The Phillipines gets four new zip lines and ecotourism efforts continue

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High in the hills of Floridablanca, in the Phillipines, is a blooming haven of nature and man-made structures in a domain preserved and nurtured by Aetas, an upland blend of ecological and tourism adventure that is Nabuclod.

Much has been written and heard of the once untapped spot — except maybe its people in the resettlement site — until Governor Lilia Pineda and Second District Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo teamed up to harness its potential, so indigenous people there could reap the benefits of what is now known as the Nabuclod Upland Eco-Tourism Adventure.

On dawn Saturday, the governor led the Capitol horde, along with friends and representatives from Pampanga media, in planting hundreds of trees as a prelude to her 61st birthday on February 21. The gift was meant to breathe greater life to the 5,000-hectare development project where now stand two of four zip lines and cable cars.

“By the summer season, we would have completed the zip lines as well developed a large part of Nabuclod for eco-tourism. Our desire is for it to be self-sustaining, especially its agricultural part where Aetas would be able to supply the province and even Manila with vegetables of all kinds. We are almost there,” shared Governor Pineda.

The Nabuclod Upland Eco-Tourism Adventure, she said, features two viewing decks where the splendor of Pampanga meets the eye; the thrilling zip-lines and cable cars Second District Board Member Olga Frances David-Dizon described as amazing and enjoyable; the bike and ATV [all-terrain vehicle] trail frequented now by mountain riders; the stairway to Bolben; the camping site where members of the National Movement of Young Legislators led by 3rd District Board Member Trina Dizon would pitch their tents on February 25 for their own tree planting day; the very green agri area and the proposed Grotto on the religious side.

Added 4th District Board Member Nestor Tolentino, chair of the Nabuclod Project technical working group: “This upland eco-tourism project is actually a build-operate-transfer with investors. Capitol’s expense on this is very minimal. The potential is so big that in the near future, Nabuclod would be one of the favorite tourist spots in Pampanga. The people here are assured that nothing will be destroyed and their natural environment preserved and protected.”

First District Board Member Tarcicio “Tars” DC Halili– who described his first-ever zip line ride as very good — readily agreed and noted that he will file a resolution calling for the creation of a Nabuclod Tourism Council which will complement the technical working group on the master plan.

“The Nabuclod Tourism Council could then manage the project and see to its efficient operations,” he said.

Going to the top of Nabuclod is already an adventure in itself. Along the zigzagging paved roads, Aeta kids greet and wave to passersby, welcoming them warmly into their haven. The less than hour’s drive upon entering the main street past Basa Air Base is never boring with greeneries all around and scenes of human interests, of daily life that is Nabuclod for the keen-eyed photographer.

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Ecotourism visits the Bataan Rainforest

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The 218-hectare idle lot called Roosevelt Protected Landscape in Barangay Roosevelt will be developed into an Integrated Ecotourism Development project by a private investor.

Based on the Memorandum of Agreement entered into between the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Region 3 office through the Protected Area Management Board-Roosevelt Protected Landscape (PAMB-RPLS) and Green Asia Construction and Development Corp., the 218-hectare will be developed by a private investor in order to “provide the public better and ecologically aesthetic recreational, educational and tourism- related facilities.”

The pouring in of investment by a private company, headed by Renato P. Legaspi, Sr., Green Asia president and chief executive officer, will not only create jobs for people here and additional income to government coffers but also protect the area from informal settlers.

The DENR assured that the area will be protected by Green Asia, in compliance with Republic Act 7586 or National Integrated Protected Areas Act of 1992 enacted to establish the National Integrated Protected Areas System.”

Police and local authorities , armed with an order to demolish the more or less 400 shanties and temporary houses made of light materials, cracked down on illegal settlers who occupied protected and watershed areas in Roosevelt.

In the agreement, the PAMB-RPLS and Green Asia “mutually acknowledge the vital role of ecotourism development in nation-building and mutually recognize the authority of PAMB to decide/approve matters related to the Protected Area of Management of the Roosevelt Protected Landscape.”

Under DENR Administrative Order No. 2008-26, the PAMB shall approve policies, guidelines, plans and programs, proposals and agreements for the management and protected areas. The PAMB is headed by the incumbent Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer, Amado Villanueva, a veteran in the region.

