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Communities take the lead
In Mexico, the best potential destinations are owned by poor peasants who have absolutely no experience as entrepreneurs, and whose culture is does not promote rabid consumption. For centuries, their cultures have promoted conservation in ways that are beyond the philosophy of the modern economy.
Did you know that more than 70 percent of all the land in Mexico is owned by ejidos or rural communities? This percentage increases if you only consider pristine areas that have the potential to become world tourist attractions.
The idea of large scale tourism development derives from the formulas that simply don't apply in nature. Add to this the fact that large tourism corporations have rarely acted in a responsible manner in Latin America.
So what they really do is buy the land, build huge hotels, draw in a lot of tourists, overcrowd the site and generously benefit the community whose land they bought by hiring local people.
They are proud to say that they have created jobs for poor people. But the fact is that the indigenous population can never keep these jobs. They do not know how to work for an industry. Their world view is not compatible with industrial standards. Sooner or later, all well paid jobs are in the hands of people that have come from urban centers. So the original owners have to migrate, causing terrible environmental damage.
True eco-travel does not bring in enough money to keep these corporations happy. That's why they do not operate in a responsible fashion: it's simply not good for business.
In Mexico, the Secretary of Tourism (SECTUR) and its financial arm FONATUR have been good friends to all kinds of mega-investors.
A few years back , the Constitution didn't permit ejidos or comunidades to be sold. So the government expropriated them and then sold the land to developers. There are many examples of this. After some amendments, now ejidos can be sold, so developers are happy to be able to buy with no intermediaries. To me this is really dangerous.
The Secretary of Tourism is of course interested in eco-travel, but does not understand it at all. They want to develop huge resorts. Aafter all, they love taxes. Also they have to inform the people of Mexico how many millions of dollars are going to be invested in the industry this year.
It has been my experience that all the officials involved in eco travel are removed and replaced too soon for the activity to be fully understood. I was part of their effort to establish the minimum requirements for adventure travel guides in Mexico; as it turned out all of the people we worked with were removed and the project failed. Where is the continuity?
Rural communities in Mexico do not "think big." They actually love the land, and have a culture of sharing that ensures that the quality of life of the whole group increases even when only a few are working and earning more.
Like many medicines, ecotourism is a dangerous substance. In small doses it can cure very specific maladies, but it is not a universal remedy and can OD an ecosystem easily.
Communities understand this because they know where their water comes from; they know where animals feed; and they know that they are fully connected with the environment. An executive that lives in the United States, or in Mexico City cannot care for a stream the way the people who depend on that thread of water to survive can.
All communities require is training -- and there lies the challenge.
With a fraction of what is invested in developing one traditional resort, literally hundreds of communities could receive this training. So the problem of getting a good training program started does not lie in the lack of financial resources, but in the lack of vision; it seems to me, that greed and lack of competence and intelligence obstruct this vision.
The funny part is that we specialize in the development of small ,community owned, touring companies, and get hired by the Secretary of the Environment (SEMARNAT), not the Secretary of Tourism (SECTUR). In fact, most of the really useful training in eco-travel in Mexico is conducted by SEMARNAT!
Communities know nothing of eco-travel, but the lessons are easy to teach. The true difficulty lies somewhere else. It lies in the way communities perceive themselves.
Our society has convinced many communities that are weak and therefore need leadership to evolve and succeed in a modern world. We have made them dependent on our money, policies, religions and market practices. We have rendered their Spirit helpless.
Fortunately, internal strength comes natural to human beings. It cannot be amputated by culture or society. The key to the success of our training programs is their focus on this strength. We have observed that the mere teaching of abilities is useless if it is not supported by the people's Spirit.
By this I do not mean that part of our training is motivational -- which is usually superficial. I am talking about self discovery. Communities don't always realize that what they consider to be a weakness is in fact their strength. For each hour dedicated to developing business abilities, our program includes up to four hours devoted to this self discovery process. Yes, it is expensive in terms of time, but it works.
The way I see it, nature travel seems to be a good way to get human beings reacquainted with themselves and with each other. This may be a mayor factor in the shape of things to come.
I say we give communities a chance to keep their land and to survive, so they can one day teach us how to live in peace with nature and ourselves.
Juan Carlos Ibarra runs Balam Consultores with his partner Antonio "Febo" Suazez. They previously wrote the article Proyecto Piloto de Turismo Rural en el Ejido de San Nicolas Totolapan published in Planeta in 1997. Juan Carlos may be contacted for more information via email
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