ECOCLUB^®

ISSN 1108-8931

the International Ecotourism Monthly™

Year 4, Issue 43, Dec. 2002

Tropical Ecology and Community-based Ecotourism as a Viable Economic Incentive for Conservation -  the case of Brazil.

by Douglas Trent, President, Focus Tours Inc. President, Focus Conservation Fund, Brazil / USA
new Expert Member of ECOCLUB.com

To gain an understanding of the potential importance of ecotourism one must first understand the forces threatening our planet's biodiversity. Only then can we see what ecotourism needs to be in order to provide an incentive for biodiversity conservation. Biodiversity is essential for the health of the planet and human survival.

Brazil, with more biodiversity than any other country, provides an easily understood example. It holds most of the Amazon Basin. Scientists used to believe that rains formed above the Atlantic Ocean, moved westward to cover the Basin, and rained. For 20 years, however, we have known that it is not that simple. The clouds do form over the Atlantic and move westward, but drop their load on the first third of the Basin. Studies show that approximately 25% of the falling rain evaporates before it ever hits the forest canopy. Another 25% evaporates off the leaves before the forest uses it. Approximately 25% is soaked into the leaves and epiphytic roots, while the remaining quarter is slowly absorbed into the forest over the next few days. This is why one can be in a rainforest during a torrential downpour, feel only a mist, and observe that the stream and river levels remain constant. It is the melting snows in the Andes that provide most of the river level increase each year.

Within a few days most of the water absorbed into the forest returns to the sky via transpiration and evaporation. When combined with the moisture already there, clouds form and are blown to the west. The process is repeated in the middle third of the Basin. A few days later again newly formed clouds continue west. When they run into the Andes they rise. Condensation caused by cooling air forms large raindrops, draining the clouds and releasing an incredible amount of water. It is no surprise that western Amazonia is the wettest part of the Basin.

Where the land is deforested over a large area, the results of rainfall are very different. The ground heats up in the searing tropical sun, and temperatures rise. Approximately 40% to 60% of the rain evaporates before hitting the surface, depending on the air temperature. The remaining percentage beats down on the surface. The force of this water with no surface cover often erodes the land. Swollen rivers red with dirt return to the sea over the next few days. The amount of moisture continuing westward is significantly reduced. The larger the deforested area, the less rain in the entire Basin. One expects a general drying, and this seems to be what is happening now.

Brazil is not alone when it comes to experiencing this phenomenon. Deforestation in Mexico, Indonesia and other countries with extensive tropical forests have been in the news the last few years. Deforestation reduces biodiversity wherever it occurs. Hydrological cycles are disrupted leading to drying and the increased loss of niche habitats. Growing populations around the world increase pressures for land use.

Another important concept in understanding biodiversity conservation is the relationship between the number of species and number of individuals of a species in a given area. Temperate countries with mature temperate forests typically have 8 to 12 tree species per hectare (1 hectare = 1,000 square meters, or 2.45 acres). To make the concept easier to understand, lets say there are 500 trees per hectare, one tree every 2 square meters. While the percentage of each tree species will vary from hectare to hectare, one could expect roughly 10 species of trees evenly distributed, or around 50 individuals of each species per hectare. With relatively few species, we have many of each.

In a tropical moist forest trees typically have smaller trunks that grow close together. It is not unusual to have 1,500 or more trees per hectare. An average hectare may have to 400 to 700 species, with some forests having many more. With 1,500 trees per hectare, one could expect roughly 2.7 of each species. With more species, we have relatively fewer of each individual.

Numerous tree species that were identified in the Amazon Basin between 1884 and 1934 have not been located since. Over 50 species of orchids have been found on one tree. Insect studies in Peru revealed so many new species that we now aren't sure by a power of 100 how many insect species exist. If we use the understanding that when there are more species, there are fewer individuals of each to look at insects, we would see hundreds of thousands of each species, if not millions, yet most species would be rare over the entire area.

