

 assortment of species. The waters are re- 

 splendent with hundreds of tropical fish, 

 colorful sea stars, spiny lobsters, and mas- 

 sive coral formations. Four species of 

 sea turtles, all endangered, come ashore 

 every year to nest, laboriously pulling 

 themselves onto the beaches. 

 Also here, on the sandy 

 grounds, is the species that 

 sets itself apart: the human, 

 both visitor and inhabitant. 



Ten years ago few foreign 

 visitors knew anything about 

 the abundant life-forms on and 

 around these beaches. Then, 

 word of mouth and a booming 

 ecotourism industry that is 

 transforming Latin America 

 brought thousands of tourists to Bocas 

 del Toro. The tourists come to see the 

 sea turtles nesting, snorkel among the 

 blooming coral reefs, and meet the lo- 

 cals. Yet, if the very presence of tourists 

 starts to disrupt the fragile ecosystem 

 they came to see, everyone — native in- 

 habitants, tourists, wildlife, the environ- 

 mental movement as a whole — loses. 



One native of Bocas del Toro, a man 

 named Milford Peynado, was well ac- 

 quainted with those concerns five years 

 ago when he began to build some sim- 

 ple hotel rooms next to his house on 

 Carenero Island. The rooms he built are 

 not far from a group of rustic fishermen's 

 homes and a smattering of other hotels 

 and restaurants along a narrow beach. 

 For years Peynado relied on fishing for 



his livelihood. But a steady decline in 

 crab, lobster, and octopus populations 

 forced him and a number of other is- 

 landers to look for alternative incomes. 

 A welcome influx of tourist dollars 

 brought wealth to the community, but 

 resident entrepreneurs were still wary of 

 protecting their slice of island paradise. 



TOURISM 



So Peynado and fellow residents band- 

 ed together to stave off what could be- 

 come the high price of popularity. The 

 idea was that sustainable tourism could 

 benefit all of Bocas del Toro s inhabi- 

 tants, including the migrant sea turtles, 

 but only if it was approached as a long- 

 term commitment — that is, only if it 

 was designed to be sustainable. 



Tourism ranks among the worlds 

 largest and fastest-growing indus- 

 tries. According to the UN World 



Tourism Organization (UNWTO) — 

 which serves as a global forum for pol- 

 icy issues affecting tourism — more 

 than 800 million people travel inter- 

 nationally and domestically each year. 

 Some observers predict that tourist ar- 

 rivals will grow by 4 percent or more 

 a year in the next two decades. Such 

 growth could bring the total close to 

 a billion travelers by 2010. 



Unregulated, all that globetrotting 

 can overwhelm the resources at natur- 

 al sites; uncontrolled ecotourism may 

 displace local people, threaten wildlife 

 by introducing non-native species, and 

 pollute the area. Moreover, evidence 

 suggests that tourists are being drawn 

 in increasing numbers to the hotspots 

 of biodiversity — the very places that 

 need protection the most. 



Yet tourism can also be a powerful 

 conservation tool. Conservation and 

 wildlife protection often require direct 

 financing, which can be extraordinar- 

 ily expensive. In Rwanda, for instance, 

 which is still recovering from years of 

 genocide, tourism has 

 helped protect the 

 mountain gorilla pop- 

 ulation and its habitat. 

 Tourists visiting Pare 

 National des Volcans, 

 about a ninety-minute 

 drive from Kigali, pay 

 $375 each to accompany a local guide 

 who can track lowland gorillas for a day. 

 The national park generates $1 million 

 annually for the Rwandan govern- 

 ment, which is used to support the 

 management and operation of the 

 country's protected areas. For the Gala- 

 pagos Islands, tourism generates as 

 much as $38 million a year. Belize levies 

 a conservation tax of $3.75 on every 

 foreign visitor who leaves the country, 

 generating about $750,000 a year. A 

 percentage of that money, too, goes in- 

 to a national trust and back into the 

 country's natural areas. 



Of course, compared with the cap- 

 itals of world tourism — think of Italy 

 or Greece — those are paltry receipts. 

 Yet it would be a mistake to conclude 

 that for countries such as Belize, 

 Ecuador, or Rwanda tourism is unim- 



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NATURAL HISTORY July/August 2006 



