Beyond Greening - Tourism Watch

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Beyond Greening: Reflections on Tourism in the Rio-Process | PositioningpaperThey protested against predatory fishing, real estate speculation, development of mass tourismand the abandonment of artisanal fishers and mobilized 20 communities along the route toRio. Nineteen years later, fishers are participating in fisheries management and are workingtowards certification of the lobster fisheries from artisanal fisher communities. Most resortprojects in the state of Ceará have been stopped and community tourism is a reality.Community-based tourism can provide alternatives. It has the potential to contribute to localdevelopment, especially if it offers a complementary income for communities in naturalenvironments and in particular in protectedareas. In order to develop tourism as a viableeconomic activity, communities need to havetheir basic rights guaranteed, just as any othernational or international company or investor.The UN establishes the responsibility ofbusinesses, including the tourism industry, torespect and not impinge upon the rights ofothers. However, despite the numerous humanrights conventions and the clear lines ofresponsibility for ensuring that rights areprotected, serious abuses occur all over theworld in the name of tourism (Barnett et al.)Respect for human rights is a global issue for community development, regardless of origin oractivity. There is an urgent need for public policies to prevent land grabbing. UNorganizations, multilateral banks, cooperation agencies and private funders should providetechnical and financial assistance to develop community-based tourism.Community-based tourism vs. conventional tourismIn Praia das Fontes, in the Brazilian state of Ceará, the impact of conventional tourismbecomes visible when visiting the beach resorts where local residents have no access andtourists are discouraged from mixing with the natives. Two meter high walls, guards withwatchdogs are clear signs. The "all inclusive" bracelets separate tourists from prospective localintruders. When both the community Praia das Fontes and the neighbouring fishingcommunity of Prainha do Canto Verde suffered pressure from land grabbers in the 1980s, thepeople of Praia das Fontes caved in and settled for a small piece of land for themselves to liveon. The fisherfolk of Prainha, however, decided to resist and go to court. It took 25 years, butfinally the Superior Court of Justice condemned the land grabbers and opened the way for thefishing community to register their right to land.Governments in eleven states of the north-east of Brazil, backed by Inter-AmericanDevelopment Bank (IDB) projects, have been investing heavily over the last 20 years toprovide infrastructure like airports, highways and access to electricity and sanitation to attractinvestors for the development of wealth-concentrating tourism ventures, facilitated by taxincentives and subsidized loans. No wonder the number of resorts has multiplied and touristarrivals are on the increase on regularly scheduled and charter flights to the north-easterncities of Salvador, Recife, Natal, and Fortaleza.34
Beyond Greening: Reflections on Tourism in the Rio-Process | PositioningpaperThe need for networkingIn 2003, the 1 st International Seminar for Sustainable Tourism (SITS) was organised inFortaleza, Ceará. A week before the opening session, 40 members from 15 communities fromnorth-eastern and northern regions of Brazil got together for the first gathering ever to discusscommunity-based tourism in Brazil. The workshop took place in the small fishing village ofPrainha do Canto Verde, 110 km from Fortaleza. Though they had never met before,participants from the Atlantic Ocean, community representatives from the state of Roraimaand Ceará, women from the mountains of Cariri, Ceará and Pará where the Amazon meets thesea, started to discover how much they had in common.Mostly traditional and indigenous people, they were pursuing protected areas to have a legalbasis for land rights and conservation. Being from communities which struggled to defendtheir homeland and care for their natural support system – nature – united them in solidarity.The great majority of the communities havesome kind of environmental educationproject for children and adults in thecommunities. They all protect their naturalheritage and preserve the history of theirancestors. Unknown to most outsiders, theycare for the environment without chargingfor the services. They are stewards of theenvironment. Six of the 15 communitieswere already offering tourism services andthe other nine had come to join the newnetwork. They travelled home with thecertainty that yes, "A different kind oftourism is possible".The conference in Fortaleza was the first of its kind in Brazil and the communityrepresentatives who met the week before in Prainha do Canto Verde made the openingpresentation to over 400 participants from civil society, government academics and tourismprofessionals. Tourism Secretary representatives and the trade were clearly not prepared forwhat was going to be presented over the next three days. Human rights issues were a priority,not overnights and tourist arrivals. The conservation of coastal marine resources and illegalfishing are crucial issues for the survival of communities, but do not seem to be important forinvestors, the government or the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank(IDB). The organizers – the local NGO Terramar and State of Ceará University, together withEuropean NGOs such as EED Tourism Watch (Germany), the Working Group on Tourismand Development and the Foundation for Solidarity in Tourism (Switzerland), ECPATNetherlands, and Turismo Responsabile (Italy), prepared the field and put communitytourism on the agenda in order to start lobbying federal, state and municipal governments togive communities a fair share in developing tourism as an instrument for local economicdevelopment in communities all over Brazil.After the 1 st SITS, NGOs and communities started to network with other Latin Americancountries like Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico and others where communitytourism had been developed about 20 years earlier. They discovered the same common bonds– traditional and indigenous people struggling for land rights, protecting the environment andusing sustainable methods to use natural resources and treat the land with respect for nature.The majority of the destinations, whether on the coast or in forests, were either already part ofprotected areas or were in the process of creating them. Until three years ago, the35
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