The Green Asia shall secure the 218 hectares and be responsible for its protection to prevent encroachment of other individuals into the protected area in accordance with the required Comprehensive Development and Management Plan.

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Tasmania releases plans for eco-tourism

Aiming to compete with Australian eco tourism efforts from Queensland, Tasmania’s State Government has released plans to relaunch the region as a eco-friendly based tourism destination.

Working with Melbourne, Global Eco Asia Pacific Tourism Conference convener Tony Charters explained the two states would team up to build tourism to southern Australia.

“Going on current form, that will pair Melbourne as the lead tourism city with Tasmania as the heartland of ecotourism, making southern Australia a formidable destination,” Mr Charters said.

Mr Charters said the benefit of building an eco destination had fallen short with many Governments down under while locations in Asia are “running at 100mph” with the sector.

He explained that while establishing the state as an eco-destination, the long term benefits would more than cover the efforts.

“Ecotourism is not a ‘quick fix’ option for governments to plug the holes after a resource boom, for example,” Mr Charters said.

“It is a very logical and forward thinking choice for Tasmania, but it will take 15 years to bed the industry in.

“Once that is done, ecotourism will provide more jobs than logging, be sustainable and form an important plank of an export oriented economy.”

Mr Charters added that as a whole the country needed to invest more into its natural attractions and utilise them to increase visitor numbers.

According to the convener, the Great Barrier Reef’s figures are sitting around the same as 20 years ago while Kakadu numbers fell compared to visitors in the early 90s.

“National parks for example need ongoing support from government, not just a one-off injection of funds,” he explained.

“Other states can take the lead, with long term vision and investment roughly equivalent to one sports stadium each year, but spread across the state’s protected areas.

The Global Eco conference is being held in Sydney from November 7th to 10th.

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Cambodia holds Third World Ecotourism Conference

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Cambodia on Monday hosted the 3rd World Ecotourism Conference, aimed at developing Asia Pacific region as a leading ecotourism destination.

The three-day conference, under the theme “Charting the Future of Ecotourism in Asia: Asia will dominate global tourism in future, ” attracts some 300 governmental officials, tourism ministers, deputy ministers, ecotourism specialists, businessmen, representatives from national and international ecotourism associations and communities from 23 countries, mostly in Asia Pacific region.

“The conference will be a good opportunity to establish and boost relationship and cooperation on the development of ecotourism in the region in a sustainable and responsible manner,” said Cambodian Minister of Tourism Thong Khon at the opening ceremony.

“Also, it’s time to exchange the best experience and practice related to the ecotourism development in order to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of natural and environmental conservation.”

“In the future, we want to make the Asia Pacific become a leading attraction for the development and investment in ecotourism,” he added.

The minister said that at the end of the conference, there would be “Sihanoukville Declaration on Multilateral Cooperation for Ecotourism Development.”

The declaration would be submitted to the United Nations World Tourism Organization for the final approval.

“The declaration would be a roadmap for the ecotourism development in a sustainable and responsible manner in the whole Asia, particularly in Cambodia,” he said.

During the conference, there was also ecotourism exhibition with the participation of ecotourism communities and private investors in ecotourism with 23 booths.

Preah Sihanouk is a coastal province in southwestern Cambodia. It’s the country’s third most popular tourism destination after Siem Reap’s Angkor Wat temples and Phnom Penh.

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Malaysia Tourism Minister Yen Yen says eco-tourism is all about the bucks

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Malaysia needs to produce more specialist guides to provide quality tourism service and boost the eco-tourism industry.

Currently, the country has 4,000 general tour guides, some of whom are not professionals, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said.

“We want more specialist tour guides who can tell stories about our tourist attractions,” she said during a visit to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) here yesterday.

Dr Ng said the ministry had set up a joint committee with UKM and the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry to develop modules aimed to train and produce more expert guides.

“Locals who are familiar with their home area in tourist destinations such as Fraser’s Hill, Tasik Chini and Lata Jarum should be trained to be specialist guides because they are the experts who can explain the tourist attractions,” she said.

Dr Ng added that the ministry was looking forward to collaborating with related ministries and agencies like UKM to develop eco-tourism to generate more revenue.

