Tourism vs. Ecotourism in Mexico
by Tim Burford

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In case you hadn't noticed, you are a consumer in the world's largest industry - tourism. In 1995 this accounted for 6% of world GNP (US$350bn, generated by 567m tourist journeys) and 127m jobs (7% of world employment), and is predicted to keep growing by 8.7% per year. This affects Mexico as much as anywhere: in 1929 just 20,000 tourists visited the country, from the late 1940s Acapulco became fashionable and tourism revenues tripled, and from 1969 the state began to develop megaresorts such as Cancun. In 1974 FONATUR (the National Fund for Tourism Development) was set up, and by 1989 had financed the building of 128,000 new rooms, and had an annual advertising budget of US$30m. In 1976 there were 3 million visitors a year, in 1986 4.5m, in 1990 5m, and in 1995 7m. Of these, 85% come from the USA and just 70,000 a year from Britain, although with the introduction of charter flights this is expected to double. In 1986 tourism generated 2.6% of GDP, and in 1995 6%, and 1.8m jobs. Cancun accounts for 30% of this turnover, but FONATUR is developing other megaresorts such as Zihuatenejo (Guerrero, northwest along the coast from Acapulco), Bahias de Huatulco (Oaxaca), and Los Cabos (Baja California Sur).

Mass tourism has brought many problems, such as environmental, social and cultural degradation, unequal distribution of the profits and the spread of disease. Many tourists come, of course, to lie on beaches, but in addition there's this year's Unique Selling Proposition, 'ecotourism', or more accurately nature tourism. This tends to involve groups visiting Mayan ruins, nature reserves and hot springs and taking rafting trips, while still travelling in air-conditioned buses and staying in hotels with satellite television, and is little more than a variant on tourism anywhere else. It brings money in to the local economy, and some of that may end up helping to protect wildlife and habitats. It also helps convince governments and tour companies of the value of the reserves.

Of course, the inescapable paradox of all tourism applies: if a rarely visited destination becomes popular, the crowds of visitors, and the infrastructure which mushrooms to serve them, diminish and then ruin the thing they've come to see. While recognising this, I make no apology for publicizing isolated, little-known locations in my books. This is because all through the region attractions are being destroyed at a phenomenal rate, and not principally by tourism. Ruins are looted, wetlands drained, sprawling urban slums appear along pristine rivers, steep mountain slopes succumb to slash-and-burn farming and then erosion, and immense areas of lowland forest are converted to weedy cow pastures.

The decision is not between keeping some place wonderful and unvisited, or diminishing its charm by encouraging ecotourism; it is between doing nothing as everything lovely is destroyed, or at least trying to save something through the ecotourism route. Time and again it's become apparent that simply declaring natural areas to be reserves is not enough; biosphere boundaries mean little to a man needing the money that selling a baby monkey can bring. But if the man's friends and neighbours tell him that those monkeys need to be left alone because gringos come to see them and leave hard cash in the community, then that's a powerful influence working on behalf of the monkey and the entire ecosystem, including the local human community.

This is relatively unproblematical (if you accept the waste of fossil fuel inherent in any kind of travel not powered by sails) as long as a few basic rules are observed: leave no garbage (especially plastic and other non-biodegradable materials) in a reserve, buy no products of endangered species of plant or animal, including coral jewellery and woodware, keep nothing you catch from the sea (unless you plan to eat it), don't leave TVs, lights or showers on when not needed. In addition you can choose hotels (and ships) that don't dump their waste and that use solar heating, automatic light switches and recycled water for watering lawns and golf courses. Don't eat agouti, turtle or iguana (unless you know it's farmed), and suggest that the restaurant ceases to serve it and indeed advertises the fact that it doesn't serve it. Avoid over-crowded resorts and seasons, and choose operators that only take small groups, that support community projects, and that use local goods and staff.

So far, so good. However this is essentially inward-looking tourism, in which the vacationers are concerned purely with resting and having fun. True ecotourism is not just to make the tourist feel good, but should also be about education, consciousness-raising (for both the tourist and the local populace) and actually making a difference somehow. Basically, things get complicated once you're dealing not only with animals but with indigenous peoples too. They are not to know that ecotourism is their best hope for avoiding the destruction of their habitat and the survival of their traditional lifestyle - to them ecotourism is something that just arrived unasked, something that's happening to them.

