Lucia Prinz, business development manager for Rare’s Enterprises program, shares her thoughts on the challenges and opportunities for developing locally-run ecotourism businesses.   

The focus areas of RARE´s Enterprise Development Program are often found within Biosphere Reserves, characterized by the presence of indigenous populations often excluded from the economic and social development in their countries.  These areas are also affected by high levels of unemployment and the lack of opportunities for significant income generation.   The consequence is that people have a very low income, so they have to subsist on agriculture, fishing and hunting activities and the application of these activities often depletes the natural resource base.

The principal objective of ecotourism projects is to look for sites with ecotourism potential within protected areas, and to train local people to become tourism service providers, thus moving away from unsustainable resource extraction practices. I am sure it is very challenging for all the organizations that work in tourism to achieve this goal.  First, training local community members to work in ecotourism takes a long time, given that the concept of “tourism” alone is very abstract to them and most communities have never done an activity like that in their lives. In some cases, we influence a change in their culture, since by introducing tourism we introduce a new way to earn money – after hunting and farming has been the norm for generations. Another challenge we face is to teach people with a very low education level to become entrepreneurs and expect that in a short period of time they can manage a multitude of tasks such as marketing, negotiating with tour operators, and manage all the logistics related to a complex industry such as ecotourism. And if you think these are not challenging enough, we still have to link the benefits of ecotourism with conservation of natural resources … because in the end that is our main goal.

Elmor Wood and Lucia Prinz (right) in the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, site of a Rare-supported ecotourism enterprise that both helped develop.   

At the International Ecotourism Conference in Oslo a discussion was generated on how to really impact conservation through ecotourism. At the community level, ecotourism can address certain threats to the natural resource base through job creation and substitution; however, this does not necessarily translate into a positive impact on conservation. As long as the demand for non timber and timber forest products remains strong in developed countries, people in developing countries will devote themselves to supplying this demand. At the macro level, in order to impact conservation we need to work with governments in reinforcing and creating better conservation policies for protected areas, and in investing money and resources to enforce environmental laws.

At the community level, in order to impact the conservation of natural resources ecotourism projects should have a two strong components. One component should be to train people in a variety of income-generating activities (ecotourism, forestry, handcrafts etc.) while facilitating access to markets to sell their products in order to fight poverty in a fair trade system. The other component should be environmental education. Adults and children living in natural parks need to be aware of the importance of conserving natural resources, and of the many economic benefits that come from this, as well as preventing natural disasters such as floods.

By combining these two activities I am sure we can impact conservation in the long term. Participating in the conference in Oslo and hearing about all the ecotourism experiences around the globe, I realize it is not easy to link ecotourism with conservation. It is a process of change that takes time since it involves changing attitudes, traditional economic activities, and attempting to give people ways to improve their livelihoods while also trying to involve macro level stakeholders to take action. Successfully accomplishing the objectives of all these ecotourism initiatives is challenging, and the threats are overwhelming.  Nevertheless, everybody (including me) agrees that we should keep on working in order to promote conservation all over the world. 

Fernando Garcia, Rare manager, ecotourism promoter, explores the connection between the super grand slam in sport fishing and the ecotourism enterprise Community Tours Sian Ka’an.

For the saltwater sport fishing hobbyists, the super grand slam means that a person catches four species of fish in a single day: for instance, a tarpon, snook, permit, and bonefish. It is very difficult to have a super grand slam because each one of the species demands a lot of knowledge, skills, and luck, so it is rare and unique. That is why it is easier to be good with one or two species, but it is more difficult to achieve three or four at the same day. However, the hobbyist pursues a grand slam, no matter how much effort is needed. At each shot trying for a super grand slam, the sport fisher can be nervous, bouncy, bored, frustrated, anxious, or happy. Finally, a super grand slam provides a lot of fun and pride to those that achieve one in his or her life.

Fly-fishing in Sian Ka’an 

Rare enterprise Community Tours Sian Ka’an (CTSK), a locally owned ecotourism operation in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve on the Yucatán Peninsula, is trying for its own super grand slam. But it’s pursuing not fishes, but other trophies: market, quality, capability, and conservation. These are some characteristics of those “prizes.”

Market: CTSK is achieving great success running its four tours: Fly-fishing, bird watching, the Muyil forest and float tour, and the Punta Allen eco-adventure. Every month the number of visitors is growing, and it is very common that CTSK simultaneously runs two different tours in the same day. Twice in the last month the four tours were served in the same day. Similarly, it is more and more common that visitors take two CTSK tours in their vacations in Sian Ka’an, and last week a family participated in all the four.