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Ecotourism in Nepal

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There was news this week from KATHMANDU regarding ecotourism.   Targeting the Nepal Tourism Year 2011 campaign, Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation (MoFSC) and Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) jointly unveiled two eco-tourism products amid a program here Wednesday.

The new destinations are Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve in eastern Nepal and Ghodaghodi Lake in the far western region.

“Though these destinations were already popular, they were attracting only a few visitors,” tourism expert Rabi Jung Pandey said. “Koshi, being the largest river of Nepal, can be developed as a riverside tourism product.”

Only 238 foreigners and 3,000 Nepalis visited Koshi Tappu in 2008.

“We can develop special packages to these destinations to extend tourists´ length of stay,” he added.

Addressing the program, Subash Nirola, senior director of NTB, said ownership identification along with product and site identification was important for sustainable tourism development. “Since it is not possible to build hotels everywhere, we can promote the home stay concept there,” he added.

Laxman Bhattarai, joint secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, said the government was positive about promoting the concept of eco-tourism and expressed hope that newly launched products would help attract more visitors to Nepal during NTY 2011.

Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, which is popular for bird watching, covers 16 VDCs in Sunsari, Saptari and Udayapur districts.

Number of tourists to SNP up

SOLUKHUMBU: The number of tourists visiting Sagarmatha National Park (SNP) hit 12-year high of 9,407 in October.

According to SNP´s office at Jorsalle, the number is the highest after 1998 when the country had celebrated Visit Nepal Year. October-November is regarded the peak season in Nepali tourism.

“The number was only 8,839 last year,” said Bikash Koirala, game scout at SNP. The number of tourists visiting the national park was 9,260 in the same period in 2008. Only 3,530 tourists had visited the area in October, 2002.

“The number of tourists visiting the area has increased as we are seeing increment in the number of tourists from both air and land route after the beginning of peace process,” Koirala said. “The area was safe for tourists even during insurgency.”

Sagarmatha National Park is famous for Mt Everest – the tallest peak on earth, other mountains, beautiful Sherpa villages, Sherpa culture and tradition, different wildlife species and Tengboche Monastery.

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Ecotourism to be focus of Rajasthan

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In India, Rajasthan tourism has chalked out new defined tourism projects to further enhance the tourism experience in the state. The state is set to offer its special products for the Commonwealth Games 2010 and a 14 day long fair is being organised in Jaipur for tourists with an aim to promote cultural tourism.

In line with the promotion of cultural and heritage tourism, the state aims to promote Shekhawati on the lines of Hampi in Karnataka. Speaking about their plans and projects, Usha Sharma, principal secretary to the government, department of tourism, and chairman, Rajasthan State Hotels Corporation, in an exclusive with Express TravelWorld, said, “Apart from the well known splendours of Rajasthan, which are its forts and palaces, Rajasthan has a lot to offer in the area of heritage and culture. We are keen to offer our tourists a unique experiences such as Ghat ki Ghuni, which is a special attraction on the Jaipur-Agra road. This place has remarkable heritage attractions and will be promoted for night tourism. Rajasthan is also home to picturesque lakes, hence promotion of lake tourism is also on the anvil.”

She further added that the state is looking to promote lake tourism as an experience. “But amongst all this, we will continue to focus on rural and eco-tourism as one of our primarily aspects for tourism promotion,” she said. Jantar Mantar in Rajasthan has also been listed in July 2010 as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

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Thailand, Laos and Vietnam to create Eco-Tourism super highway

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Thailand, Laos and Vietnam should jointly develop Routes 8 and 12 as eco-tourism routes linking the three countries rather than focusing on the highways as a trade route competing with Route 9.

The Tad Pha Suam waterfall in Bachiang Chaleunsouk district of Champasak, Laos, is a popular site for tourists.

Vitavas Srivihok, the Thai ambassador to Vientiane, said Thailand would raise the issue with Laos and Vietnam to co-operate on eco-tourism as the two routes have good potential for eco-tourism, given the number of caves, waterfalls and other attractive features along the way.

Goods transported to Vietnam via Laos on Routes 8 and 12 currently face problems because the Laotian Customs Department treats them as imported goods destined for re-export, thereby having to pay higher duties, said a transport industry source.