Further, research by tropical biologist Dr. Ghillean Prance showed that the Amazon Basin has eight phytogeographic zones or "plant areas", major regions each with its distinctive assembly of plants and animals. This diversity of formations in the Amazon and other tropical forests contrasts sharply with that of temperate forests. Forests in western Alaska, for example, are virtually identical to forests in northeastern eastern Canada, 4,500 kilometers away.
Species distribution maps for plants, birds and primates that now exist will show the regions. Each region has many region "endemic", species found in that region and no where else. Where these regions meet, one expects species that are not otherwise represented in either region. With such a plethora of species, one would expect that most species are rare, and highly localized. It also seems that there is a relationship between species size and scarcity. While large animals such as jaguar and tapir occur over a large area, many insects, primates, birds and other life forms on occur in a single small area.

Scientists vary in their estimates of how many species are slipping into extinction each day. Ranges vary from 10 to 10,000 a day, and possibly more. While the higher end of the scale sounds unbelievable to the layperson, an understanding of the relationship between the number of species and the scarcity of each shows how higher estimates are logical. If a sizable area with hundreds of thousands or even millions of regional endemics were deforested, many more would slip into oblivion.

Approximately 4% of the earth's surface is in some sort of protected area, receiving various degrees of protection. While the protected area strategy for biodiversity preservation is both important and significant, approximately 95 percent or more of the earth's biodiversity lives outside these protected areas. In addition, diversity is decreasing over time in many, if not most, of these reserves, and we can only expect it to continue decreasing. Reserves cannot encompass enough land to protect hydrological and other natural cycles on which they depend. They frequently do not have the support of the people living around the area. Many reserves were formed from lands appropriated from those now living just outside their borders. Recent news that the Earth's population has now reached 6 billion proves that growth is unrelenting in most places, and there is simply not enough money to create protected areas which would preserve as little as 40% of the earth's biodiversity.

With biodiversity distributed around the entire planet, we need to look to communities throughout the world for answers. When communities become the beneficiaries and custodians of their biodiversity, they are much more likely to preserve it.
There are several issues that stand out in community-based conservation. Knowledge of the basics is important to any successful ecotour project that will substantially promote the preservation of biodiversity.

Land tenure is one prerequisite to providing an incentive to preserve biodiversity. It seems to be the only way to involve local communities in the decision making process that otherwise often leads to the to the degradation of habitats. Local landowners are less likely to support the large-scale "development" plans such as dams and roads that are known for their disastrous effects on both biodiversity and local communities.

It is necessary to empower women for the preservation of biodiversity. The research of Dr. Deborah Tannen, a well-respected sociolinguist, has shown that women are more community minded than men regardless of cultural differences. In many cultures women do most of the wood gathering, cooking, child rearing and other jobs that support the family. Men often work outside the home, and yet wield most of the power in the relationship. An educated woman is more likely to be interested in the long-term welfare of her family and community, which will include a concern for the surrounding natural environment.

To maintain biodiversity for the long term, we need to work with and support local communities and projects for the long term. Communities often are the recipients of short-term projects run by foreign organizations. After waiting for the project to finish, they often get on with their lives with little or no lasting effect. Without a long-term commitment, it can be difficult for a community to change for the better. We need to support people, processes and institutions such as 1) farmer's cooperatives 2) small, sustainable industries and 3) women's groups.

There are no short-term answers for long term protection of our biodiversity. We cannot separate people from the land, and biodiversity where they live. Failures in protected area programs usually result from ignoring these facts.

What role does ecotourism play? It is the concept of using nature-based tourism to actively help preserve biodiversity and benefit local communities when they are present. A deeper understanding of ecotourism, and how it might help preserve biodiversity, is necessary if we are to benefit from a discussion of its role as a viable economic incentive for biodiversity conservation.

