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ECOTOURISM
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Changes coming. The people arrayed on the observation tower that day are working—as Ryel said—to make the Brazilian Amazon “happen.” They are now well into the first phase of a long-term program that will give ecotourism a solid foundation through investments in transportation, training, marketing, and other areas. The aim is to make the Amazon more enjoyable for tourists and profitable for entrepreneurs.
The Proecotur program, whose first phase is being financed with the help of an $11 million IDB loan approved in 1999, consists primarily of studies and planning. Participants include Brazil’s nine Amazonian states, with the overall direction provided by a secretariat located within the federal Ministry of Environment in the capital of Brasilia.
Using technical assistance funding, each state is developing an ecotourism strategy, strengthening regulations related to ecotourism, assessing market demand, and devising management plans for selected protected areas. The program is financing advisory services for ecotourism business operators and training for some 1,000 state and municipal officials and other local leaders. Modest initial investments will be used to protect natural areas or remove local tourism bottlenecks.
Program funds will also be used to prepare feasibility studies for the much larger infrastructure investments that will be financed in the next phase, which is expected to get underway within the next few years.
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Now and in the future, most Proecotur activities will be carried out in five priority regions ranging in size from 66,900 hectares to 441,600 hectares. These “ecotourism poles” were selected for their natural resources, transportation access, existing hotel infrastructure, and the commitment of local government and other groups to support the program. A large part of the planning at the local level is being carried out by steering committees made up of private entrepreneurs, government officials, and representatives of civil society (read A businesswoman with a mission).
In future decades, ecotourism will provide jobs and steady incomes for many of the Amazon’s 20 million people. Some will be directly employed by ecotourism lodges, transport and food services enterprises, and other activities. Many others will benefit indirectly.
As a parallel benefit, ecotourism will help strengthen efforts to preserve natural ecosystems. If natural forests can earn money by attracting tourists, local people will be better able to resist their conversion into soybean fields and cattle pastures. Ecotourism will also produce the revenues that governments can spend on rangers and equipment for enforcing regulations in protected areas.
While biologists, economists, and ethicists can make compelling arguments for preserving natural ecosystems, the support of local officials and entrepreneurs could prove decisive in many cases.
Team effort. Proecotur is a complex program, in which success will depend not only on good management but also on personal relationships that form while climbing observation towers or navigating through jungle rivers.
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“I’ve never worked on a project where everyone was so much a part of the same team—the states, local citizens, Brasilia, and our financial source, the IDB,” said one state official from Mato Grosso.
The Proecotur group had begun its meeting in the town of Alta Floresta, in a hotel set in 50 hectares of forest. A troop of spider monkeys gathered on the tree outside the open window to observe.
Proecotur Coordinator Ricardo Soavinski went down a list of problems. In one state, authorization for funding was stuck in the assembly. “We can’t let this project be held up by one state, or by a couple of legislators,” he declared. Some states were lagging behind in preparing projects for financing. “If you don’t have projects, you’re going to get left out,” he warned.
A marine biologist by training, Soavinski ran the meeting with a combination of Brazilian informality and no-nonsense efficiency.
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He was pleased to learn that the states were receiving the computers and vehicles purchased for Proecotur activities. But he didn’t like hearing that in some cases, high-ranking state officials would commandeer them for other activities, which is strictly prohibited by the terms of the Proecotur agreement. “If you have a problem, tell me,” Soavinski told the state officials, “I’ll take action.”
After the meeting, Soavinski reflected on the broader aims of the new program. “Ecotourism will show people that they can preserve the forest and at the same time improve their lives,” he said. “This is one of the objects of the program, perhaps the main objective. We want to conserve ways of life while conserving nature,” he said.
“In the past,” he said, “big projects in the Amazon had completely opposite objectives.”
The new program will help turn environmentalist sentiment in Brazil into concrete action. “In Brazil in general we have a high level of understanding of the need to preserve nature,” said Soavinski. “But the difficult part is getting the knowledge we need and putting it into practice.” The Proecotur program will point the way. “The Amazon is a very strong brand name for an ecotourism product,” said Soavinski. “Our job is to bring the product to market.”
Date posted: February 2002
Part 1 | 2
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