Goods transported via Route 9 are treated differently as it is mentioned in the Cross Border Transport Agreement under the Greater Mekong Sub-region framework and thus eligible for lower duties.

This has made transport costs higher and inspections more strict when the goods were transported via Routes 8 and 12, said the source.

Route 8 links Nakhon Phanom in Thailand with Tha Khak of Khammouane in Laos before linking to Route 12 in Laos to Dong Hoi in Vietnam and on to China. Route 9 links Mukdahan in Thailand via Savannakhet of Laos to Danang of Vietnam.

Mr Vitavas said he hoped that when the third Thai-Lao Bridge across the Mekong River linking Nakhon Phanom and Khammouane opens in November next year, it will help facilitate more tourism and trade on this route.

“Laos doesn’t want to be treated as a passageway [but this will require it to] develop its potential for tourism on Routes 8 and 12,” he said.

The weakness of Vietnam on the two routes is that its tourist spots are not connected to each other, he said.

However, Vietnam is discussing with France a proposal to build a bullet train line from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City which would result in lower volumes of air passengers and freight, said Mr Vitavas.

He said he would like to utilise the economic corridor as a tourism corridor as Laos is the best location for creating a link with four countries: Thailand, Burma, China, and Vietnam.

“Travelling through Laos will be the shortest way. If the roads in Laos can be connected, we can easily travel to all five countries in this region,” said Mr Vitavas.

He also urged the GMS members – Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and southern China – to co-operate on tourism more seriously.

He said better joint promotion of tourism was a good way to help alleviate poverty as foreign tourists like to visit many Asian countries at one time to save costs and time.

“There are few countries in the world that jointly promote regional tourism, such as those in Europe, the Caribbean countries and Pacific island countries,” said Mr Vitavas.

He said that of the total 2 million visitors to Laos last year, 1.3 million were Thais.

To promote tourism in the region, there should be a single visa and shared infrastructure, he added.

Mr Vitavas said the strategy for tourism promotion should include a common market with three to five countries treated as one destination. As well, it will be important to develop the human resources, encourage cross-border facilitation, private-sector participation and tourism-related infrastructure.

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Saving India’s ecosystem before it’s too late

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Suprabha Seshan — a gardener and guardian of the land, living for the last 17 years in the wild rain forest of Kerala, near the southwest tip of India — is taking a fierce run at Bangalore against the software boom, jobs, sudden wealth, the “New India,” which she believes has delivered itself into a deadly trap of consumerism, pollution, ruined forests and rivers, a “virtual” prosperity but a profoundly un-natural India. It is a New India, in short, without tigers or, soon, even orchids.

But Ms. Seshan is scathing in a light, laughing, maybe specially Indian way. It’s an underlying premise among Indian chatterers, as they keep telling us, that often the best point in an argument is one whose direct opposite may sound equally plausible, even true. So let the conversation continue, through many paradoxes. “Is it possible,” she asks herself in conversation, “to live a life without contradiction?” — i.e. without petroleum, chemical fertilizers, technology? “In today’s society,” she answers, “it’s not possible.”

There’s a cutting Indian edge here on the global contradictions of growth in a collapsing biosphere. Tea and eucalyptus plantations under the British Raj upset the balance and beauty of the green range of India’s Western Ghats in the 19th Century, and destroyed vast natural forest lands — but not so much that the state of Kerala doesn’t still market its mountains as “God’s own country.” For 20 years now there’s been an eco-tourism boom in Suprabha’s jungle — with roads, hotels, breaking-up of farms and new construction to serve high-end and mass visitors. The “eco” industry gets its name from the jungle, Suprabha says, but the jungle is withering. Ayurvedic medicine, the rage in New Delhi as well as Los Angeles, draws heavily on plants from Kerala wilds, “but where will we get them in a few years?” Better eco-tourism, I wonder, than the coal and bauxite mining that is churning a tribal rebellion in Eastern India? “Mining is rape,” Suprabha responds. “Eco-tourism is prostitution.”

The good news from her own two decades on 60-plus acres in the wild is that forests and all their complexity do grow back. “The forest will return if given the chance. We call it ‘gardening back the biosphere.’ It can be done.” The bad news is that no one in or out of power will say “no” to eco-tourism and the promise of jobs. How, an interviewer recently asked her, will all this be remembered in the emerging story of the new India?

