SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa Ecotourism Revisited

This interview was conducted in 1996.

PHOTO GALLERY: Africa

Mexican architect Hector Ceballos Lascurain, credited with coining the term "ecotourism" in 1983 and presently Special Advisor on Ecotourism to the World Conservation Union (IUCN) recently visited South Africa on an intensive familiarisation tour. In an "ecoreconnaissance" sponsored mainly by the Mpumalanga Parks Board, the Northern Training Trust and South African Airways, but also by other conservation bodies and private enterprise, he covered over 4,000 km in Mpumalanga, Northern Province and KwaZulu Natal a journey which he says "far exceeded expectations". He speaks to Chris van der Merwe.

V d M: South Africa markets itself as a prime wildlife destination and now also as a cultural one...

C L: It's not the Africa you see in the movies. It's a temperate country, yet you have fantastic game, not just the Big Five, but the Small Five Thousand, many representatives of which we saw in places like Kruger, Sabi Sabi and Hluhluwe Umfolozi. In terms of landscapes, you have a bewildering variety of attractions: from the Magaliesberg on the doorstep of Johannesburg to Mariepskop in Mpumalanga and Mont aux Sources in the Greater Drakensberg Park. You have huge canyons such as Blydepoort and rivers, such as the Olifants, the Tugela and the Gariep. You have extensive bushveld wildlife preserves such as Kruger and some of the most extensive coastal lakes systems in the world St Lucia Greater Wetlands Park. And you do have a great variety of interesting cultures. It's been a fantastic experience.

Highlights

C L: Simunye [ a tiny and as yet little known Zulu heartland getaway tucked away in the bend of a river and combining lodge and tribal village seemingly in holistic harmony]. There the locals participate in several ways. They not only built the lodge; they had also had a hand in designing it. What also made an impression were the villagers participating in our reception, singing and dancing, and us all joining in a spear throwing contest. It visibly demonstrates the regaining of pride of indigenous people in what is their own. For centuries they have been influenced to see the white man as their tutor, but here are white tourists coming to them to be taught. The visitors don't do too well at throwing the spear, but everyone has a good time! If the village were not there, I think the lodge would loose 70% of its appeal. And vice versa. It's the combination that's important.

Another highlight, at the mass tourism end of the picture, was Aventura [ a major resorts chain which recently became a signatory to the International Hotels Environmental Initiative and is in the process of transforming five of its 15 leisure establishments all adjoining protected natural or seminatural areas into "ecodestinations.] Aventura's focus on the youth in programmes they offer is creating a new generation of environmentally sensitive customers.

Designing for the "ecotourist"

C L: Ndzalama [a brand new lodge in Northern Province] showed me, in a very eloquent way, how the inspiration of vernacular styles and materials can be creatively expressed. Sometimes all architects achieve is just a crude imitation of the original. Ndzalama does not represent an imitation; it celebrates creativity within a particular cultural idiom and environment. It's a fantastic combination of the use of shapes, lines, colours and vernacular materials. It's very modern architecture, but totally in keeping with the spirit of the place. Ndzalama's bush camp, on the other hand, is a simple imitation of the vernacular and not ecotourism architecture.

The tourist is not a local person and does not live like one, so you have to adapt some things so that the person who gets off the plane from Frankfurt or New York City almost immediately feels comfortable in the new environment. This means not making exact replicas of traditional huts. Your customer is not suddenly going to be a Shangaan; he's going to remain a business administrator with his own comfort zone.

This doesn't mean providing all the comforts of modern life; I personally hate air conditioning, which is only an attempted solution to a problem created by bad architecture. Also, air conditioning has the effect of encapsulating the tourist in an artificial environment behind closed doors and windows. That's difficult to reconcile with the idea of ecotourism, which presupposes contact with nature.

V d M: What is the difference between an ordinary tourist and an ecotourist?

C L: Traditional tourism emphasises escapism, while ecotourism emphasises the learning experience. The traditional tourist has been conditioned to thinking that sea, sun and sex are the primary ingredients of a good holiday. The best ecotourism delivers a holistic experience and shows the way to achieving greater simplicity and at the same time greater quality of life.

An ecotourist is not content merely to tick off trophies. He doesn't see animals merely as objects a lion as a large wild creature with four legs and a mane, and divorced from its environment. What ecological niche does it occupy and what may be its cultural significance? Those are questions that an ecotourist might ask.

"Poverty tourism" ?

C L: Reconciling the interests and priorities of the First and the Third World. The disparities of socio economic development in this country can be very dramatic as we saw at the town of Jozini, on the doorstep of the Pongolapoort Biosphere Reserve [Northern KwaZulu Natal, where private enterprise, conservation agencies, and tribal communities are in the process of creating an equitable partnership model for sustainable rural development, with ecotourism as its centrepiece].

The trash lying all over the place; the obvious lack of public services; the people just loafing around... It made a powerful impression on me, but I don't think squalor should be part of an ecotour. That's a subject for sociologists and journalists. Poverty is a disgrace for humankind. Ecotourists want to see the finer things in life, and how traditional people live not the miserable adaptations of poor people trying to have a modern existence. Maybe what's required is a new kind of tourism, which you might call sociological tourism, or tourism of poverty.

V d M: Your current definition of ecotourism speaks of economics, not just ecology.

C L: Yes, but remember it's in the context of relatively undisturbed natural areas and cultural elements associated with these natural areas. Sure, it concerns the economics of these areas. But the central experience must be one of enlightenment through discovering beauty. Whether it be in nature or the human soul. And frankly it's very difficult to find beauty in the misery and poverty of people.

V d M: Does this kind of attitude not detract from the holistic experience ecotourism is supposed to be?

