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HUATULCO,
OAXACA -- In 1984, a mega-resort, designed to attract beach tourism
to international hotels, was initiated on the south Pacific coast
of Mexico in the state of Oaxaca.
Known as the Bahias de Huatulco, the spectacular setting, in a
previously isolated region, is home to about 50,000 people from
four different indigenous groups living in some 150 subsistence
communities widely dispersed over 700,000 hectares in the surrounding
highlands and a number of small fishing villages. The new mega-resort
and the accompanying infrastructure integrated the region into the
international market, sparking a self-reinforcing cycle of speculation
and investment that accelerated the process of social and spatial
polarisation, impoverishing the native populations and raising tensions
throughout the region; the destruction wrought by Hurricane Paulina
in October 1997 suddenly intensified the problems of poverty and
environmental destruction.
Even before the disaster, a local non-governmental organisation
(NGO), the Centre for Ecological Support (CSE, for its Spanish initials),
created in 1993 to promote regional development, had begun to implement
a resource management program for sustainable development, by channelling
domestic and international resources to attack these problems with
a series of productive programs designed to stem environmental degradation
and strengthen the economy.
The isolated existence of the indigenous people who lived in the
Huatulco region was violently transformed when the narrow coastal
strip (about 30 km) was expropriated by the Mexican Tourist Development
Fund (FONATUR) in the early 1980s for a transnational beach tourism
project. After pushing them from their small fishing villages, little
thought was given to the local population; construction attracted
workers of all sorts along with other people seeking their fortunes
from other parts of Mexico.
For more than ten years, social tensions rose as five large hotels
and many smaller installations were built; menial jobs were offered
to the natives who had taken refuge in the larger settlements dispersed
in the surrounding mountain communities or in the shanty towns that
sprouted to attend to the demands of the new industry.
The prevailing pattern of polarising development characteristic
of the rest of Mexico became firmly entrenched in this area, with
a small, prosperous beach front community coexisting alongside makeshift
facilities for the service workers; the local communities increasingly
found themselves in dire straits, as national policy discriminated
against rural production in general and poor, small-scale farmers,
in particular
In this article we will examine the creative role of a local NGO
in promoting an alternative approach to development that might contribute
to reconciling the conflicting interests in the region. By explicitly
recognising the special role that NGOs can play in facilitating
community participation, the CSE has facilitated the interaction
of groups from different cultural backgrounds and social classes
in what promises to be an innovative program of diversified development
in which environmental tourism will play a fundamental part.
The River Basins around Bahias de Huatulco
In 1958, the landscape of the coast of Oaxaca, seen from the peaks
of the Sierra Sur, was that of multiple greenish tones, contrasting
with the multiple bluish tones of the Pacific Ocean. In the river
basin feeding the coastal aquifer, minor breaks of less than 5% in
the tropical dry forest included traditional fields of corn, beans
and fruit trees. The coffee areas were covered by the canopies of
shade trees. Forty years later, the forest coverage had been reduced
by 50%; only 20% resembled its former condition, while the rest suffered
from a partial extraction of its timber resources. During the past
15 years the rate of deforestation doubled that of the previous 25
years.
These tropical dry forests are one of the most fragile ecosystems
in the world and are rapidly disappearing. Historically, the inherited
culture of forest management within the coastal communities has
been eroded by an antiquated and venal commercial structure. In
spite of sustained demand for tropical hardwoods and attractive
prices for such species as Rosewood and Lignum Vitae, a complex
and costly system of intermediation discouraged communal planting
and conservation and forced more intensive exploitation by drastically
reducing local prices. Tourist development induced a heavy flow
of migrants from the central highlands and other regions to the
coast, overwhelming communal management practices that defined and
restricted access to the forests.
Two-thirds of this destruction is due to the "walking milpa" (the
system of slash and burn cultivation that encroaches on the forest
for the short term planting of corn and associated crops) and agrochemicals.
The other third is mostly due to the illegal cutting of trees encouraged
by developers of the tourist corridor from Huatulco to Puerto Escondido.
