The Hindu Business Line : `System to monitor impact of tourism on ecology vital'

WHILE Kerala has developed some excellent policies on eco-tourism, properly implementing these policies is the most important test of the State's commitment to eco-tourism, said Ms Megan Epler Wood, Principal Consultant, EplerWood International.

After a week spent visiting various eco-tourism projects in the State, she said the challenge for Kerala will be to manage the growth of its tourism sector. Ms Epler Wood, who is the founder and past president of The International Eco-tourism Society, told Business Line that preventing tourism from overrunning the environment will need to be a key focus area for Kerala.

"Kerala is at the beginning of the trek, but has taken impressive steps," she said. The Thenmala Eco-tourism Project is, for instance, an important domestic eco-tourism model, she pointed out. The project's managers have managed the land well and at the same time have ensured that the local community benefits from the initiative, she added.

The Thenmala Eco-tourism Project can also be used as a very effective tool for environmental education, said Ms Epler Wood. Similarly, the eco-tourism initiatives around the Periyar Tiger Reserve and those by hotel companies such as cgh Earth are good, both for nature and the local community, she added.

Kerala also needs to establish a proper system to monitor the impact of tourism on the environment, she said. Without such a monitoring system that uses yardsticks such as the World Tourism Organisation's `sustainable tourism indicators' it will not be possible to really determine the impact tourism has on Kerala's environment, she pointed out.

In view of the concerns that tourism is having an adverse impact on Kerala's backwaters, all stakeholders should come together to form a `backwaters foundation' that could be entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the backwaters, Ms Epler Wood said. Most tourists would not mind paying a small fee to provide funds for such an organisation, she added.

The funds so mobilised can be used to create a monitoring system for the backwaters, she pointed out.

Companies that operate houseboat tours on the backwaters and canals should also provide tourists with more information on life along the backwaters, she said. "Houseboats could have interpretative panels on their walls, explaining what's happening along the backwaters," she pointed out.

These `interpretative panels' could have visual displays explaining how people living alongside the backwaters earn their livelihood, give details about the cultural practices of the area, and even highlight the threats facing the backwaters, she added.

As coastal areas are often the first to be destroyed by tourism, Kerala must look at crafting a "holistic approach to beach tourism," said Ms Epler Wood. The emphasis must be on zoning to ensure that tourism co-exists with the traditional uses of the beach. "Tourists want authentic local culture, so if it is expelled from the coast that is a mistake," she added.

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