Monday, April 21, 2008 ‘Eco-tourism activities can harm host community, environment’
A priest from the academe warned students and stakeholders in the tourism industry of the negative effects of eco-tourism should regulations fail to protect the environment where the tourism activities are held.
Fr. Dionisio Miranda, SVD, incoming president of the University of San Carlos and author of various publications and essays on ethical and moral topics, said that eco-tourism, if unregulated, could displace indigenous people and damage the environment.
The talk on global tourism was organized by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (Rafi), in line with the celebration of World Heritage Day last Friday.
In his talk, Fr. Miranda described eco-tourism as an attempt to put on a remedy on the “exploitative tourism” done in the past. “It is remedial tourism,” he added.
He said to be able to sustain eco-tourism in the country, the industry should respect the culture and the traditional values of inhabitants of the eco-tourism areas.
He cited, as an example, what happened to Sagada where—due to the number of tourist arrivals in the area—hotels and inns mushroomed and changed the landscape of the area, affecting the indigenous people who lived there.
Tourism also competed against residents for water resources, he said.
“Taboos (in the community) are constantly broken by foreign tourists, such as bathing nude in waterfalls,” he said.
Fr. Miranda encouraged the tourism industry to set a capacity limit on tours going to eco-tourism areas so as not to disrupt and endanger the environment. Dr. Jocelyn Gerra, Rafi executive director, said the forum was aimed to come up with a dialogue that will enable the stakeholders in the tourism industry to think that “people are still on top of everything.”
The activity, held at the Casa Gorordo Museum, was also in line with this year’s World Heritage Day theme, which is “Heritage, Monuments and Churches.”
“So it is just fitting for us to be in a heritage place,” said Gerra. (DME)