Devastation of the forests has been followed by the erosion of the
soil and the final result is critical: the water supply to the Bahias
de Huatulco tourist development area will be exhausted by the year
2020, unless some regeneration program is implemented.1
Most people in the region are still not even aware of the depths
of the impending crisis. International integration assures regular
supplies of lumber and food at prices that do not reflect their
real costs: producers are poorly paid, water wasted and the environment
despoiled. Consumers have become accustomed to these subsidies from
the poor, from a clientelist political structure, and from nature;
in the process, peasants have been forced to eke out an existence,
dismembering their communities and devastating their environment.
So absurd is the process, that the new hotels elected to import
rolls of carpet grass from the centre of the country rather than
seed new lawns in Huatulco, as if the region's abundant natural
and human resources were not relevant.
Even water appears as a gift from heaven: in Huatulco, urban consumers
receive it free and, although they complain, the hotels are only
charged a fraction of what they would pay in other international
resorts. Underpriced resources for the privileged urban population
are yet another signal discouraging peasant society from continuing
its arduous task of environmental management, truncating its time
honoured commitment to assure water for their children and their
grandchildren. In the end this combination of factors contributes
to a self-devaluation within peasant society, a seemingly irreversible
loss of self-esteem.2
To add insult to injury, in 1997, Hurricane Paulina destroyed
6 or 7 million trees, increasing desertification in the river courses
by 80%, and damaging 2/3 of the peasant homes. But it also instilled
a renewed sense of responsibility towards nature in most of those
communities that had been able to maintain communal organisations.
This is the basis for the growing enthusiasm of the communities
to participate in the regeneration activities.
Communal organisation and the CSE: A complex history of accommodation
for development
Unlike many other groups in Mexico and Latin America, the communities
in this part of Oaxaca have strong communal organisations. In spite
of having origins in four different ethnic groups, each with its own
language and cultural patterns, all of the native peoples in this
region share a tradition of strong collective roots based on the collective
ownership and management of their land, their abiding support for
local forms of communal organisation and well-engrained cultural patterns
that reinforce the traditional mechanisms of decision making, known
as "uses and customs". These communities have struggled through the
centuries to defend their homelands against outside invaders, be they
other Mesoamerican groups, the Spanish conquerors, or the new powers
from a modernising nation. Even as they developed relationships with
these outsiders, they managed to defend substantial areas of community
life and decision making from attempts to dictate the terms of their
submission or more full integration into alien societies.
When the government decided to create the resort development,
the Oaxacan natives were rudely shunted aside. Expelled from their
coastal communities, even the meagre compensations promised for
expropriations were rarely paid. Uncomprehending and without alternatives,
many of those who resisted were slaughtered in the unrelenting drive
to push forward with the program. Developers moved in with impunity,
backed by military might and a political commitment to forge a beach-front
paradise.
It is no wonder, then, that as the hotels were inaugurated and
menial employment offered, many in the region chose to remain in
their communities while a few migrated further afield in search
of better opportunities. Traditional authorities and elders counselled
against integration, moving to reinforce local options.
The CSE was created sometime after the first large hotels were
inaugurated in the new resort. Cognisant of the underlying conflicts
that permeated the region, the NGO carved out a niche for itself:
working with the native communities to regenerate some of the smaller
river basins in the region as part of a broader effort to promote
community welfare, through the rehabilitation of the tropical dry
forests, replanting denuded areas with native species of trees with
cultural and commercial value. It started to work with the communities
to implement a diversified development program in which the forests
would play a central role, but where complementary activities would
offer an essential economic underpinning to assure its economic
viability and guarantee sufficient opportunities to persuade people
to remain and strengthen confidence in community governance and
management capabilities.
The complementary activities envisioned in the CSE program included
ecotourism, a renewed emphasis on production of basic foods for
local consumption, and commercial production of goods and services
for local and specialised foreign markets. The new strategy was
anchored in a carefully designed program to use reforestation as
the centre of a program to rebuild the deteriorated watershed that
would be the foundation of a stronger productive system in the region,
a prerequisite for supporting the local communities and their cultures.