Quality: “This is the highlight of my visit to Mexico” is an expression repeated again and again at the end of the CTSK tours and shows one part of the CTSK mission. With the support of Rare, CTSK has been able to design tours, train local guides, and organize operations, putting together the pieces so the results are unforgettable experiences provided by knowledgeable local guides in a pristine environment. But quality is not a final result, it is an attitude and process. As Pastor Caamal, one of the leader guides, says, “For CTSK to do better, all our work is not an option, it is an obligation. And not only for one person, but for everyone that is involved in the tours: guides, cooks, drivers, and administrative staff.”

Capability: A normal working day is 16 hours or more for the three full-time employees at CTSK. Similarly, the board of directors at CTSK works extra hours in order to make sure that the cooperatives are ready to deliver meals and tours day after day in a very complicated environment. I have seen several times that the major concern for CTSK members is how to enhance CTSK capacity in front of the growing demand for new products and new clients. It’s not just the issue of hiring more staff, but to recruit or train the kind of person that is social and environment-aware to deliver an experience about modern Mayan culture and a unique set of ecosystems.

Conservation: Under the leadership of CTSK, three different initiatives started this month: the bird observation stations, the clean-up campaigns, and waste management. The goal is to focus on some of the environmental challenges at Sian Ka’an and involve more of its residents on specific actions to alleviate the challenges. CTSK will establish three stations where guides and trainees can monitor bird populations. It will create the stations in areas where there is pressure to transform forest, wetlands, and savanna into hotels or residential areas. The clean-up campaigns are focused on picking up all the garbage on the beaches or next to the trails in Sian Ka’an. Finally, the garbage management begins with composting the organic garbage that results from the tours and keeping plastic bottles and cans for further recycling.
 
As in fishing for a grand slam, there is no certainty that CTSK people will have success with all four strategy arenas. But again like the grand slam, any progress that CTSK makes provides more excitement and fun. That is the root of the social energy that hopefully will transform ecotourism in Sian Ka’an.

There is a Mexican song and an expression that says: “No soy monedita de oro, para caerles bien a todos” (“I’m not a gold medal wanted by everybody”) that basically is used when somebody realizes how hard it is to meet different expectations with a simple alternative, so there is a need for trade off. That is what happens with ecotourism entrepreneurs living in protected areas.

So in thinking about their role to promote conservation, job generation, and quality of services, it is common that people become overwhelmed and then start to ask what really matters in ecotourism. Local people, money, or natural habitats? Visitors satisfaction, employee satisfaction, or profits? Meet and enforce park regulations or new and catchy ecotours?  The answers to these questions finally lead to the models of ecotourism business that are developed by the people. I wonder how hard it is for local people  - on one side – to address some of those critical questions and on another side to show the way that those concerns are linked.

In the last couple of months I was interviewing visitors, guides, employees, park managers, tour operators, asking just one question: What could Community Tours Sian Ka’an [at Mexico’s Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve] do for you? Using their answers, the challenge was to articulate a business strategy that shows how to address all those expectations. The trick is to explain the relationship between expectations that apparently are separate, but in reality are intrinsic to the business. For instance, last week we met with representatives of one tour operator, and when they ask to reduce the price, the answer from CTSK was: that is not possible because the best way to provide your tourist an extraordinary experience in Sian Ka’an is to make sure they have professional local guides, have delicious meals, have to be covered by insurance, and so and so. After a while we agreed that CTSK is meeting the need of the tour operator with a comprehensive approach.

Similarly some days ago, the staff of CTSK was concerned about issues like social security and increase of salary, and again, a business strategic map helped to clarify how better staff helped to realize the profit goal of the business, but at the same time to articulate why conservation benefits are part of the duties of the CTSK staff. After some clarifications, it was agreed that the mutual interest is to keep experienced staff and at the same time increase revenues and conservation activities.

This strategy map is an ongoing tool and I’m pretty sure it will change over time. These talks have inspired CTSK to build a network of clients, partners, and staff that share a vision and some common goals. In this way CTSK is becoming a key player in the conservation role for Sian Ka’an. Hopefully with this role, CTSK could use another Mexican song (used in the soccer World Cup): “Si se puede! Si se puede!” Or “we can do it! We can do it!” (Fernando Garcia is Rare’s manager, ecotourism promoter, based in Mexico.)