Ecotours
Nature for Whom?
From "Ecotourism in the Philippines" by Carlos M.
Libosado, Jr., Bookmark, Inc., Manila, 1998.
There is no doubt that nature belongs
to everybody. Sadly, many destructive activities have already damaged
most of its resources before they could be allocated for the future Filipinos.
It had been happening before the word "sustainable" was given to nature.
Thousands of hectares of forest lands have been cleared for logging and
mountains scraped for mining. The coral areas and the seas are becoming
exhausted of marine life and the forest animals are hunted, exterminated
and exported to zoos and private collectors. The whales, dolphins, mantas
and other big fish and even sharks are consumed for the enjoyment of a
few. Even caves are looted of their limestone formations. Very few of the
national parks in the country have actually been developed for recreation,
thus denying them of any economic benefits that could have been used as
a means to maintain them. The term "sustainable development" has been used
much too often that skepticism has started to seep in. Issues have been
raised as to whether it is a concept that can be pursued or a fad to be
forgotten in a few years.
Whether sustainable development is a fad or an ideal concept, all the
indications show that nature's resources are consumed and converted so
fast that the coming generations will be left with very little of what
we have today. That is why we have to make sustainable living a way of
life. We have to find ways where we can use nature without necessarily
leaving nothing for the rest of the generations. We have to find alternatives.
Ecotourism offers that kind of alternative. The natural environment
has been largely untouched by the tourism sector utilizing only a small
part of the resources and concentrated mainly in the coastal and urban
areas. In the past, mangroves were regarded as a refuge for the mosquitoes
and a source of malaria. People understand only now that mangroves are
sources of the wealth of the fishing industry and an interesting place
to explore and learn from. This is just one of the possibilities. There
is great potential for the Philippines to become a major ecotourism destination.
It has a wide area of water territories, it still has large patches of
tropical rainforests, the biodiversity and endemicity are so great that
any person interested in natural sciences would think that the Philippines
is a gold mine for studies. There are also old cultures which one not only
appreciates but also learns from.
If one will look at the travel magazines and promotional materials from
other Asian and Pacific countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore,
Australia and New Zealand, he will find that ecotourism has been in existence
in these areas. Malaysia has been promoting large chunks of forests, mostly
national parks, for tourism. One area, the Taman Nagara National Park,
has attracted 10,000 visitors in one year. The Philippines can definitely
compete with all the outstanding ecotourism attractions in many countries,
only if the national parks and outstanding areas are properly developed
and maintained for the tourists to appreciate. Given these, utilization
of the country's natural resources will go beyond extraction but rather
into a more sustainable way through appreciation.
It is time that the Philippines starts to utilize its national parks
with tourism as a major development, factor. Only the St. Paul Subterranean
National Park in Palawan has so far achieved a degree of success in terms
of preservation and utilization. We can still develop more areas where
outstanding nature recreation can be made.