This approach was designed to create a favourable environment
to attract visitors who might be interested in a variety of ecotourism
offerings; these would be owned and managed by the indigenous communities
participating in the program and sensitive to the natural heritage
that they were rescuing and preserving.
The CSE's initial diagnosis of the local ecosystems confirmed
its early analysis that the unusual tropical dry forests presented
a unique challenge for rehabilitation and conservation. The early
decision to organise the work on the basis of water basins proved
crucial, as the nurseries and new plantings required regular flows
of water or irrigation; pruning and other cultivation practices
were implemented through a process of joint administration in which
outside experts shared their knowledge with the natives who applied
their inherited learning about the region. A new diversified mixture
of species began to thrive with unexpectedly high growth rates.
From the very beginning, bungalows were constructed as part of the
program, creating an opportunity for offering some ecotourism services
as part of an effort to demonstrate that the local cultures were
also of interest to people from far afield, and that local practices
for managing and conserving the environment were valued by others
who would be willing to pay for the privilege of visiting the area.
The CSE participates in these programs through a series of trust
funds that are administered through a tripartite structure. The
indigenous authorities charged with the management of community
property and local political representatives join with the NGO to
implement decisions about how governmental programs and outside
assistance will be applied within each community. One of the programs
that has been in operation longest illustrates how the process works:
The Magdalena River Program includes a broad series of activities
that include the monitoring of acquifers, protection of the integrity
of river beds and banks from erosion, reforestation through new
planting, soil stabilisation and protection, water conservation,
sustainable agriculture, reuse of agricultural and forest waste
products, infrastructure for environmental tourism, and community
environmental education.
A long period was required to implement this program, developing
the mechanisms for communication with the communities and overcoming
the historical pattern of paternalism by which outside assistance
was transferred to such groups in return for political support without
a corresponding opportunity for local participation and without
any meaningful consultation about the programs' design or implementation.
A devastating hurricane, Paulina, hit the region in Fall 1997.
It proved to be a turning point, demonstrating the effectiveness
of many of the CSE programs and identifying design weaknesses of
some of the conservation and construction practices. The storm destroyed
millions of trees, accelerating the process of desertification while
demonstrating the urgency for increasing the scale and intensity
of the rehabilitation and diversification programs. The tragedy
catalysed the communities, leading to the consolidation of more
communal assemblies that began to demand assistance, effectively
transferring the initiative from a lethargic bureaucracy to the
local groups anxious to initiate their own programs with the resources
that might otherwise have been siphoned off by ineffective governmental
agencies.
Although the destruction wreaked in the highland communities was
serious, it turned out that the crisis on the coast would prove
more worrisome in the long term. As a result of the hurricane, and
the river basin approach adopted by the CSE, the NGO began to examine
the coastal acquifer closely, revealing a serious shortfall that
would leave the tourist economy without local supplies of drinking
water in less than a quarter of a century, if corrective measures
were not implemented. This alarming finding was denied by the official
water agency, but most other official organisations joined in supporting
the CSE efforts to broaden the scope of its program to prepare to
confront the impending crisis.
The forging of a sustainable development strategy3
With the disaster, the CSE perceived an opportunity to undertake
a more ambitious program for the region as a whole. Federal agencies
quickly took advantage of the Centre's presence and capabilities
to charge it with intermediate term responsibilities for reconstruction,
once the emergency disaster relief programs were terminated. A history
of bureaucratic bungling, placed the NGO in a favourable position
to complement the river basin project with a far more ambitious
reforestation program that would replant target areas with a view
to restoring biodiversity, a concern of people within the communities,
while assuring that some of the species serve the demands of the
marketplace. The forestry program was conceived of as part of a
broader program for regional development and environmental protection.
Because economic and social viability was a criterion from the
beginning, technological innovations associated with existing market
opportunities will allow wood products and derivatives rather than
raw trees to be marketed, creating more employment and generating
greater value for the communities. This is a fundamental feature
of the program, since these communities have suffered from unfavourable
conditions for their products for decades, if not centuries, as
the market works to exacerbate the discrimination imposed by society
against indigenous groups and peasants, placing a low value on their
labour, their resources, and the products of their work.
