EQUATIONS statement on World Tourism Day: Tourism leave our coasts alone!

[TourismScan]

Below you will find the World Tourism Day statement issued by
EQUATIONS (www.equitabletourism.org). ECOT is happy to endorse the
statement and join in the call to protect India's coastal ecology from
irresponsible and unregulated trourism.


EQUATIONS statement on World Tourism Day
27 September 2010

Tourism leave our coasts alone! A call to protect India’s coastal
ecology from irresponsible and unregulated tourism.

Speaking on the theme of World Tourism Day 2010 “Tourism and
Biodiversity” UNWTO (World Tourism Organisation) Secretary-General
Taleb Rifai, claims, “Tourism and biodiversity are mutually dependent.
UNWTO wishes to raise awareness and calls upon the tourism
stakeholders and travellers themselves to contribute their part of the
global responsibility to safeguard the intricate web of unique species
and ecosystems that make up our planet”. The High Level Dialogue on
Tourism, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, in the southern
Chinese city of Guangzhou, the host of the WTD celebrations, will
reportedly debate issues ranging from the economic value of
biodiversity for tourism, to how to integrate biodiversity protection
into planning for sustainable tourism. We wonder, if apart from the
UNWTO itself, anyone else actually believes its propaganda!

Cashing in on Biodiversity

That tourism and biodiversity are mutually dependent is a myth
increasingly being propagated. The UN International Year of Ecotourism
in 2002 was an earlier global attempt to do this. The purpose these
myths serve is to open the doors to the global tourism industry in
ecologically fragile areas, and establish tourism as the new patron of
conservation, dislodging the role and rights of indigenous people and
nature dependent communities. Concepts such as the economic value of
biodiversity promote the idea of nature as a tradable commodity, which
suits very well a consumptive industry such as tourism.

Tourism is the only industry that sells a product it does not own! The
coasts, the rivers, the mountains, the forests and the deserts – are
all sold as tourism products – without acknowledging that these exist
only because they have been revered as sacred, and protected in
sustainable ways, by indigenous and nature dependent communities
through their cultural, social and economic practices and their
choices of lifestyle and livelihood.

A sorry tale

When one considers the coastal ecosystem holistically, both sea and
landward, it is a miracle of rich biodiversity with varied degree of
life forms - the sand dunes, beaches, wetlands, mangroves, estuaries,
backwater lagoons and coral reefs.

Mangrove theme park at Pappinissery Panchayat, Kannur, Kerala
Constructed on tidal flats, mangroves and abandoned filtration ponds
of thick mangrove vegetation, the site falls within a coastal zone,
which is ecologically fragile. The plan involves construction of
health clubs, watchtower, food court, recreation centre, conference
hall, biotech toilets all proposed to be constructed within the
mangrove and inter tidal area.

Velaghar-Shiroda, Sindhudurg district, Maharashtra
Earmarked for tourism development by the government, the local fisher
folk are presently contesting land acquisition and eviction notices
served by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) on
behalf of a prominent Indian hotel group, which plans to build a five-
star hotel and beach resort with aqua-sports.

Andaman Islands
Most tourism development here particularly in the popular Havelock and
Neil Islands is in contravention of the CRZ Notification, 1991. A
private resort in Corbyn's Cove Port Blair is located so close to the
beach, that sea sand accumulates on the road and in the premises of
the resort, which needs to be cleared periodically.

Seaside resorts at Mandarmani , Purbo Medinipur district, West Bengal
According to the local District Magistrate, construction and running
of these hotels has resulted in an ecological disaster. Sandbanks were
flattened and the natural vegetation, screw pines, were cut down for
construction. Since roads cannot access most of the hotels, cars ply
on the beach for tourists to enter or leave the resorts. Red crabs
that abound on the beach, as well as other fauna, are crushed under
the unregulated vehicular traffic. A rise in pollution has also
affected the coastal marine life and dwindling of catch of the local
fishing community. Despite the Calcutta High Court issuing a
directive that no future construction would be permitted at any place
in Mandarmani that fell within the CRZ, construction continues in
violation of the court’s order.

Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu
Rampant tourism development has left no space along the beach and the
immediate stretches of land adjoining the sea towards the southern
side are completely occupied by the hotel industry. Amusement parks
and water theme parks are the recent additions to attract domestic
tourists. A theme park, which has planned its operation to cover 4000
visitors a day, has levelled the sand dunes to have an elevated
structure for a clear view of sunrise and sunset.

This sorry tale continues along the coast– in Goa, in Andhra Pradesh,
in Orissa, in Pondicherry and in Gujarat. Violations involve not just
construction in no-construction zones, but flattening sand dunes;
rapid coastal erosion; privatising beaches pushing out fisher folk and
traditional occupations; letting untreated sewage into the sea,
estuaries and backwaters; dismal solid waste management; use of
unsuitable building materials and unsustainable energy practices;
overburdening fragile ecosystems such as coral reefs and backwaters by
increased tourist visitation; and pushing in consumptive models that
leave heavy ecological footprints on fragile ecosystems.

Travelling the length of India’s 7500 km coastline is testimony to how
tourism development in the pursuit of profits has failed to
demonstrate stewardship towards either coastal ecology or the rights
of coastal communities.

Coastal Regulation- a battle of two decades to protect the coast

The only notification for the protection of the Indian coast is the
Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification of 1991. No sooner was CRZ
notified, than the attempts to dilute it began!

The first amendment to the CRZ Notification was because of pressure
from the tourism lobby. The tourism industry argued that the
prescribed 200 meters of “No Development Zone” restricted them from
competing with beach hotels of countries where no such restrictions
existed. They claimed the tourism industry would require only 25 to 30
kms of India’s 7500 km coastline, and hence relaxing the NDZ from 200m
to 50m in CRZ Notification would not harm India’s coastal ecosystem!
Under pressure, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) amended
the CRZ Notification in 1994 reducing the NDZ area all along tidal
water bodies. On being challenged, the Supreme Court quashed the
amendment terming the step taken by MoEF as ultra vires, and restored
the NDZ. This was a short-lived victory as the CRZ has been amended 21
times between 1994 and 2005, each dilution weakening the regulatory
regime, many of these at the behest of the tourism industry.

In the last, few years there has been an attempt to replace the CRZ
Notification with a management oriented Coastal Management Zone
Notification (CMZ), a move that drew wide protests from coastal
movements and civil society organisations, whose key concerns have not
been taken into account in recent versions of the notification.

The recent move to exclude the ecologically fragile Andaman & Nicobar
and Lakshadweep Islands from the ambit of CRZ Notification 1991 and to
bring them under a separate Island Protection Zone Notification is
another retrograde step, as it contains no specific regulatory
provisions for tourism at all. Up to the year 2003, the construction
of tourism establishments within 200m from the High Tide Line in the
Islands was prohibited. Under pressure from the tourism lobby, this
was reduced to 50m. Even with the diluted provisions, the violations
by the tourism industry in the Islands are rife. We wonder what the
case will be when tourism does not come stringently under the scanner
for violations, past and future.

Sadly, there is little evidence along the Indian coast of tourism
industry’s intent to be law abiding, let alone its claim of being a
steward of biodiversity.

On World Tourism Day our call is “Tourism – leave our Coasts alone!”

To endorse this statement, contact EQUATIONS at
camp...@equitabletourism.org
EQUATIONS, # 415, 2C-Cross, 4th Main, OMBR Layout, Banaswadi,
Bengaluru 560043, India

www.equitabletourism.org