| In the jungle's moist air and diffuse sunlight, we sat beneath old-growth cedars strung like spaghetti trees with profuse vines. I ate still-warm homemade bread with 26-year-old Mark Dohle, owner of Costa Rican backpack adventure company Talamanca Treks. We had spent the morning planting the perimeter of Finca San Agustin, the Dohle family farm, with a distinctive red jungle tree that will form a living fence line.
Stocky and fit with a boyish face and light beard, Dohle, a teacher, moved here from Texas and launched the business in 2003. From these 200 acres of mostly rainforest, he offers an extensive list of day hikes and longer backpacking trips across the region’s mountains and river valleys, through rainforest and higher-elevation cloud forest. Dohle's home base is simple and comfortable, accommodating adventurous tenters close to nature.
Dohle believes that heavy tourist traffic would kill this place, so he guides a limited number of backpackers annually. Talamanca Treks embodies the true intent of ecotourism, yet Dohle has abandoned the word. Although he used the term in early brochures and on his first website, he's now uncomfortable with its baggage. Often abused, the trendy "eco" prefix has been used to lure tourists to expensive hot tub-equipped resorts, but has not guaranteed the application of ecologically friendly standards. Businesses using the label may be set in nature, but do nothing to preserve it or to contribute to local communities. This practice is known as "green-washing."
Upon returning from Costa Rica, I spoke with Laura Ell, director of membership and communications for the Washington, D.C.-based International Ecotourism Society (TIES). Formed in 1990 it has a worldwide membership of 800 individuals and organizations from travellers and tour operators to eco lodge owners and conservation groups. Its definition of ecotourism is widely used: Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the welfare of local people.
The dollar value of ecotourism is hard to quantify. A recently published TIES fact sheet explains that surveys frequently lump it in with other forms of experiential or alternative tourism, including nature, adventure and geotourism. Consumer demand and operator support for ecotourism specifically, however, is strong and growing worldwide. Tourism employs 200 million people, and generated an estimated $5.49 trillion US in economic activity worldwide in 2004, when eco or nature tourism grew approximately three times faster than the overall tourism sector. It is expected to be an important leader in tourism growth in coming decades.
TIES recently hosted the first U.S. ecotourism conference in Maine. "The main trend with the operators and lodge owners is that they've shied away from using the term," says Ell. A working paper commissioned by TIES and the Center for Ecotourism and Sustainable Development (CESD) states that inadequate marketing and education has left consumers unclear about ecotourism labelling. Restoring its lustre is a challenge, she says.
After fence-planting, Dohle and I returned to camp. Nestled amongst banana trees and asymmetrical plots of native root vegetables, the Dohles have built an elevated, open-sided platform home with a corrugated, sloping roof and a ground-level open kitchen with a stone and cement wood-fired cooking grill. A spring-fed pipe brings water down the mountain. Two tent enclosures can accommodate a handful of guests. The camp also features a solar shower and composting outhouse.
Dohle's father David, a mellow man with grey dreadlocks, sat bare-chested in rubber boots and cut-off jeans, cleaning a muddy yucca root he'd grown. Like Dohle, this place is in his blood and he’s worked hard to maintain it. He bluntly describes the pervasive use of the ecotourism label as "mostly bullshit." A disillusioned Vietnam vet, he purchased this land in the Vereh River Valley in the relatively remote Talamanca Mountains in 1973, physically blocking lumber trucks illegally removing its trees. His family has alternated between living in the States and here in the jungle since. As camp cook, David does much of the entertaining. Telling deliciously engaging stories about life in the jungle, he's a wealth of information on organic gardening and wild flora and fauna. His ex-wife, Dohle’s mom, Shary, also shares camp duties during visits from the States.
Dohle’s initial notions of how to run an eco-friendly business have evolved. "I had all these ideas about building a self-sufficient place," he explains, "but, for example, can I make a nail? Those ideas lasted about two weeks." Whereas he once saw only evil in money and modernization, he now happily maintains a website and turns a profit while sticking to his principles.
Intuitively arranged, the family business coincidentally follows TIES' guiding principles:
· Minimize impact
· Build environmental and cultural awareness
· Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts
· Provide direct financial benefits and empowerment for local people
· Raise sensitivity to host countries' political, environmental and social climate
TIES research indicates eco-lodge operations put a high percentage of tourism dollars directly into local communities through purchasing and hiring. The Dohles do so and are careful not to upset the economic order, only buying supplies normally sold locally like beans and cheese. Dohle employs neighbouring farmers, close friends Jorge and Martin Venagas, as guides. The two families also share clientele, as the Venegas's offer farm visits, rafting and horseback trips.
As for local empowerment, Dohle has taught Pedro, a young man from a neighbouring Cabecar indigenous settlement, to speak and write English. Pedro has since become a community leader, wishes to study medicine and successfully petitioned to stop a dam from flooding his people's valley. "He sent me an e-mail thanking him for showing him happiness," recalls Dohle. "I almost cried thinking about all the good things my culture has that I take for granted."
While the Dohles have voluntarily built an ecologically sensitive business, consistent international ecotourism standards and guidelines don’t yet exist. True ecotourism businesses want accepted standards with which to differentiate themselves from mainstream hotel chains, as much as eco-travellers want to know whose business fits their expectations. Even mass tourism hotels and cruise lines are realizing they must green themselves or perish by, for example, adopting sustainable water use and community consultation practices. TIES is working in partnership with other advocacy groups to change this. Over 100 regional and national certification bodies exist worldwide. "Our goal," explains Ell, "has been to study these programs. We're at the stage where we're setting up a global accreditation body – The Sustainable Tourism Council." Created in partnership with international organizations like The Rainforest Alliance and the World Tourism Organization, it is scheduled to be launched next year.
Currently, TIES encourages travellers to look for certified products and eco labels that rate eco-friendliness. It does not, however, dissuade travellers from patronizing uncertified businesses as the process is in its early stages. No certification process may exist in some countries. The organization's website also offers a member directory of ecotourism businesses that are committed to its code of conduct.
Tourism, notes Dohle, fluctuates with global economics, making sustainability relative. He also warns that the outwardly positive creation of the nature reserves that draw tourists sometimes has deleterious social effects. Indigenous peoples must clear jungle patches to grow crops and build housing as well as disrupting stream flow for drinking water. "It is difficult to live in a reserve," he says. "All these things become criminal activities. Eventually people just leave for the cities."
As positive as the tenets of ecotourism are, it's not a panacea for what ails our shrinking natural world, though Ell says "if it’s done properly, it can be a tool for poverty alleviation in developing regions." Communities tempted to overharvest natural resources may instead choose long-term, sustainable, community-based ecotourist projects.
"I know in its pure form (ecotourism) is good," admitted Dohle. The best way, he believes, for tourism entrepreneurs to make good is to serve travellers who also desire to make a low impact. Again, TIES research indicates that, although demand is largely passive, the majority of Western travellers expect accommodation providers to be ecologically responsible and they're willing to pay extra as encouragement. As legitimate organizations reclaim the term, ecotourism will continue to serve as the banner for positive change within the industry. As exemplified by people like the Dohles of Vereh and regardless of terminology, self-imposed environmental responsibility is now an ingrained part of the travel industry.
For more information on TIES visit www.ecotourism.org. Read more about Talamanca Treks at www.costaricabackpacker.com. |
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