Sustainable tourism: an oxymoronic delusion?

On the other hand, working in tandem with these dark forces, are the race-baiting, soft green yuppie leftists who collude with growthism in the name of social justice, yet somehow manage to cloak it with a respectable environmentalist ethic. Caught with us in this “squeeze of the sleaze”, this excruciating, ineluctable drama of greed, hypocrisy and myopia, are local wildlife, which the growth coalition with brazen duplicity celebrates while holding it out as bait to attract new arrivals whose motto should be “I came, I saw, I destroyed”.

Economic considerations then become part of a more “holistic” paradigm, whereby “environmental” sustainability is balanced off against “economic” and “cultural” sustainability. This “three legged stool” model of viability represents what may be termed “the fallacy of equivalent concerns”. The economy is, as Herman Daly famously noted, “a fully owned branch plant of the environment”. We make a living in an economy, but we live in a biosphere.

Many advocates see ecotourism as a mechanism to assist indigenous or traditional groups, who comprise 5 per cent of the global population, maintain their culture. But Brock University professor David A. Fennell, in his article “Ecotourism and the Myth of Indigenous Stewardship” (Vol. 16, No. 2 Journal of Sustainable Tourism) has shown that “ecotourism research abounds with cases where traditional lifestyles (for example, fishing and farming) have been displaced by hotels, golf courses and other tourism developments”.

Fennell’s references comprise some one hundred studies and books. Citing King and Stewart (Biodiversity and Conservation 5, 1996), he makes the point that “the onset of tourism forces a shift in the relationship between indigenous people and the environment, ‘from a source of direct sustenance with a use value to a commodity with an exchange value … from one of working with the land to one working for tourists.” It is a shift seen in northern Canada “where the cash economy translates into the ability to purchase newer forms of technology and transportation for the purpose of reaching harvesting sites.”

While the travel industry may employ 200 million people throughout the world, those millions represent, after all, only 3 per cent of the population, and the income they generate is seldom weighed against the staggering costs, both environmental and economic. One needs to ask, would we sacrifice critical habitat for 3 per cent of our population if doing so increased the likelihood of die-off of 90 per cent (or more) of our global population?

To answer in the affirmative would surely place one in the company of those who say that the local pulp mill must be maintained at the cost of severe environmental damage because it employs so many people, or that the Alberta Tars sands development should not be shut down because it is now vital to the livelihood of so many people.

To argue that we can flood an ecologically sensitive area with tourists, but at the same time protect it, is delusional and contradictory. There are many case histories to showcase my point, but the Galapagos Islands will do nicely. I have enumerated its problems, and salient is the point that tourists need services, which need people to provide them. Hotels, motels, roads, cars, auto mechanics to maintain them, doctors, nurses, dentists, dental assistants, school teachers to instruct the children of service workers etc etc. And the provision of those services cannot be satisfied by local labour. Even if they had the requisite training and skills, the number of local workers is insufficient to meet the growing demand for their services as the “protected” areas gain fame.

Not surprisingly, since the tourist boom began in the early 70s, the human population on the Galapagos Islands has increased 14-fold. This has resulted not only in visual damage and the introduction of foreign species, but also an increase in solid waste generated by the extra 130,000 residents. It is not really about the irresponsible behaviour of tourists, but their numbers. Because their numbers generate ancillary services, which then require people to render them. And it must be noted that nascent commercial greed grows along with tourist numbers and stimulates more tourism by aggressive marketing. But the joke is on the local businesses. Because the cruise ships and the big tour operators external to the locality rake off the big profits.

You can post educational signs on every trail and hire vigilant park wardens to supervise tourists. But these defences cannot cope with large numbers. That realisation has dawned on Ecuador’s green-left President Rafael. His first move was to begin the expulsion of the illegal immigrants on the Galapagos who took up jobs in the tourist industry. Imagine a left-wing President coming down on poor, immigrant service residents. Good on him.

Some sober critics have praised his actions, but argue that a cap must be placed on the number of tourists as well. But President Rafael wants to have his cake of ecological integrity and eat it too. He wants the $350 million in tourist revenue but not the tourists. A conundrum. Without services, he will satisfy the demand for a cap because many tourists won’t come. Then the cruise ships will fill the vacuum. Tourists can come to visit, wreak havoc on nature, then return to their floating hotel with all services provided on board. Environmental damage but without state revenue. So where is the advantage? To big off-shore tour operators, obviously. Certainly not to wildlife.

The Sierra Club believes that national parks and areas like my own cannot be effectively defended if they do not build up a constituency of political support by allowing more and more visitors to enjoy them. In other words, we need to degrade our treasures in order to promote their preservation. This is a pernicious argument. I can fight for animals without disturbing them with my presence. Let a handful of wildlife biologists do the filming. I am thrilled to see flora and fauna in the wild - that is why I live where I do - but their survival trumps my enjoyment.

No doubt numerous palliatives and controls (for example, changes in the tax regime) can be offered to mitigate the tourist assault on the environment and the social structure of small local communities that exist at the gateways. But in the context of the corrupt and apparently insuperable power structure that prevails, these measures seem utopian or hypothetical at best.  In the more environmentally fragile zones of precious biodiversity at least, it is clear that we must stop tourist growth, not manage it. This effort would reprise David and Goliath, except that it would not likely duplicate David’s success. But heck, why not go for it? Anything less would be unsatisfactory.