First, we need to look at the economics of what is currently called ecotourism. Roughly 80% to 90% of the profits from an ecotour, for from any tour, stays with the company where the tour is purchased by the tour participant. If a tour is purchased from a company in the USA, Europe or elsewhere, roughly 90% of the profits will stay in the city where the company is located. If a tour is purchased from a company in Sao Paulo, or even in Manaus, that amount of profit from the tour will usually stay where the company is located. Roughly 10% of the profits end up in the city where the ecotourist flies into before going to the destination. A company in the city with the airport will most often own the vehicle that transports the tour participants to the destination. The same can often be said of the hotel owners, the food, fuel and other supplies, and frequently the local guide. The tour then spends its time in the forest or wetlands, often staying overnight in a lodge owned by someone in the city, or some other city. Almost none of the profit from a tour ends up in the hands of the local people who live in the forest, wetlands, etc.

This is the reality of economics, and nothing tour operators need to be ashamed of. If ecotourism is to play a significant role in biodiversity preservation, however, we need to reverse the economics so that the greatest percentage of profit from a tour goes to those who live in the areas of high biodiversity. This will provide the economic incentive for those people to preserve the biodiversity people will pay to experience. How can this happen?

Let us look at a case study in the northern Pantanal:
The Jaguar Ecological Reserve is a 139ha (341 acre) privately owned nature reserve. This was created on the land of Benedito Leire Falcão de Arruda. "Leirinho" has nearly 1,000 hectares at Km 128 on the Transpantaneira. His land is in the richest part of the Pantanal, hosting the largest population of Hyacinth Macaws in the state if not the country along with several other species of note. As of September 2001, every tour Focus Tours has operated has seen at least one jaguar, staying in the region for just two nights.

I met Leirinho in 1983, while mist netting birds for the book South American Birds, by John Dunning. He had a simple home and wood shack where he sold cold drinks to passing fishermen and the occasional group of tourists. As the best place to see the incredible Hyacinth Macaw in natural habitat, I would stop there with my groups. Eventually we worked out a deal where he would prepare a lunch for my groups, so he could earn something more than if just selling drinks. Leirinho eventually sold some property in Pocone, on the northern edge of the Pantanal, to finance a small lodge. Focus Tours later funded additional rooms, with a no-interest loan payable in room nights. The condition of the loan was that they would stop the yearly deforesting necessary for their cattle. We later increased the size by two more rooms, and by the early 1990 the ecolodge was earning more than cattle. Still to get them through the slow, rainy months with few tourists, Focus Tours would loan them money each year, to be paid back in room nights. We donated $7,000 in 1996 to allow them to build a bath and shower facility and put up a tent camp with four tents, complete with electricity. This allowed them to host larger groups. Tourists we have taken into the area often comment that it was their favorite stop, out of several stops in Brazil. Several have sent donations, which have totaled nearly U$2,000.00.

One of our clients, Joanne Devlin of the innovative Black Diamond Paving in San Jose, California, first visited the Pousada Pantaneiro in 1998. She approached me in March 1999 and told me that she and her partner had decided to announce their Pave an Acre, Save an Acre program. With a strong interest in conservation, the two owners, both women, wanted to put a portion of their profits into biodiversity protection. They put enough money aside from each acre they covered in asphalt to preserve an acre in the tropics.

Perhaps the best way to preserve land in Brazil is by keeping it in the hands of the landowners and establishing it as a nationally registered private reserve, a R.P.P.N. (Reserva Particular de Patrimonia Nacional). Focus Tours arranged a deal with Leirinho to receive a significant sum from Black Diamond Paving in exchange for putting 62.50 ha of his undeveloped land into R.P.P.N. status. Black Diamond Paving accepted this deal enthusiastically. Their conservation money would not only preserve incredibly rich habitat; it would also benefit the local people. While many "save an acre" programs require paid guards to protect the land from invasion and in a natural state, this opportunity has traditional landowners that have lived on the land since birth. To make the deal a reality, Black Diamond sent the funds to Focus Tours, which notified the Pantaneiros that the money was in hand. With this they started the R.P.P.N. process. On September 14, 1999, the Reserva Ecológica do Jaguar - Jaguar Ecological Reserve - was established, and Leirinho received Black Diamond's funds. Black Diamond has committed to increasing the size of this reserve each year, in accordance with how many acres they pave. Their donations in 2000 and the first part of 2001 have added 77ha (149 acres) to the reserve. Focus Tours originated the idea, the non-profit Focus Conservation Fund handles all monies and communications between Black Diamond Paving and the Pantaneiros, without keeping any of the funds. Because of the creation of this reserve, last year at this time we had other Pantaneiros with over 4,000ha (9,800 acres) that wanted to preserve their land. Since then, 12 other Pantaneiro ranchers have come forward to offer to put their land into reserve status. Their land totals over 800,000 ha (1,762,000 acres).

