Part Two
THE other speakers from Global Ecotourism Network (GEN) and Asian Ecotourism Network (AEN) included General Chairman Glenn Jampol, owner and developer of two five-level sustainable hotels in Costa Rica (Finca Rosa Blanca Coffee Plantation Resort and Arenas Del Mar Beachfront and Nature Resort); General Vice Chairman Tony Charters, an environmental scientists and urban and regional planner by profession, a founding director of Ecotourism Australia and board member since 1999; General Board Member Robert Holmes, founder and chief strategist of Green Living Project (GLP) Films—a content marketing agency dedicated to authentic storytelling and digital content strategy within the travel industry; General Board Member Hitesh Mehta, a landscape architect, architect, interior architect and environmental planner who has worked on socially and environmentally friendly projects in 63 countries; Masaru Takayama, founded the Asian Ecotourism Network (AEN) in 2015, owner and operator of the ecotravel agency Spirit of Japan Travel in Kyoto, as well as a 75-year-old historic building registered under Japanese Culture Agency, and founder of Japan Ecolodge Association (ECOLA) in 2006; Nabil Tarazi, founder of EcoHotels in May 2009, partnering with the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature to operate the only ecolodge in Jordan, Feynan Ecolodge (selected by National Geographic Traveler as one of the best 25 ecolodges in the world); and General Board Member and AEN Vice Chairman, founder of the Borneo Ecotourism Solutions and Technologies which garnered the UNWTO Ulysses Award for excellence and innovation in tourism in the NGO category.
Delegates also heard from Greg Duffell, the former PATA CEO, on using the principles of nature itself as guidelines of running an ecotourism business; Dr. Kaewta Muangasame of Mahidol University, Thailand, on the brilliant wisdom of the late Thai King Bhumibhol’s Sufficiency Economy concept; and Randy Durban, CEO of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, on the challenges of setting and maintaining ecotourism standards.
The presentations by the foreign experts were matched idea for idea by the very eminent Filipinos themselves.
Marie Grace Pascua of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) discussed highlights of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, a landmark social legislation passed in 1997 to protect the “Four Bundles of Rights”—to ancestral lands, self-governance and empowerment, social justice and human rights, and cultural integrity. The legislation paved the way for the establishment of the NCIP to protect and promote the interest and well-being of indigenous peoples with due regard to their beliefs, customs, traditions and institutions.
One critical need is to highlight the importance of the indigenous peoples in correcting historical injustices. Pascua said, “The cultures of those countries that have more economic power are likely to be more dominant than others, it is no surprise that global tourism threatens indigenous knowledge, social structures and relationships.”
Although tourism can be of great benefit, Pascua cited NGO research showing that in many developing countries, tourism has harmed indigenous peoples by causing a wide-scale eviction from their lands, economic dislocation, breakdown of traditional values, degradation of cultural sites when historic sites and buildings demolished to make way for tourist facilities, and commodification of culture.
She said, “The environment is their spiritual space. We want tourism that is culturally appropriate, protects the customs and local belief systems. We want tourism projects that are transparent and do not themselves become sources of conflict.” Another speaker was Rico Pableo, executive director of the School Of Living Traditions (SLT), a flagship project initiated by the Subcommission on Cultural Communities and Traditional Arts (SCCTA). Set up in 1993, the SLT is entrusted with the safeguarding of traditional culture and practices via transfer of indigenous knowledge and skills of art, craft and tradition of the cultural masters of a community. Young members of the community are the top priority, preferably out-of-school youth/young adults.
To help the learning centers become self-sufficient, the SLT can be a Traditional Arts and Heritage House, functioning as a nonprofit, private organization to promote and exhibit the best works of traditional arts, sponsor lecture-demonstrations, and market the products of SLT Culture Masters and their students locally and abroad.
He said that the first SLT was set up in Benguet province at the Benguet State University in 2002, specializing in Kankana-ey dances, songs and literature. Today there is at least one SLT in 9 of Benguet’s 13 municipalities, one in Baguio City, and several SLTs all over the country.
“The SLTs are not without their challenges,” he said. Citing the case of the Ibaloi Performing Arts SLT in Lower Wangal, La Trinidad, he said that although under masters Nestor Epi (b. 1949) and Felix Taynan (b. 1964), its students are frequently sent off to regional and national events as representatives of their province. However, there is opposition from two fronts: Conservatives who label the SLT as a step in “returning to paganism,” and the Ibaloi elders who oppose the performance of certain music and dance outside of their ritual context.
One of the more practical sessions was by Australian International Funding Expert Paul Niederer. He narrated the process by which projects and ideas could use the internet-based platforms to raise crowdfunding.
Takayama, the founder of GEN and AEN, identified the following challenges ecotourism operators face in Asia: establishing stronger public-private relationships; making all types of tourism more sustainable, green washing or having false claims; lack of reliable, evidence-based information; on-the-ground exchange of experience; unclear legal information, and human and financial resources.
One trend that gained traction is the growing status of ecotourism as a spiritual experience. One of the invited speakers discussed the topic “Can there be Sustainability without Spirituality?” Arguably the first time such a thought-leadership topic had been raised at an Asian ecotourism conference, the talk highlighted the linkage between what is commonly known as “nature” and the grassroots references to it in all the global religions and spiritual faiths as a source of peace, unity and harmony. Indeed, various speakers also referred to travelers who now seek a “communion with nature” in the forests.
The grand finale was a surprise in more ways than one. In the 1960s and 1970s, local indigenous people were deployed to train US soldiers how to survive in the jungles of Vietnam. After the war ended, these indigenous peoples were redeployed to tourism. This year, I recognized one of the trainers. Tata Kasui, 67, was presented with an Award and Certificate of Appreciation for his “lifetime work in preserving the Rain Forest and Culture.” It was the first time any such award had been given in the Philippines.
After the conference, delegates joined a trip to Green Canyon Resort where Jose Niccolo, 38, outlined how his family had turned a devastated former weapons testing ground of the US military into an ecotourist resort, and how he himself, a woodcarving enthusiast, has enhanced the décor with some captivating works of art.