The reforestation program differs dramatically from similar programs
elsewhere. The first round of plantations resulted in germination
rates exceeding 90% for the several species and replanting brought
the effective rate to virtually 100%. The selection of varieties,
the techniques used and the anticipated marketing opportunities
are creating an extraction profile that will allow the first harvest
of smaller trees only five years after the initial effort. In the
meanwhile, the planting of other areas, the construction of bungalows,
and other activities will assume increasing importance in the region.
The organisational structure is also innovative. The CSE is a
constitutive part of a several local trust funds that integrate
governmental agencies, the communities and the private sector into
the program. Although some local business groups have made contributions
to local public relations efforts, only the Sheraton Hotel has offered
substantial direct support for the conservation activities; it is
remarkable that the other international chain, ClubMed, has resisted
participating even in promotional activities.
The operating Trust Fund, charged with the eventual co-ordination
of the individual enterprises that are being established by the
communities themselves (including a pure water bottling plant and
the ecotourism project) has established a formula that attempts
to create a solid foundation for future activities: prices for goods
and services must be sufficient not only to cover the direct costs
of production, but also contribute to a fund for additional activities
in the community and environmental programs in the region as a whole;
at present, the division is a third going to each part, while remaining
competitive. This is the essence of the international "fair trade"
movement.
During the initial stages, the communities have displayed a remarkable
capacity to integrate these programs into their existing structures.
The assemblies where the initiatives are discussed reveal that their
forefathers regularly engaged in such activities; we discovered
that forest protection and replanting brigades used the same seed
collection techniques and planting methods that are now being (re)introduced.
This same process of interaction with the regional supervisors reveals
the importance of water management and protection activities in
the communities in past epochs, tasks that have been neglected as
discriminatory governmental policies have forced the peasants to
search for income and employment in nearby towns or even in the
USA to ensure the viability of their communities and the survival
of their families.
The present program envisions an eventual charge to the coastal
communities to cover part of the costs of the environmental services
being provided through the regeneration of the river basin. At present,
this cannot be implemented because the water system is controlled
by the government tourism agency which has not been able to fulfil
its promises to deliver a high quality product; compounding the
problem, the hydraulic infrastructure is not well maintained. In
fact, at present the local Chamber of Commerce considers the lack
of an adequate water supply to be a major obstacle blocking the
construction of at least a dozen new hotel projects in the area.
Once the communities have demonstrated their ability and willingness
to maintain their systems, as well as their effectiveness in reducing
the damage from seasonal rains, it is expected that the local authorities
will be able to include a charge for these environmental services
for large scale users. In the interim, other mechanisms are being
explored as a way of explicitly integrating the coastal beneficiaries
into the program: they are expected to provide some support for
the ecotourism activities; future programs include reserves for
native flora and fauna, with the possibility of areas for larger
mammals, once common in the zone. The communities will shortly begin
developing a dependable capacity to supply fruits and vegetables
to the hotels, and contracts that will compensate the communities
correctly for the real costs of production, including fair wages
for the workers and a charge for the environmental services that
are normally not included by the market. The opening of channels
for regional discussions of activities that will increase the overall
attractiveness of the area for visitors in a sustainable fashion
is a fundamental part of the collaboration among dissimilar groups,
and essential for the long-term consolidation of the CSE agenda.
The role of ecotourism
From the very beginning, it was clear that tourism might play an important
part of resource management program. The communities would be able
to offer a variety of nature tourism and similar activities as part
of diversified regional development effort. The CSE initiated preparations
by designing bungalows that could be built by the communities. Local
promoters were already helping people to integrate this type of activity
into community life, encouraging women to think about preparing traditional
meals and helping men to improve their skills to ensure that the construction
would offer a quality service. When the hurricane struck several of
the buildings were destroyed or collapsed, forcing design modifications
that produced a more solid and attractive structure.
If this activity is to be successful, however, many more cottages
will have to be built throughout the larger river basin. Careful
thought is being given to the carrying capacity of each area within
the region, and the ability of the people in the communities to
provide the range of services that will be offered to the visitors,
without threatening the structure of local life and production.
