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Beyond Greening: Reflections on Tourism in the Rio-Process | Positioningpapertourism enterprises can be deduced. In protected areas, reserve areas and areas declared ascritical wildlife habitat, local governance is almost non-existent as all decisions regarding thevillages are taken by the Forest Department.The (Draft) Guidelines for Ecotourism Inand Around Protected Areas issued by theMinistry of Environment and Forests onJune 2, 2011 lay out a detailed set offramework guidelines on the selection,planning, development, implementationand monitoring of ecotourism in India.Recognising however, that India’s wildlifelandscapes are diverse, these guidelinesshould be necessarily broad, with specificState Ecotourism Strategies to bedeveloped by the concerned StateGovernments, and Ecotourism Plans to bedeveloped by the concerned authoritiesmandatorily taking into account these guidelines. The following core values should be centralto the guidelines: people-centred, accountable, democratic/participatory/equitable and nonexploitative,which mandatorily will have to be reflected in the state ecotourism strategies.Roles and responsibilities should be enumerated for different stakeholders: StateGovernments, Protected Area management, tourist facilities/tour operators, localcommunities, temple boards and general public. Types of tourism activities allowable shouldalso be enumerated.The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights)Act, 2006 has not been considered while formulating the draft guidelines. It needs to beensured that the final guidelines will guarantee that the provisions of this key Act are upheld inthe context of the governance and regulation of tourism and rights of forest dwellingcommunities.What Needs To Be DoneIt is important that forests not be seen merely as providing ecosystem services alone but as anecosystem which comprises of the people living in and around the forests including theirhistorical relationship with the forests, the flora and fauna. By turning ecosystems intotourism products, they are also made vulnerable to the market (demand and supply). This isdone without taking into consideration the communities living in these areas who have forcenturies been the custodians of the resources and who have a symbiotic relationship withthem. Further, the life-cycle of the ecosystems themselves is not considered while planning fortourism development in these fragile spaces.Ecotourism, when practiced correctly, has the scope to link to a wider constituency and buildconservation support while raising awareness about the worth and fragility of such ecosystemsin the public at large. It also promotes the non-consumptive use of wilderness areas, for thebenefit of local communities living in and around, and dependent on these fragile landscapes.The first benefit from ecotourism must go to the local people, and in the long-run, capacitybuildingshould be carried out to forge a sustainable partnership between the forestdepartment, tourism department, tourism professionals and local communities. The longterm goal is for communities to own the ecotourism enterprises through active participationin their governance.32
Beyond Greening: Reflections on Tourism in the Rio-Process | PositioningpaperIt is important to promote ecotourism with the strictest of regulations. While the Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests has issued draft guidelines, it is important that these are finalisedafter taking into account the responses from the communities and civil society organisations.Finally, there is a dire need for a revised policy on ecotourism, the responsibility for whichshould lie with the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Environment and Forests.ReferencesFriends of the Earth International (2005): Nature: poor people’s wealth - a position paper for the UNWorld Summit and the Review of the Millennium Development Goals, 14 - 16 September 2005Lahiri, Souparna (2009): Exploring the Road to REDD in India, REDD Realities, published by GlobalForest Coalition, December 2009MoEF (2010): India’s Forests & and REDD+, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government ofIndia 30 November 2010Paquin, Marc & Mayrand, Karel (2005): “MEA-based Markets for Ecosystem Services - Draft conceptpaper prepared for the OECD Workshop on Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) andPrivate Investment, Helsinki, Finland, 16-17 June 2005”, Unisféra International Centre, data sourcedfrom http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/14/62/35000276.pdf data retrieved in November 2006Swaminathan I.P. & Purushothaman, Seema (2000): “Forest Conservation, Tourism and Extraction:An Economic Perspective” published in Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics Vol. 55 No. 3, July-September 2000Equations is a research, policy, advocacy and campaigning organisation working on tourism anddevelopment issues in India since 1985. Large parts of this paper are drawn from “Green India Mission:India’s REDD+ Action Plan to disempower and evict forest communities from their own homelands” bySouparna Lahiri and “Forests, Communities And Ecotourism” by Swathi Seshadri.www.equitabletourism.orgThe Potential of Community-based Tourism for Local Development:Networking for Sustainable Alternatives in BrazilBy René SchärerFisheries resources were abundant and the land of artisanal fisherfolk protected until the endof 1950. There was no demand for land for second residences and beach tourism, and noindustrial fleet to compete with artisanal fishers for land and fish. In the 1960s, millions ofdollars in government subsidies created the lobster fishing industry and led to overfishing ofthe valuable lobster resource. At the same time, forward looking real estate companies startedto go for beach property while communities were ill prepared to defend themselves. Nobodyhad ever asked them for a land title before and land grabbers where quick to take advantage ofmillions of illiterate coastal residents.It was high time to take steps against the irresponsible exploitation of fisheries resources andagainst the development of second residences, vacation resorts and apartment condos. Thecampaign SOS Survival originated in the village of Prainha do Canto Verde a year after the UNConference of Sustainable Development in Rio (1992) to demand participation ofcommunities in the management of the coastal zone. The Jangada (sail raft) with four fishersaboard and two young women accompanying on land took 74 days to sail to Rio de Janeiro.33
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