What will sustain this program in the long term is true ecotourism. This will build an economic base that will both keep the Pantaneiro culture alive and provide yearly funds for more conservation. In order to create a system where the majority of the profits from ecotourism stay with the Pantaneiros, we need various elements to become reality.

1) English Speaking Staff: 
As most ecotour clients will speak English, it is necessary for the management and guides to speak English with near fluency. Waiters and other staff need to know enough English to do their jobs. As of September 2001, an American volunteer has been teaching English, including the names of the animals that tourists come to see.

2) Train local people to be naturalist guides:
Local people need to receive the training to become the quality of natural history guides that the most demanding of ecotourists, bird watchers, demand. Focus Tours, for example, looks for people that can identify around 100 bird species by call alone. These are the people that are most easily trainable to be world-class guides. In the Pantanal, we are teaching Pantaneiros to be guides, and getting them the binoculars, spotting telescopes, tape recording equipment to pull rare birds into view, and spotlights.

3) Train local people in other jobs:
 Other people from the local community need to be trained as managers, cooks, bartenders, house cleaners etc., and these people must be paid a livable wage. They must provide the quality of service in their field that the naturalist guides will demonstrate in their profession. As a quality manager is key to the success of any project, it may be necessary to hire an outside manager with previous management experience, at least in the first few years.

4) Build a comfortable lodge:
While a Five Star hotel is not appropriate, a lodge must be very comfortable, with good lighting, hot showers, comfortable beds, and rooms that are either air-conditioned or cooled in some other manner. Rooms much have enough space to access their baggage, and store it during their stay. Windows should look out on pleasing views. In addition to beds, the room should have a couple of comfortable chairs around a table. There need to be enough rooms to accommodate a group. In the Pantanal, we plan to increase the size up to 20 rooms, enabling two groups to visit at the same time. Areas without as many daily activities and options may want a smaller facility.

5) Own their own vehicles.: 
Rather than use vehicles owned by companies or individuals in the city, the community should own the vehicles, and they should be designed to fit the needs of the tour participants. In the Pantanal, for example, the tour participants need to sit high above the vehicle to see over the vegetation that has grown next to the Transpantaneira road.

6) Raise their own food. 
It is often expensive to travel long distances into town to get food and other supplies. The more self-sufficient the project is, the more profitable it will be.

7) Get a quality web site, and get your name out to the public. An attractive, quality web presence, in English at least, but also in Portuguese, Spanish, and French also needs to be well placed. When someone searches the web for "Amazon Tours," an ecotourism project in the Amazon should come with within the first 10 listings. It is also a good idea to align with a well-known tour company that can further disseminate the project. At the Jaguar Ecological Reserve, the Pantaneiros have named Focus Tours as its official representative. With the excellent reputation Focus Tours enjoys the Jaguar Ecological Reserve will receive the same trust. A representative agency will profit off of each booking, providing the incentive for that agency to promote the destination.

8) Create the project in an area of high biodiversity, with many visible animals.
One can have the best-trained guides and other staff, the nicest lodge, own their own vehicles and get their name out, but if wildlife can not be regularly seen in a region, the ecotourism project will likely fail.

9) Profits for continued conservation projects. 
The community-owned ecotour project much have a commitment to use a significant amount of the profit on preserving more land. It should also lend expertise and otherwise support local and surrounding communities. The more support a lodge gives these communities, the more support it will receive in return. The goal is to preserve the natural surroundings and the larger the preserved area, the better. A successful lodge can finance a similar project nearby. This way it will enjoy the existing support of the community while preserving other parts of the natural environment.