C L: No. When you pass through a city on your way to an ecotourism destination, you may enjoy the nice things that city has to offer: cabarets, and five star restaurants. But that's not part of the ecotourism experience. Neither is a place like Jozini.

Indigenous peoples

C L: We have eight World Heritage sites, but nowhere are the Indians the custodians yet. On the other hand, proclamation of those sites has had the effect of bringing more tourists to Mexico, and has strengthened the pride of indigenous people in their culture.

I've seen other types of protected areas in South America with indigenous people as custodians. Several Indian reserves are also ecological reserves. There the Indians have the additional responsibility of keeping their environment in good shape, while earning an income from ecotourism. Such an example is the Cuyabeno Reserve in the Ecuadorian Amazon, where the Cofan Indians have built traditional dwellings for use by ecotourists 1,6 km downriver from their village. The Indians benefit, but without disruption of their day to day lives.

V d M: What are your impressions with regard to the participation of South Africa's indigenous people in ecotourism?

C L: If ecotourism is going to be a success in this country, you have to find adequate formulae to integrate your really poor rural populations into the process. And it's not only working as waiters in restaurants; there has to be participation in management, and full entrepreneurship. This means a very ambitious education and training campaign. The political will seems to be there to involve indigenous communities, but it's not yet happening on a large scale.

Normative elements

C L: Yes. Among the arguments I used against building marinas in the Celestún Estuary was the presence of an ever growing number of foreign bird watchers. I explained that what I began to call 'ecotourism' could become a very important tool both for conservation and for boosting the local economy. From the start, I intended 'eco' to refer both to ecology and economy. And over the years I added normative elements to the definition, to counter misuse of the term.

V d M: Some of the focal points of ecotourism interest we visited during our South African tour were actually created through human intervention: Blydepoort Dam, for instance. Can that be reconciled with your latest definition.?

C L: The focal attraction was not the dam per se. It was nature. But sometimes the hand of man can augment the experience, even to the extent of providing a new ecological scenario. Many of the birds wouldn't have been there if humans hadn't altered the landscape.

V d M: Will you be adding more normative elements to your original definition of ecotourism as a result of this visit?

C L: Yes. Paul Bewsher [a consultant of Pretoria University's Centre for Ecotourism] insistently used the word "enlightening" the ecotourism experience triggering a new way of looking at things. I'm adding that word.

V d M: So what will your adapted definition be?

C L: Ecotourism is environmentally responsible, enlightening travel and visitation to relatively undisturbed natural areas, in order to enjoy and appreciate nature (and any accompanying cultural features both past and present) that promotes conservation, has low visitor impact, and provides for beneficially active socio economic involvement of local populations...

The Federation of Nature and National Parks in Europe defines sustainable tourism as follows: 'All forms of tourism development, management and activity which maintain the environmental, social and economic integrity and well being of natural, built and cultural resources in perpetuity.'

Ecotourism is understood to be a modality of sustainable tourism which has as its field of action relatively undisturbed areas. Of course ecotourism, as any other human intervention, will never attain perfection. I know of no perfect example of democracy in any part of the world at any time. Nonetheless, many societies struggle to attain democratic status. I'd like to see more pragmatism and less purism in ecotourism.

V d M: Where possible during our reconnaissance, we used a sustainability audit to ascertain to what extent the destinations we visited adhered to sustainability principles. What did you think of that part of the exercise?

C L: There are three categories of ecotourism attractions: focal, complementary and support. The focal and complementary are totally based on the natural assets, plus the associated cultural elements; on the third level there are the support attractions: the physical infrastructure, and services, which include the interpretative one. In my view the audit was not sufficiently broad to cover all of that.

The main thing about an ecotourism experience is not about staying in a lodge that uses solar power or self composting toilets. That's the support attraction. Audit questions should be geared also to identifying critically important features in the environment and whether the customer really gets to enjoy and understand them by coming to the lodge. In this context, it's not good to talk about the "Big Five" that's a quantitative approach; better simply to say "large mammals". So even if people miss seeing a lion, as we did; they shouldn't feel cheated!

The media

C L: No. The media are rarely brought into the sustainable tourism picture in this way. Given their power, that is a mistake as obvious as it is serious. They should rank alongside government, the private sector, conservation authorities, NGOs, local communities, educational, financial and development institutions as a key player. Journalists should take on a proactive role share the joys of ecotourism with the general public, while cautioning against abuses.

V d M: What do you think of the idea mooted during the reconnaissance to bring First World countries (which supply most big spending "ecotourists") and Third World countries (which provide most "ecotourism" destinations) together at future international media events - with the sustainability message being disseminated in both directions?

C L: It would be fantastic. Ecotourism is a form of divine justice. In the past few centuries what are now termed Third World countries have been on the margins of development, and they've always been envious of things happening in the First World. Now ecotourism is adding value to Third World economies where countries have kept their natural environments in good shape. Also, many of these countries are in tropical areas and these areas have the greatest biodiversity. Ecotourism could turn underdevelopment into a blessing for the Third World. That's a great unfolding story.

New Millennium

V d M: What do you consider to be the biggest threats to the future of ecotourism as you define it? C L: Ecotourism promoters and developers not possessing sufficient ability to convert ecotourism into a profitable, sustainable business; the inability of ecotourism projects to produce revenue for and other types of benefits to protected areas around the world and the risk of having pseudo ecotourism developers arriving first in pristine areas (natural, cultural, or both) and ruining them before true ecotourism gets there.

The birder

C L: Consulting work, in my own country and abroad. Also, I love seeing new places, and birding. I constantly add to my growing list of "lifers" birds I spot for the first time and am able to identify. I spotted 117 new species in South Africa. I've a long way to go before I've seen even half the world's birds. But then ecotourism is more than just my profession; it's my lifestyle, and I've more time and opportunity than most birders to indulge my passion.

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