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Jamaica's sleepy interior, namely the verdant Portland parish,
is an undeveloped paradise often overlooked by sun, sea and
sand vacationers who flock to the Sandals and Margaritavilles
of the west coast resorts.
"It was a blessing the parish was left behind. Now, it's
untouched," says Veronica Thaxter, an ecotourism operator
who has sent hikers into the Rio Grande Valley for 10 years
through her company, Grand Valley Tours.
Veronica, a native of Portland, is ahead of the curve of a new
push for community-based tourism in Jamaica. In a country whose
mantra of "no problem" has galvanized the tourism
industry for decades, people are realizing mass tourism has
damaged their resources, destroying coral reefs and contributing
to widespread deforestation. The most bird species of any Caribbean
island live in Jamaica's forests, along with a wide diversity
of butterfly and plant species.
COMMUNITIES
To soften its environmental footprint, Jamaican planners are
looking at sustainable tourism from the ground up, supporting
community-run ecotourism such as bamboo rafting on the Rio Grande
River and hiking trips to hidden waterfalls of the Blue Mountains.
To reach the heart of Portland's tropical forests, I took an
hour taxi-ride over primitive mountain roads from the capital,
Port Antonio. After a particularly rough patch of potholes,
my driver, a local pig farmer, stopped at an overlook. The rushing
Rio Grande cut through a valley of the same name, and huge coconut
palms fanned their leaves over the water. "This is the
cleanest place in the world," the driver said, waving his
arm through the sweltering air of a January afternoon. After
the jarring ride, I met Veronica's brother, Ronald Thaxter,
near the banks of the Rio Grande. He helped me climb onto a
precarious bamboo raft on the muddy river, the only way to reach
our trail for the day's hike.
Ronald, like most of Valley Tours' guides, was most born in
this peaceful parish. Guides take tourists to visit historical
sites, such as the grave of a rebel slave leader, or an underground
cave on Veronica's property. Once visitors venture inside Jamaica,
where they can sample wild oranges and hear the melody of Jamaican
songbirds, they develop an appreciation that they are contributing
to preserving the ecosystem, Veronica says.
PRESERVATION ETHIC
Port Antonio's two ecotourism companies, Grand Valley Tours
and Valley Hikes, have their roots in a community hiking organization
founded in the mid-1990s. With funding from a group of Dutch
investors, interest from local landowners and marketing support
from U.S. tourism specialist Marylou Callahan, ecotourism took
off in Port Antonio. Today, despite some sluggish tourism years
for Grand Valley Tours, "the garden's still growing, and
the company is what true grassroots should be," Callahan
says.
Veronica compensates 180 farmers living throughout Portland
to take hikers on their property. One of her goals is to instill
a preservation ethic among these farmers. Now, some farmers
plant trees instead of slashing and burning, because they realize
the potential of tourism dollars in these secluded spots, she
says.
Even still, deforestation is rampant: Throughout Jamaica's interior,
forest cover is estimated at only 30 percent of its original
range, according to a 2001 report by Jamaica's National Environment
and Planning Agency.
Ecotourism could also expand to a larger business in Portland,
where tourists still stick to the beach. The thousands of acres
of pure mountain habitat could nurture more bird-watching, river-rafting
and longer hikes into the forest.
CROSSROADS
As we followed the Rio Grande along a rain-soaked trail, Jamaica's
national bird, the doctor bird, flitted by in a flash of green
iridescence. Ronald suddenly picked up a brown seed, slicing
it with his machete to reveal a succulent green interior. I
asked if I could eat the seed, and Ronald laughed heartily.
He threw the seed onto the moist, fertile earth. "Why eat
this when you have so much else to eat in the forest?"
With the endless offerings of Jamaica's wild interior, and the
can-do attitude of its people, a new approach to tourism seems
within reach.
"We're at a crossroads in the tourism industry," says
Carolyn Hayle, senior program officer for the University of
the West Indies' Institute for Hospitality and Tourism in Kingston
and an advocate of sustainable tourism. "There is a paradigm
shift that needs to happen. If we don't, we would be doing the
country a disservice."
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