True ecotour companies go out of their way to make conservation through tourism a reality. Using local hotels, rental buses, etc. are a part of running a nature tour business, and do not automatically make a tour operator an ecotour operator. One has to be willing to use tour profits and time to actively work towards preserving biodiversity. One has to encourage others to donate, and work to come up with innovative ways to preserve.

If a local community owns the vehicles and lodge, has trained guides and other staff, has easily visible wildlife and gets their name out to the public, the project is likely to be successful, both economically and in terms of biodiversity preservation.

It is necessary to understand the difference between an ecotour operator and an ecotour lodge. A lodge receives clients and employees a number of people. An ecotour goes from lodge to lodge, often travelling with one guide. Ecotour operators are often important clients of ecolodges.

While tour operators can be ecotour operators, it depends largely on their willingness to donate a significant part of their profits to biodiversity conservation projects. Focus Tours is an ecotour operator in this sense.

While a lodge that is not community-owned can be considered an ecolodge, it depends largely on their preserving a significant amount of land, providing training and of using local help. As a true ecotour operator does, the lodge should contribute each year to biodiversity conservation, perhaps by increasing the size of the area preserved. If it does not, its ecotour credentials could reasonably be called into question.

In both of these cases, however, the amount that economic realities permit to be used for biodiversity conservation is small compared to community-owned ecotourism projects.

I understand that a million dollars will soon be made available by the Inter American Development Bank to promote ecotourism in the Amazon Basin. If the IADB's understanding is that this money will lead to more ecotourism and thus more biodiversity conservation, it would do well to consider limiting the funds to community-owned ecotourism projects, using dedicated and knowledgeable consultants as needed so that the project will meet the criteria I have set forward.

It is not rational to expect my tour company nor any other city-based ecotour business to close their doors to support only community based ecotourism. It will also be sometime before community-based ecotourism destinations compete significantly with the large number of tour companies and lodges that currently exist. How then, might tour operators and ecolodges in the Amazon best apply the profits they wish to use for biodiversity preservation?

We have all heard about the burning of the Amazon rainforest. We know that the last couple of years have seen the most burning. What seems like a hopeless disaster is in fact not that difficult to change, if funding becomes available. One must first understand what causes the fires and accept that fires in the Amazon Basin are now a permanent feature of the region. Fires in the rainforest, however, can be avoided. Studies in Brazilian rainforest communities have shown that the people who suffer the most from out of control fires are those that live in those communities. An out of control burn destroys fences, buildings and often kills farm animals. It is a mistake to think that poor farmers in the Amazon want the forest to burn. Fires destroy their clean water supply, medicinal herbs and food both gathered and hunted.

Setting fire to a previously cleared area is the poorest way to rejuvenate pasture. It is wasteful of forests, nutrients and threatens investment. At the same time, it is a fast and cheap way to reduce weeds and pests, while providing nutrient-rich ash to the soil. The use of fire makes economic sense when forest is abundant and inexpensive. A long-term solution to out of control fires must come from an alternative model for regional development that favors greater investments on smaller areas of land.

The answer then, is to improve the lives of people in those communities. First, they need help getting title to their land. If they own their land, they are more likely to want to invest and protect their investments. Second, they need help organizing into cooperatives. They can work together to create firebreaks, and can notify each other when a fire is planned. This already occurs in some communities, and fines are levied on those that do not give advanced warning. Communities can work together when a member of the coop is burning; to be sure the firebreaks are not broken.

Third, by taking advantage of existing rural credit programs, farmers could find the funds to invest in their land. Fourth, they need a vehicle to get their products to market. Rubber tappers in western Brazil have used a donated truck to get their products to market, and have preserved a substantial area of forest. Local markets and investments in land lead to higher land prices. It becomes uneconomical to have out of control fires.

