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ECOCLUB® |
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ISSN 1108-8931 |
International Ecotourism Monthly |
Year 4, Issue 41, Oct. 2002 |
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THE EXPERT showcases the knowledge of our Expert Members who volunteer free advice to other Members of ECOCLUB.com on their topic of expertise. This month we have reports on Bañado La Estrella in Argentina/Paraguay, on the Sundarban Forest in Bangladesh and an e-paper on Delivering Quality Eco-experiences.
Based on the authors' vast
personal experience as an ecotour operator this short paper offers practical
guidelines on how to produce quality in ecotours. Read this e-paper (.pdf
document) at http://ecoclub.com/library/ecotourismpapers.html
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Argentine
and Paraguay are separated by three rivers, the western one is the
Pilcomayo. This river circulates across a plain whose slope is so low that
is difficult to maintain its course. By this reason it's reviewing the
limit, The low slope causes river overflows that originate spills, forming
the Bañado La Estrella: a set of swamps that is helped to dam by the
embankment of a road and channelled in a set of brooks who ended in the
Paraguay river. The Bañado is located in the Argentinean state of Formosa.
It's the second natural reserve in wetland's wildlife in South America,
after the Pantanal. It extends along 9000 square kilometres, forming a wedge
of subtropical forests in a place where the reduction of rains begin to
transform the climate in semiarid. In this wetland are also trees, palms and
swamp vegetation. It's rich in birds (the biggest reserve of ducks in the
country), reptiles (especially snakes), mammals (viscacha, guazuncho, lobito
de rio) and fish. At the present time depredation is even small, but it has
some risks: - the construction of the embankment affects the near Indian
community of Pilagas, destroying their communitarian grasses, disassembling
their forests and flooding its fields. Also, at this moment hunters from
around the world are arriving to hunt the ducks. - The new agreement with
Paraguay may include the deviation of the Pilcomayo waters, prevailing to
the wetland one of the water supply, reducing the swamp sensibly. Several
Argentine and international organizations are managing to incorporate it to
the list of wetlands of international importance. The Bañado La Estrella
arose as a place with rich wildlife at a moment when other places are
disappearing. The tourist impact is still minimal and so this is a moment to
make a project of sustainable tourism.
The word Sundarban is a
compound word (sundar+ban). In Bengali, the national language of Bangladesh
'sundar' means beautiful and 'ban' means
forest, thus sundarban is a beautiful forest in Bengali. And it is indeed.
Sundarban is the home of more than one hundred
and fifty thousand spotted deer and a few thousand barking deer. Spotted deer
have a craving for the leaves of the Keora tree (Sonneratia apetale). Keora is a tall
tree so a
deer cannot reach its branches. But you know, there is an amazing
friendship, in this forest, between deer and monkey (Rherus macaque).
Monkeys pluck green leaves from top branches of Keora trees and drop them on
the ground for deer to eat. (In a group of monkeys one always sits on the
topmost branch of the tallest tree in the vicinity as a guard. When it
detects a tiger, it gives a special sound; deer also know the meaning of
that sound and run off for shelter.) Besides Keora leaves, spotted deer like to eat
the leaves of Gewa (Excoecaria
agallocha) tree, and the fruit of Sundari (Heritiera Fomes) tree. Barking
deer prefer to eat different types of creepers; they also eat Keora leaves
like the spotted deer. Monkeys themselves eat Keora leaves as well, but not
that much. Monkeys of Sundarban like to eat eggs of birds, turtle and
crocodile. One of their favourite 'dishes' is 'Dogar' fish. They catch the
fish from innumerable rivers, canals and creeks in the forest. Savanna grass
grows in some parts of Sundarban. Both spotted and barking deer like to eat
this grass, especially early in the morning and in the evening when the Sun
is not that hot. Wild boars of Sundarban eat the upper part of the roots of
grass as well as of Hargosa (Acanthaceae) fern, of Hudh (Tiger fern) and
Hogla (Elephant grass). I forgot to tell you that the deer of Sundarban like
dry fish very much. Though seldom they get the taste of dry fish. The king
of Sundarban, the Royal Bengal Tiger (Panther Tigris), is not 'vegetarian'. Deer is number
one item in its menu, sometimes boar becomes its prey when it cannot lay its
hand on a deer, and it also catches fish got trapped in clay after the ebb
tide. When a tiger gets old and cannot catch its natural preys, it stretches
its hand, unwillingly, toward human beings. But often it is the other way
round: on a sad note, on September 10, poachers killed a Royal Bengal Tiger in the Sundarban. This species of tiger has been included by
IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) in its Red Data
Book, in 1969, as one of the most endangered animal on earth facing
extinction. The forestry guards encountered, on September 10, a group of
seven poachers in the deep forest who were flaying a tiger killed by them.
After exchanging fire with the guards, the poachers fled the spot, leaving
behind their prey. The dead tiger, 7 ft long, had eight bullet marks
on its body. Sundarban is
the home of most of the remaining Royal Bengal Tiger on earth. Bones, nails,
testicles and skin of a tiger are traded illegally at very exorbitant prices
in the underground world market. Bones, nails and testicles of a tiger are
used to make unconventional medicine traditionally popular in East Asia. The
Bangladesh government put a ban in 1974 on hunting in the Sundarban however
a few gangs of international smugglers are still active to this day in the poaching of Royal Bengal Tigers.