There is danger in an unhealthy economic dependency on tourism, which could collapse in response to many outside factors. 'Ecotourists' also bring whisky and marijuana, and the injection of cash into a largely cash-free economy has led to resentment and quarrels. Western thought tends to separate man from his environment, ie to focus on species preservation at the expense of indigenous peoples; it's more important to see both as part of the same ecosystem and equally entitled to respect and to a sustainable and secure future. Local participation is vital, not just in profits but also in planning and decision-making.

The Chiapas Tourism Department defines ecotourism well as 'any activity which promotes the conscious relationship between man and nature without altering the state of the environment being visited, generating economic and cultural benefits for the population. What is an ecotourist? Any person who travels with the intention of establishing a direct contact with nature to enjoy it and learn about it, while promoting community development.' This can be summed up in three key criteria: is it sustainable (environmentally, socially, economically)? Is it educational? Is it locally participatory and beneficial?

Do as much research as possible before departure, learn some Spanish, and allow yourself plenty of time and a flexible schedule (if you don't have much time, consider restricting the number of places you'll see). For hikers there are more specific requirements: keep quiet, stay on the trail (in single file) even if it's muddy, never take shortcuts, don't cut live trees, if possible don't make fires from dead wood either, and erase signs of fires afterwards. Camp and wash (with biodegradable soap) 50m from water, wear lightweight shoes in camp. Burn toilet paper, bury your waste, and remove all litter. Take something for park staff, even it's just a pack of biscuits or a newspaper from the city.

Environmental Problems in Mexico

One aspect of this high biodiversity is that distinct species can develop in remarkably small areas, and thus can be rendered extinct very easily, often without ever having been identified. In Mexico these forests are still being lost at a dizzying rate, despite laws that protect them on paper. Officially 300,000ha are deforested per year, and just 25,000-100,000ha reforested, but actual deforestation is nearer 1.5m ha per year. Over half the Lacandon Jungle has been lost since 1980 to logging and cattle-grazing, despite much of it being officially protected. Up to 70% of Mexico's forest is theoretically under the control of ejidos or indigenous communities, but thanks to trade liberalisation most of them are making a loss. In any case the forests are being plundered by armed outsiders. Two-thirds of wood-cutting is in fact for fuelwood, an undeniable need of poor campesinos which has caused an ever-widening ring of devastation around most towns, where every tree has been either savaged or cut down. In Oaxaca state each family uses about 12 cubic metres of fuelwood per month, or about 12kg a day.

In addition to habitat and species loss, this deforestation produces many other problems, such as soil erosion and low water levels in streams flowing out of the forest; in Mexico 210,000ha is desertified each year. In fact Mexico has quite a long history of environmental degradation; the Maya empire may have collapsed due to overpopulation and consequent soil exhaustion or deforestation and erosion. The Mezquital valley had been made desert by sheep (introduced by the Spaniards) by the end of the 16th century, and in the early years of the next century the cartographer Henrico Martinez warned of the danger of eroded soil filling lakes and causing floods. Alexander von Humboldt (in some ways the first ecotourist) gave a similar warning in the 19th century, and it's surprising that disaster did not in fact strike sooner.

In fact the most pressing problem Mexico now faces is that of chemical pollution; this is so serious that when BMW bought a factory in Toluca they found that the magnesium and aluminium in the soil were worth more than the factory itself. There is widespread chromium pollution, particularly in Guanajuato and other industrial areas near the capital. In Mexico City itself it's been found that 25% of vegetation is contaminated by heavy metals, and blood lead levels are four times those in Tokyo, with a quarter of babies being born with high enough levels to cause permanent brain damage. Pesticides worth US$2bn are imported each year from the USA, at least thirty types being banned in the USA itself; in Mexico they cause widespread illness and death among poor farmworkers with no protective gear.

The area that most concerns the US is of course the border zone, which is crucially important as a water source but is increasingly filthy, largely due to businesses from the USA setting up plants on the Mexican side specifically to exploit lax environmental standards and low wages. The maquiladora plants produce 20m tonnes of hazardous waste a year, of which only 1% is returned to the USA as required. In fact an estimated 8m tonnes a year of toxic waste is illegally imported from the USA and dumped. In 1983 the USA and Mexico signed the Treaty on Cooperation for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment in the Frontier Zone (a strip of 100km on either side of the border) and part of President Clinton's package to persuade Congress to accept NAFTA was the US$368m Border Environment Project.