There are no short cuts to preserving the Amazon rainforest. We need to work with those living there, and change the economic landscape. Still, this is a plan that will work. The Focus Conservation Fund can play a leading role in these communities, if funding is made available. The alternative seems to be the loss of the world's largest forest, global warming, loss of biodiversity, health problems etc. The cost of saving the forest is a fraction of the cost of loosing it. Existing ecotour businesses can play a role in the big picture solution to preserving the biodiversity of the Amazon Basin.

Without looking for mechanisms like those presented here, ecotourism in the Amazon will only be able to preserve a relatively small area, and one that a changing hydrological cycle could well negate. No region as large as the Amazon Basin can be expected to have successful ecotourism business in every area. Most of the Amazon is not easily accessible for tourism. Widespread hunting and overfishing has made it very difficult to find wildlife in most accessible areas. While it is comparatively easy for a conservation organization to purchase land for a preserve, we will never be able to purchase enough, and reserves without community support are not likely to be preserved without considerable cost and effort. We can, however, put our money where our mouths are and enable local communities to preserve their land. There are two models presented here, and I am sure there are others.

Humankind is facing an unparalleled challenge when it comes to preserving the planet's biodiversity, in the Amazon and elsewhere. Solutions that are most likely to be successful will work at the community level in a very decentralized manner. Ecotourism is well positioned to evolve into an important element of the total equation if more community-owned ecotour destinations are established and established ecotour business unite behind community-based fire prevention programs. The alternative is the proliferation of the dangerous arm of tourism that has left its destructive mark on much of the world to date.

REFERENCES

Devlin, Joanne 1998, 1999 & 2000. Personal observations, unpublished. Black Diamond Paving

Gude, Lacey 1996. Personal observations, unpublished. Amazon Adventurers Ltd., Washington, D.C.

Hause, Sandra 1996. Personal observations, unpublished. Preferred Adventures Ltd., St. Paul, MN.

Kutay, Kurt 1996. Personal observations, unpublished. Wildland Adventures, Seattle, WA.

Liz Claiborne and Art Ortenberg Foundation 1993. The View from Airlie: Community Based conservation in Perspective. The Liz Claiborne and Art Ortenberg Foundation, New York, NY, 33 pages.

Myers, Norman 1984. The Primary Source: Tropical Forests and Our Future, W.W. Norton & Company Inc., New York, NY

Nepstad, D.C., Moreira, A. & Alencar, A.A. 1999. Flames in the Rain Forest: Origins, Impacts and Alternatives to Amazonian Fires. The Pilot Program to conserve the Brazilian Rain Forest, Brasilia, Brazil.

Peavy, Buzz 1996. Personal observations, unpublished. International Expeditions, Helena, AL.

Prance, Ghillean T. 1977. The Phytogeograhic Subdivisions of Amazonia and Their Influence on the Selection of Biological Reserves, in G.T. Prance and T.S. Elias, editors, Extinction is Forever, New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY.

Selengut, Stanley 1996. Personal observations, unpublished. Maho Bay Camps, New York, NY.

Author Douglas B. Trent holds an Honors Degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Kansas. While living in Brazil in 1981 he founded Focus Tours after witnessing vast areas of deforestation and habitat destruction. The company was established with the goals of using tourism for environmental education and raising funds for conservation projects. He is one of the few tourism professionals who is also a trained ecologist, one of the founders of the rainforest movement, an environmental writer, ecotour consultant, speaker and teacher. His efforts have supplied binoculars to guards in the Pantanal wetlands, generated thousands of dollars for Brazilian conservation projects and organizations, helped support the Caratinga Biological Station, provided data on wildlife populations to the Brazilian national parks department, provided free organizational consultation to Brazilian NGOs, and many other significant projects. He has delivered presentations to conservation organizations and universities as well as in schools in Brazil, Belize, Venezuela and the USA. In addition, he is a regular speaker at international ecotourism congresses. In 2000 he founded the non-profit Focus Conservation Fund to use his knowledge and abilities to further biodiversity conservation.

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