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December 2000
In a bid to attract tourists to their countries' natural gems, plus contribute to the protection of these biodiversity-rich wild areas, conservation groups and parks managers in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras recently forged the Mesoamerican Ecotourism Alliance. Alliance members learn from one another by sharing business plans and conservation strategies. They plan to present a package of nature destinations to visitors wishing to explore areas seldom seen by most tourists.
 Illustration by Allan Núñez ("Nano") |
According to José Quiñones, director of ecotourism and community development at RARE Center, the coalition can promote tourism to natural areas by "linking projects to one another, so people have opportunities to easily visit different areas in different countries - a cloudforest, a beach, a rainforest -- and benefit conservation at the same time." He explains that in order to join the alliance, groups must first do a business plan to ensure that tourism in the targeted area is feasible and can be profitable. They also must do an analysis of the possible threats that tourism poses to the protected area and surrounding communities and must demonstrate that they can link the benefits of tourism to management and protection of the reserve. They must also present a communications strategy for marketing the site.
"Members of the Mesoamerican Ecotourism Alliance all share this information," Quiñones says. "For example, they presented their business plans to each other and benefited from constructive criticism and feedback."
Before joining the alliance, the only current member that had a business plan was the conservation organization, Programme for Belize, he says. The group manages the 260,000-acre Rio Bravo Conservation Area in northwestern Belize. Programme for Belize's seven-year-old ecotourism program involves bringing individuals and groups to two field stations in the reserve. The La Milpa field station is near an archaeological site, one of 60 found in the reserve. Nine trails surround the station, and tourists may spot agoutis, howler and spider monkeys, ocellated turkeys, toucans, crested guans, and with luck, jaguar tracks. Another tour brings visitors to neighboring villages for a taste of local cuisine and a presentation on medicinal plants.
The Hill Bank Field Station is on the banks of New River Lagoon. In the 1700s, the British established a logging camp on the site, where African slaves were brought to fell massive mahogany trees, which were then dragged to the lagoon by oxen - in later years by train - and floated downstream to Belize City for shipping. Programme for Belize reports that by the end of the 1970s, some 7,000 trees were exported annually. By 1982, the valuable mahogany trees were depleted, so Hill Bank was abandoned, though many of the original camp structures still stand. Since only mahogany trees were extracted, the forest is still mainly intact and full of wildlife. Tourists can also paddle down New River Lagoon in search of crocodiles or visit nearby Creole communities.
Selini Matus, coordinator of Programme for Belize's ecotourism initiative, says that the group's tourism strategy has worked well and covers about 50 percent of organizational operating costs. Thus, she notes, ecotourism is directly contributing to efforts to conserve and manage the Río Bravo area, which represents some four percent of Belize's total land area.
"Ecotourism is part of our larger strategy to conserve the Rio Bravo area," she says. "A key principle of our ecotourism activities is to involve communities outside the protected area in this economic activity. "One way we do this is by providing direct employment. Service personnel for our operation are recruited from local communities and receive comprehensive training." Programme for Belize has also helped establish cultural and artisan groups that sell handicrafts to visitors.
Conservation groups like Programme for Belize reason that if local residents can derive an income from tourism activities, they are more likely to support and respect protection of neighboring reserves. Quiñones believes that that being part of the alliance has helped reserve managers understand the direct link between tourism and conservation.
Matus explains that Programme for Belize joined the Mesoamerican Ecotourism Alliance with the hope that it could "add value to our already successful tourism operation by marketing the Rio Bravo together with the tourism products of other sister conservation groups in neighboring countries to specific target groups that we would not have the resources to reach on our own." She adds that the best advice she can give other conservation groups hoping to draw tourists to a natural area is to be sure to prepare a thorough business plan first.
Jim Dion, RARE Center's assistant director for enterprise development, coordinates the alliance from Guatemala. His salary is paid by RARE Center for now, but the alliance itself is autonomous and has its own board of directors. Dion says a principal strength of the alliance concept is the way it has created "strategic affiliations between stronger, more experienced organizations and less developed groups, which are just starting ecotourism programs, within countries across the region."
While ecotourism can certainly add value to conservation efforts, he says, "it is not a panacea. We can not substitute ecotourism for other economic activities in communities, but we can supplement local income in this way."
According to project director Quiñones, over the next year RARE Center will provide alliance members with additional technical assistance through workshops at each site and help set up several tours to test market sample trip packages.
Contacts:
| José Quiñones RARE Center 1840 Wilson Blvd. Suite 402 Arlington, VA USA 22201-3000 Tel: 703/522-5070 Fax 703/522-5027 jquinonez@rarecenter.org www.rarecenter.org Jim Dion RARE Center jdion@@rarecenter.org |
Selini Matus Programme for Belize PO Box 749 Belize City, Belize Tel: 502/275-616 Fax: 501/275-635 pfbel@btl.net www.pfbelize.org |
Read more about this project on the Eco-Index www.eco-index.org
Illustrations by Allan Núñez ("Nano").
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