Some of the local tourist promoters (including one of the hotels)
have agreed to participate by channelling some their own clients
into these facilities on attractive terms that will assure the communities
a steady flow of income and gainful employment consistent with strengthening
local institutions.
The CSE is proceeding cautiously. The tropical dry forest ecosystem
is a fragile environment; their preservation and protection require
an infrastructure to assure healthy growth; visitors will have to
be carefully guided through the region, constructing trails and
training local people on how to best share their knowledge with
the visitors.
Once initiated, the temptation to attract large groups presents
a permanent threat to the project, the ecosystem, and the communities
themselves: the steady progress in incorporating the communities
into the development of a variety of smaller enterprises is part
of the long-term process of creating appropriate conditions for
the communities to begin to control directly the activities.
Today's efforts to rehabilitate the region and create the foundations
of a basic infrastructure are being financed with development assistance
funds from the national government and international sources. The
move to a commercial stage will require different sources of capital:
there is no lack of outside interests interested in financing this
project. Here again, the CSE again views its role as more than that
of a promoter; it is not simply attempting to create opportunities
so that the communities can take advantage of a potential market.
The local hotels have expressed their willingness to support the
implementation of the overall resource management program through
the ecotourism activities.
Some of the more visionary hoteliers have begun to realise that
this offering can complement rather than detract from their own
markets and have accepted the position of the CSE that community
ownership and control is an essential building block to assure the
viability of the overall reconstruction program. The main challenge
will be to control this develop so that is a complementary part
of the larger program, rather than one that dominates and subsumes
the communities and their ecosystems to the short-term demands of
a sometimes fickle market.
A review of many ecotourism projects in Mexico and Central America
reveals their destructive impacts on local processes of sustainable
advance. In fact, one of the areas that attracts the largest number
of nature tourists in Mexico, the reserve of the Monarch Butterfly,
is actually in the throes of a process of impoverishment because
the local population has not been allowed to participate directly
in creating adequate facilities that would offer the more than 200,000
visitors who visit the area during the four-month period when the
lepidopters nest there.4
Other projects offer crass distortions of the concept, like the
site advertised as "Nature's sacred paradise"; it displaced local
Mayan communities, dynamited sacred wells, and illegally keeps endangered
species in captivity, to attract visitors to its lucrative "ecotourism"
theme park in Quintana Roo. The difficulties of combining local
participation, with a socially and environmentally balanced program
that also produces a profit create a constant tension that provokes
conflicts among groups with the best of intentions.5
The CSE model on the coast of Oaxaca offers a promising alternative,
by inserting an ecotourism component into a broader project of community
directed regional resource management, that offers essential environmental
benefits to every social group in the area.
David Barkin is a Professor of Economics, Universidad Autonoma
Metropolitana, Xochimilco Campus, Mexico City and Director, Centro
de Soporte Ecologico, Huatulco, Mexico. For comments: barkin@cueyatl.uam.mx
Footnotes
1 - Data collected from the battery of wells that
supply water to the coastal areas showed a 26% decline in the levels
of the aquifers between 1986 and 1992. Extrapolation of this trend
leaves insufficient water for cost-effective pumping in less than
a quarter century.
2 - The uprising by the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation in January 1994 is dramatic testimony to the depths of
this process and the latent reserve of pride in this endangered
heritage.
3 - David Barkin, Wealth,
Poverty, and Sustainable Development, Mexico: Editorial Jus,
1998, for a lengthy discussion of the principles of sustainability
on which this project is based.
4 - Gonzalo Chapela and David Barkin, Monarcas
y Campesinos: Una estrategia de desarrollo sustentable para oriente
de Michoacán, Mexico: Centro de Ecodesarrollo, 1995.
5 - Ron Mader's recent tourist guides to Mexico
and Honduras,
both entitled: Adventures in Nature, (John Muir Publications, 1998)
are a testimony to the variety of efforts and the difficulty of
finding the ideal model. His constructive comments are an excellent
contribution to help visitors make the most of their ecotravels.
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