© Environment News Service (ENS) 2000
November 28, 2000

MADRID, Spain, November 28, 2000 (ENS) - To the World Tourism Organization, ecotourism deserves recognition, which is why the Madrid based United Nations body has declared 2002 International Year of Ecotourism.

To the Philippines environment ministry, ecotourism can be a dirty word, synonymous with biopiracy. Earlier this year, three French scientists were caught with illegally obtained plant specimens, believed to have medicinal values.

"At least one tree with cancer curing potential, four native vegetables, one snail which produces the most effective painkiller, an antibiotic soil fungus, one fruit tree and several rice varieties, have been stolen and are now owned by foreign pharmaceutical firms," said Antonio Cerilles, Department of Environment and Natural Resources secretary.

Cerilles was explaining his order to the country's parks boards to enforce a "no permit, no collection" policy.

Through biopiracy, he said, "firms and foreign governments secretly work with scientists within victim nations. They patent and map chromosomes of genetic resources without informing, consulting and duly compensating the sources."

Cerilles claimed that the Philippine yew (Taxus matrana) was uprooted from Mount Pulag national park, Benguet, and patented for its cancer treating potential by researchers from the University of Massachusetts.

The line between biopiracy and ecotourism is becoming increasingly blurred according to British environmentalist Chris Lang.

In an interview with Anita Pleumarom of Third World Network, Lang described how he participated in a conservation research tour program to Vietnam in 1993, organized by the UK based non-profit organization Society for Environmental Exploration (SEE).

During the 10 week expedition operating under the name Frontier, Lang observed volunteers collecting a wide range of plant and insect samples in the forests of Tam Dao Nature Reserve and Ba Be National Park, without permission from park officials. The specimens were later taken out of the country.

Frontier bills itself as an initiative that "brings ordinary people to the forefront of conservation research, enabling them to become involved in vital scientific work."

"Governments and other concerned parties should be alerted and seriously ponder the question whether it is wise to indiscriminately promote tourism forms that facilitate the stealing and smuggling of local biological resources and traditional knowledge, before necessary legal frameworks and administrative mechanisms are in place to effectively combat abuses and exploitation," writes Pleumarom.

Pleumarom doubts the world needs International Year of Ecotourism and a coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGO) agree with her. Last month environmental, human rights and indigenous peoples groups called for a fundamental reassessment of the UN Ecotourism Year.

"We are extremely concerned that this UN endorsement of ecotourism in light of all the fundamental problems related to the industry - in many cases another greenwash - will destroy more biodiversity and harm even more local communities," said Chee Yoke Ling, of the Third World Network based in Malaysia.

"I really think this is going to be worse than the launch of package tours to the Third World," said Nina Rao from India, Southern co-chair of the NGO Tourism Caucus at the UN Commission for Sustainable Development.

The UN General Assembly decided in November 1998 to prepare for International Year of Ecotourism. The UN Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) are organizing activities and projects around the event. The highlight will be the World Ecotourism Summit, to be held in Quebec, Canada, in May 2002.

UNEP and WTO list the following objectives:

Generate greater awareness among public authorities, the private sector, the civil society and consumers regarding ecotourism’s capacity to contribute to the conservation of the natural and cultural heritage in natural and rural areas, and the improvement of standards of living in those areas.

Disseminate methods and techniques for the planning, management, regulation and monitoring of ecotourism to guarantee its long-term sustainability.

Promote exchanges of successful experiences in the field of ecotourism.

Increase opportunities for the efficient marketing and promotion of ecotourism destinations and products on international markets.

Critics argue the UN has examined the ecotourism industry's negative impacts. In a letter to UNEP's tourism program coordinator, Oliver Hillel, signed by more than 20 groups, international agencies are blamed for "misguided and outright destructive development experiments," in the southern hemisphere.

"We oppose the idea that the International Year of Ecotourism serves as an instrument for ecotourism experiments in developing countries, which are likely to cause more harm than good," said the letter.

Ecotourism that targets indigenous peoples and their lands, ecosystems and cultures, has attracted criticism.

Deborah McLaren, coordinator of the U.S. based Rethinking Tourism Project that works for protection and preservation of indigenous lands and cultures worries, "that much of what passes as ecotourism is designed to benefit investors, empower managerial specialists, and delight tourists, not enhance the economic, social and ecological health of the host communities."

Rodney Bobiwash, director of the Forum for Global Exchange's Center for World Indigenous Studies stressed the need for a broader vision of indigenous concerns.

"More than anybody, indigenous people realize that the discussion of tourism must be situated within a larger discourse encompassing the discussion of environmental and habitat protection, sustainable development, traditional knowledge, intellectual property regimes, biological diversity, access and benefit sharing, biopiracy and cultural property," said Bobiwash.

The coalition's letter questioned claims that ecotourism rectifies economic inequalities, social injustices and ecological problems associated with conventional tourism. It warns, such developments have "opened opportunities for a whole range of investors to gain access to remote rural, forest, coastal and marine areas", and "more encroachments, illegal logging, mining and plundering of biological resources occur, including biopiracy by unscrupulous and corporate collectors."

The groups claimed that "governments are utterly ill equipped for the International Year of Ecotourism" and often "promote all forms of rural and nature tourism as ecotourism.

"Frameworks to effectively scrutinize, monitor and control developments are poorly developed or non-existent," continued the letter.

Finally, the groups warn that International Year of Ecotourism is ripe for exploitation.

"As nature based tourism is presently seen as one of the most lucrative niche markets, powerful transnational corporations are likely to exploit the International Year of Ecotourism to dictate their own definitions and rules of ecotourism on society, while peoplecentred initiatives will be squeezed out and marginalized," said the coalition letter.

To read more about International Year of Ecotourism, visit http://www.world-tourism.org/omt/ecotourism2002.htm. For more on the criticisms of the year, visit http://www.twnside.org.sg/tour.htm Error: Unable to read footer file.