SS: I cannot relate with the new India at all. We have nothing in common in terms of what we seek as a possible future. The new India is appalling to me, if the new India means the exclusion of the forests. The new India means the end of nature to me. The two cannot go together: this is an apocalypse in the making. Because what is new “Shining” India going to shine with if it doesn’t have its rivers and its plants and its forests? What will it go forth with?CL: What piece of the old India are you invoking? And what is it in the old India that might ring an alarm?

SS: The old India, what little I’ve known, is the diversity of things, the beauty and the sacredness and the diversity of things. In people, in the land, in trees and plants. Everything was sacred, and this was commonly felt. But modern industrial civilization, colonialism, all the powers that be have made it their special mission to destroy that relationship. The sacred doesn’t mean worship necessarily. The sacred means seeing each thing for what it is, and that it has its own right to be. And unfortunately it seems that a lot of mainstream religion has ritualized the sacred and has made an idol out of the sacred. So the sacred is now a plastic idol ringed by lights in someone’s concrete home. And so you worship your elephant that way. And meanwhile, the actual elephant is dying of tuberculosis, and herpes virus. So my question has always been with regard to the so-called famous Indian tradition which is spiritual and so on: it’s become so symbolized and so ritualized and so separated from the actual earth that it has lost its meaning. It is virtual. It’s a virtual religion.

CL: You sound like high Hindu priests I’ve read about, who teach this reverence for the single wasp, for every form of life… Is that a foothold for India to catch, against environmental disaster? This reverence for the planet, for life.

SS: Reverence of any kind, of course, would be a very very powerful foothold. But I just don’t see it. Except in textbooks and stories. I do feel the modern media are crowding them out. Because you can have this experience of nature, of the wild, of the sacred, of anything, and you can almost believe that it’s true. And that’s the danger of the new technology to me: you can track a tiger in the forest through your computer and feel all that adrenaline rush, but you don’t have a relationship with a tiger. Because when you are with a tiger in the forest and your adrenaline rushes you’re a life and death situation… One gym instructor told me in the city, when I told him I live in the forest. He said “Oh, the jungle is a deadly place to booze!” That’s a crude version of what a lot of people do. They go to the jungle and they’re shut away from the jungle. The new technologies and this kind of removal that we see: it’s a severing that’s happened. They’re blind when they go to the forest. They have no means to look at the forest, to see it in a simple way. Just the beauty of it, let alone sacredness. Sacredness is so much more, it’s part of a life and a relationship, a recognition that we all have our spaces and relations with each other.

The deeper messages of entering the forest, and the silence, and the sensitivity, opening up and so on. That is a very quiet thing. That can’t happen in the way outdoor education is being sold to people: you work in an IT company and then you go for a weekend to the forest and then you have this outward bound experience. I don’t think it can happen like that. A relationship with nature is built over generations for the human species — the human species has come out of this million-year evolution, eye-to-eye contact with snakes, and elephants, and plants. You can’t really do it instantly. But a lot can be done: awareness is a pretty instant thing. People can be suddenly opened up in a pretty instant way. But, for that to build into a living relationship of sensitivity and mutual care, I don’t think that is so simple.

Suprabha Seshan in conversation with Chris Lydon in Bangalore, India. July, 2010

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Jogyakarta and Sabah get into eco-tourism

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Jogyakarta and Sabah can combine their almost similar eco-tourism products and promote them as one tourism package.

Head of Tourism Department of Yogyakarta, Tazbir Abdullah, said Jogyakarta has volcanoes and Sabah has ‘sleeping’ Mount Kinabalu.

“We can package them for tourists keen to visit mountains. Also, we can promote the beaches,” he told journalists from Sabah here Thursday.

He hoped to put forward the proposal at international tourism forums, especially between Indonesia and Malaysia.

Tazbir said although it was difficult to introduce direct flights between Jogyakarta and Kota Kinablu, there were some airliners who were interested.

“We can discuss with them, there are no problems.

“Currently, the problem is with Adisucipto international airport. It might not be able to handle the increase in flights as the runway is small,” he said.

The airport handles direct flights from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

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