Some efforts are being made, but even so waste emissions into the Rio Bravo del Norte (known in the US as the Rio Grande) from US-owned companies in Matamoros are 100,000 times US limits, there's said to be a 50% risk of an explosion in the Rio Bravo at Piedras Negras due to Pemex oil leaks, and 100m gallons of raw sewage a day goes into the Rio Bravo. At the western end of the frontier, the Rio Tijuana carries 12m gallons a day of raw sewage, and the New River, which flows from Mexicali into California, is polluted by PCBs and 28 viruses (including typhoid, cholera, hepatitis, meningitis, dysentery, and polio). Fortunately the treaties cut both ways, so the Mexican Ecological Movement can protest against a proposed nuclear waste dump just 32km over the border. In addition a Commission for Environmental Cooperation in North America was set up under the NAFTA treaty, with jurisdiction over the whole of the signatory states, and is now investigating pollution in Guanajuato that killed 40,000 birds in December 1994.

Mexico City has the unenviable reputation of being the world's most polluted city, due to a thermal inversion that traps air in the city basin in winter, and the fact that it's home to 22% of Mexico's population, 45% of its industry and to at least 3 million cars, 200,000 buses and 35,000 taxis. Air pollution was within acceptable limits on just 31 days in 1993, and 20 days in 1994, and ozone levels are hazardous on 80% of days. However, as in many other places worldwide, it seems clear that the city's most serious environmental problem is its water supply. As its population has exploded, the water table has dropped by 32m, and the city itself has subsided by 7m since 1940; some parts are still sinking by 40cm/year. The city currently uses 63.5 cubic metres/second, 80% of it groundwater (double the natural recharge rate), and this is expected to be 100 cubic metres/second by 2000.

Already consumption is double Swiss, Japanese or German rates, even though 14m people have no running water; this is because a third of the water supply is lost in leaks due to the subsidence - a circular problem (but little worse than in Yorkshire). The other 20% of the city's water comes, at great cost, from the Lerma and Cutzamala rivers, 100km to the west and 1000m below. 350,000 toilet cisterns have been replaced by smaller models, saving enough water for 250,000 people, but much more needs to be done. As for waste water, in 1900 the Gran Canal del Desagua or Great Sewage Canal was driven through the hills to the north, but as the city sank gravity ceased to do the job and eleven pumping stations had to be built. Now the Sistema de Drenaje Profundo (Deep Drainage System) is being built, with 120km in use and another 30km needed by the end of the century.

The city's hoy no circula (no driving today) rule, by which cars are banned (according to the last digit of their number plate) from driving on one day a week, is well known; this does apply to foreigners, but not to taxis, and in winter it may be extended to two or even three days a week. By the end of 1997 all filling stations in Mexico City will have new nozzles to prevent carcinogenic gases from being released, at an extra charge of one centavo per litre. Emissions testing is also being introduced.

Nuclear issues are not of great concern here: the Mexican Alfonso Garcia Robles won the Nobel Peace Prize as the driving force behind the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which declared Latin America a nuclear weapons-free zone in the 1950s. There is one nuclear power station (at Laguna Verde, Veracruz), which environmental groups would like to see closed. Mexico was affected by Chernobyl, due to contaminated milk (between 42t and 50,000t, depending on whom you believe) bought from Ireland.

The first protected area was the island of Guadalupe, off Baja California, established in 1928, followed by the first National Parks in the 1930s. By 1996 there were 78 National Parks, National Marine Parks, Biosphere Reserves, and Special Biosphere Reserves, and 2.5% of the national area was theoretically protected: but in fact only 0.8% was effectively protected, due to lack of cash and of political will. There is superficial public knowledge and approval of environmentalism: taxis may be painted green with the sign EcoTaxi, litter-bins are marked Deposito Ecologico (perhaps a pun on the more common Deposito CocaCola), and there's a series of postage stamps showing twenty endangered species.

There are two 'green' political parties, the PVEM and PEM, the masked wrestler Super-Barrio Gomez campaigns on ecological issues, and the government has created the Federal Attorney-General's Office for the Environment (Profepa), which is working to stamp out the trade in protected species, with inspection booths at the infamous Sonora market in Mexico City and at all 98 border crossings - a belated conversion, as Mexico only signed the CITES convention in 1991, but better late than never. Beach-cleaning projects are popular, and not just where there are many gringos in residence. Population restraint is a key area of the government's 1995-2000 plan, with more sex education needed to boost contraceptive use and reduce population growth to 1.4% by 2005.

Tim Burford is author of Backpacking in Central America and Backpacking in Mexico (Bradt/Globe Pequot 1996 and 1997). He lives in England and can be contacted via email.

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