WORLD ECOTOURISM SUMMIT
A number of ECOCLUB Members attended the World Ecotourism Summit at Quebec.

Two of them, Ecolodge Member Mr. Fransisco Sandoval of Uxlabil, Guatemala and Expert Member Ms Rachel Dodds, met and sent us the picture on the left. ECOCLUB also interviewed Ms Dodds to find out what transpired at the World Ecotourism Summit - click here for the first-hand report.

ECOLODGE MEMBERSHIP:
In May Mocking Bird Hill, of Jamaica renewed their membership and support of ECOCLUB, and Hibiscus Valley Inn of Dominica became a new member.

NEW EXPERT MEMBERS:
We also welcomed the following Experts to our Expert Member team in May:

Mr. Romas Mecionis, Head Ecologist at Nemunas Delta National Park, Silute, Lithuania
Mr. Himanshu Rauth, Senior Executive, Sebayan Sangha Organisation, Jharkand, India
Dr. Fransesca Visintin, Researcher at the University of Udine, Italy
Lcda. Natalia Rivera, General Coordinator, Monte Caimito Integral Reserve, Ecuador
Mr. Thanes Peeranond, Tour Operator, Phuket, Thailand
Mr. Andre Dukhia, Community Development Officer at the Office of Empowerment, Guyana.

International Workshop on Carrying Capacity in Protected Areas, Athens, Greece, organised by WWF Greece.

A conference attended by top-ranking academics and consultants took place in Athens on Friday 31 of May and Saturday 1 June, organised by WWF Greece. Among the distinguished participants were Ms Pam Wight, Rapporteur to the World Ecotourism Summit, Professor Richard Butler of Surrey University, Professor Stephen Mc Cool, U. of Montana, Professor Trevor Sofield, U. of Tasmania and Prof. Robert Manning, U. of Vermont. Various measures of carrying capacity and related indices were debated at the academic and empirical level, and although there were differing views on the applicability and measurability of carrying capacity and of competing measurement systems like visitor impact management, the need to monitor the effect of tourism on protected areas was something most participants agreed on. The conference was opened by the vice Minister for Development, Mr. Georgakopoulos, who promised that he will anxiously wait for the proceedings and take into consideration the deliberations of the distinguished panelists. Mr. Georgakopoulos, referred interchangeably to ecotourism and agrotourism and stated that "we should neither exaggerate when we want to conserve nor when we want to develop". Still the minister believed that "Greek nature in the interior should not have the same luck as that of the Greek coast", probably referring to mass tourism. A statement from the vice Minister for the Environment was read, maintaining that "the real target of tourist policy should not be the "extension of the tourist season" an old cliché of officials associated with greek tourism, "but sustainable development". The representative of the Ministry of Agriculture Mr. Efstathiadis, Head of the Forestry Department, pointed out that when man deserts the forests, then forests desert man and that we should not talk of protected areas as if they were empty spaces. A representative from the private sector, Mr. Tsoukalas, director of a local major adventure tour operator, complained that laws and regulations are never in sync with development, they either predate development and are outdated, or they are absent and follow when things are too late. A brief account of some of the presentations is as follows: Professor Trevor Sofield analysed the little known effect that China has the largest mass tourism industry with 640 million domestic tourists per annum, and showed some interesting slides depicting the massive infrastructure program that chinese authorities have undertaken within protected areas to be able to manage millions of visitors visiting on public holidays, including cement pathways going up mountains for kilometres. Professor Sofield, an expert on Chinese Protected Areas, maintained that the Chinese government has an anthropocentric philosophy in P.A. management, and that PAs there exist primarily for recreation purposes, in contrast to the western paradigm. Commodification however was evident there as well, even next to holy mountaintop shrines. Professor Stephen Mc Cool argued that there is not a direct relationship between tourist use level and impact but that impact rises very fast for the first few visitors and then increases at a lower rate. Dr. Ted Manning, a WTO Expert, argued that pricing is not an effective way to limit stress from visitation, and that a protected area should not be named as such before a planning and control system is in place. Professor Coccossis from the U. of Thessalia, argued that no social justice can exist if pricing measures are used for P.A. access. Ms. Pam Wight presented more recent alternatives to carrying capacity and argued in favour of the use of public transport in P.As. Ms Wight also presented modern approaches to Visitor Management such as interactive computer displays at Park entrances. In an intervention Dr. Fotiou of the Greek Wetland Protection Centre, pointed out that in the case of Greece introducing public transport to P.A.s would fail as people would simply continue using their automobile to visit a Protected Area prefering to experience nature as independently as possible. Mr. Zoltan Kun from Pan Parks, a network advocating the certification of P.A.s in Europe explained their approach and monitoring procedures, and maintained that most European Union parks are under threat due to inadequate management, conflicts with local people and lack of trained personnel. He made particular reference to what seemed a very empty management building in Dadia Forest Reserve in Greece, a candidate park for the Pan Parks network, and wondered why were bothering to hold a workshop on managing visitors when management buildings stay empty - no reply was offered. Dr. Andrew Holden of Luton University pointed out how important little details can be: for example the members of a tourist group visiting a Nepalese national park ordering the same meal so that there is economy in the wood used as cooking fuel or a visitor making or not making gifts to local children. Professor Butler argued that carrying capacity has 40 years of work behind it and thus it should not be lightly dismissed in favour of untested indices. "Numbers still count", he argued. He was also in favour of "total protection" in some instances and of regulation by competent authorities. Mr. Alexis Hadzidakis, Architect-Planner with the Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO) caused a sensation, by admitting that the constant change of leadership at his organisation resulted in hundreds of interesting studies to remain just that, studies, and by presenting a caricature of the way wide consultations are always made with all interest groups involved and then someone always decides to better leave things as they are so as not to annoy anyone. Apparently the policy of the Greek Tourism Organisation in the last two decades, focused on the policy of "Saturated Areas", approaching the issue of management of Protected Areas from the opposite end (how much development can fit before an area is saturated). But we were told that the "Saturated Areas" approach is now seen as dated by GNTO and that the current tendency is favouring the creation of management bodies for each protected area, after ... wide consultations with interested parties. On behalf of active NGOs, Mr. Panayiotis Dendrinos made a very interesting presentation on the day to day monitoring and patrolling techniques of his MOm / Hellenic Society for the Protection of the Monk Seal, in the National Marine Park of Alonissos, in Greece. Effective monitoring and fines, and the cooperation of most local fishermen have greatly reduced illegal activities in the Alonissos National Park and the seal population has largely recovered. From the floor, a high ranking official of the Ministry of the Environment, suddenly engaged in an unprovoked public self-criticism, pondering on whether the policies of the Ministry in relation to conservation had been at all successful over the last 20 years, to the bewilderment of the audience. Ms. Dora Skartsi, responsible for the WWF program at Dadia Forest Reserve presented disappointing data on the quality of domestic visitors to the reserve; it appears that only 4.3% of visitors decided to walk the trails, and only 40% bother to take the mini-bus to see the attraction, that is the feeding area of raptors, the rest of the visitors prefer to stay at the restaurant / information complex. Finally Dr. P Tsartas from the U. of Aegean supported carrying capacity as a valid tool since it helps combine the findings of scientists from many disciplines. At the end of the conference there were remarks from the audience including one from an agronomist, who aggressively claimed that nothing had been said, and that "we were back where we started" and a more sensible remark by a student, who said that local people do not have a clue what carrying capacity is, they see the local environment as an indispensable part of their housekeeping.

