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 EDITORIAL:
Unprotected Areas
 In this
issue we have the unique opportunity to learn from Vassilis Kouroutos,
who combines practical and theoretical expertise in both tourism and
conservation of protected areas, and who was instrumental in the
launch of ecotourism in Greece's Sporades national marine
park, through a successful NGO that he co-founded. We try to find out
why protected
areas, on paper a fine idea (cf. "paper" parks) in practice
are dogged by controversies, scandals and conflicts: Humans vs Nature,
tourism vs conservation, Private vs
Public, Local vs Central, National vs International.
If all these
conflicts and questions are not convincingly
answered by a coordinating central (state) authority, chaos ensues and
a whole game is played on the back
of endangered species (and in some cases endangered human communities)
that unknowingly play the role of bait for attracting both misplaced
funds and disoriented tourists. Chaos has ensued (and recurred) in the Galapagos over the past few years, and
recently occurred in Zakynthos Marine Park, (the Sporades Marine Park
is far more successful) in Greece, where
park staff are unpaid, the park's signposts have been broken apparently by
local parasol operators or bar owners, and an international
NGO, decided to publicly ridicule
the island and national authorities this also being the year of the
Olympics, in the hope of bringing
about the wrath of the European Union, so that it imposes financial sanctions,
something that can possibly start a
new round of local conflict...
We may
consider the lack of initial financial compensation to local private interests,
for potential foregone mass tourism development, when the park was set
up, as the original source of the parks' misfortune. Perhaps.
Alternatively, compensation may have been effective in the short-term,
in the practical sense of "shutting some
mouths", but who knows if it would have been considered adequate
as a sum, or in terms of gaining genuine acceptance, in the long run.
Something deeper could be at play, such as perceptions that
"private property is sacred", and that "outsiders can
not tell us what to do in our own home", in brief, basic
instincts. If this is so, basic instincts can only be met by more
powerful basic instincts, such as fear of authority, in particular
elected central authority, and a sense of shared interest. Moreover,
it could also be that some NGOs, propped up by supra-national bodies -
the same ones that later impose "fines" - bite more than
they can chew, and when hard times come, throw up their hands and
suddenly remember the national authorities. Creating and maintaining a
protected area can not be solely done with unpaid tourist/volunteers
during their summer holidays. One needs to employ local expertise at
all levels, generate local interest and cultivate participation, this
participation being more important than funds. The whole project
including fund allocation must be closely monitored and controlled by
the accountable, elected authorities, who need to devise clear,
realistic laws, and indeed enforce them rather than politely wait and
see which side will win the pub brawl. And unless the current
international trend of privatising or outsourcing sensitive, complex
public functions and policy sectors including the environment and
tourism ones is re-evaluated, waters in marine parks and beyond may
get even murkier.
Antonis
B. Petropoulos
ECOCLUB Editor
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