ECOCLUB made three interventions at the conference that included the following points: 1. A problem with using carrying capacity as a tool is how to manage and measure those visitors (and their effects) that do not want to be measured or managed: In Greece, a large part of visitors to protected areas are illegal recreational hunters, and fishermen. 2. The workshop was deliberating without the presence of important Protected Area players such as hoteliers, tour operators, communities, and municipal authorities 3. Most protected areas around the world are to be found in border areas, or internal "border" areas (i.e. high mountains) in countries with social problems or even civil strife and this makes the presence and especially the management by international NGOs in some cases politically contentious, meaning PA managers (or tourism) can not operate in a vacuum, ignoring political parameters. 3. The Internet, as a tool of carrying capacity, had not been mentioned at all, (neither was it mentioned in the Quebec declaration by the way) though it potentially has an infinite carrying capacity to inform, to assist protected area managers in their contact and management of visitors, to transmit live pictures through webcams for recreation, monitoring and research, to prepare visitors through accurate and up to date information, to sell local products made in or near the protected area thus raising revenue for conservation, to demarket, to show parts of the protected areas that are off-limits to visitors, to create custom made itineraries through on-line forms based on visitor preferences and so on. We also pointed out how expensive, and environmentally challenged, it would be to bring again (fly in) together all the participants in a conference room, compared to communicating through the Internet which is a sort of permanent conference, or in the old fashioned expression a sort of "permanent revolution".

Above all however, it was a high-powered meeting and a rare and much needed event in Greece, which lags behind in terms of effective P.A. management, and congratulations are due to the organisers WWF Greece both for the idea and the implementation. Following the event, the Greek Minister of Environment, Planning and Public Works announced the creation of management bodies for 24 wetlands and the creation of a special fund for protected areas.

European Union Hotel Ecolabeling Scheme

The on-going discussion on developing a European Ecolabeling scheme, in which ECOCLUB was invited to take part as mentioned in the April ECOCLUB News is progressing. The minutes of the 2nd Ad-Hoc Working Group meeting on 14 March 2002 in Athens, Greece can be found at http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/ecolabel/pdf/tourism/2ahwgminutes_140302.pdf

The minutes recorded ECOCLUB's view that social issues such as benefits to the local community through employment and the sourcing of local products should also be included in the european hotel eco-label criteria, as well as the fact that certification should be priced so as to be accessible by small hotels.

More details on the progress of the scheme can be found at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/ecolabel/producers/pg_tourism.htm

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