A Tundra Buggy with tourists watch a polar bear in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. Much of the area around Churchill is under protection as a national park and tourism company Frontiers North Adventures has limited their growth to minimise impacts. Credit: Stephen Leahy/IPS

By Stephen Leahy
CHURCHILL, Canada , Nov 26 2018 (IPS)

It’s almost always cold in Churchill, Manitoba, a remote coastal community on Hudson Bay in Canada’s subarctic region. Today, a month before winter officially begins, it’s -25 degrees C with a fierce wind coming off Hudson Bay which is thick with slabs of ice. Situated in the middle of Canada, it’s the world’s largest saltwater bay. And even though frozen solid eight months of the year, the bay sustains the nearly 800 residents of Churchill which is known as the “Polar Bear Capital” of the world.

Tourism and ecotourism are the major contributors to the local economy, with the polar bear season being the largest. The cold waters of Hudson Bay bring polar bears into the area in October and November, while the mouth of Churchill River brings thousands of five-metre-long, pure white Belgua whales in June and July. Summer also brings birdwatchers to the treeless tundra region. In winter people from all over the world brave the bitter cold to view the spectacular aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights.

Living with polar bears isn’t easy. They’re fierce predators, double the size of  the largest lions or tigers, and always hungry when on land where they find little food. Seals are their main food source but the bears can only catch them when the bay is frozen. Fifty years ago any bear near Churchill would be shot on sight. Their numbers fell dramatically and conservation measures were put in place. Although there are no roads to Churchill, it is less than three hours by plane from Winnipeg, Manitoba’s international airport, making it relatively easy to see polar bears in the wild.

In the late 1970s a tourism operator built Tundra Buggies, school-bus-sized, four-wheel-drive vehicles with two-metre high wheels to navigate the roadless tundra while safely allowing tourists to see polar bears in their natural habitat.

“We don’t call our business ecotourism,” says John Gunter, President and CEO of Frontiers North Adventures, the main tourism operator in Churchill with 14 Tundra Buggies. “I’m not sure what ecotourism really means in practice,” Gunter told IPS. However Frontiers North is committed to sustainable tourism and has followed the Canadian Business for Social Responsibility guidelines for ten years. They issued their first sustainability report in 2016 based on the Global Reporting  Initiative.

The company plans to release a new sustainability report in 2019. “It takes time to do this kind of reporting and some things are really hard to measure,” Gunter said. While some of Frontier’s customers are keen to know about the company’s practices, the report is mainly for employees and the local community he said.

Much of the area around Churchill is under protection as a national park and Frontiers has limited the companies’ growth to minimise impacts. Polar bears need sea ice to survive, however global warming has dramatically reduced the amount of sea ice in the Arctic. To reduce its carbon footprint, the company makes sure flights in and out of Churchill and their Tundra Buggies are as full as possible. The company launched a recycling program that the local authorities  now run and eliminated use of plastic water bottles. Frontiers North buys from local suppliers and employs as many Canadian and local-to-the-north guides as possible. They also support Churchill’s Junior Canadian Ranger Program that offers young people in isolated communities opportunities to build their outdoor and traditional skills.

“Our guests come for the polar bears but they end up learning about our community, the indigenous culture, environmental issues affecting the region,” he said.

“Frontiers are a tremendous partner in our conservation and education efforts,” said Kt Miller, of  Polar Bears International (PBI), a world-renowned non-profit organization dedicated solely to the conservation and protection of wild polar bears, and the sea ice they depend on. The company has provided the permanent use of a Tundra Buggy for PBI’s research and education programs. Those programs include webchats with polar bear scientists from the buggy and live web cameras of polar bears that anyone with an internet connection can access.

“We want to share the experience of seeing a polar bear in their natural setting with everyone,” Miller said. In summer PBI is involved in research on belgua whales and there is an underwater web camera on their boat which is very popular.

Bear safety is an important part of Churchill culture says David Allcorn, an expedition leader who has worked throughout the Arctic. The bears often wander near or into town looking for food but instead of shooting them, residents call a 24-hour “Bear Alert” hotline. Conservation officials respond to drive the bears away.  If they persist, they are live-trapped and put in the a holding facility known locally as ‘Polar Bear Jail’. When Hudson Bay is frozen, the bears are released.

No one is allowed to feed the bears, and any garbage is either locked up or collected quickly.  We can’t let bears associate humans with food explained Allcorn. When a tourist tossed a sandwich out of Tundra Buggy to lure a bear closer for a better photograph, he and everyone else on the tour were immediately taken back to town, he recalled. The man was then put on the first plane out of Churchill.

• The first global Sustainable Blue Economy Conference is currently taking place in Nairobi, Kenya from Nov. 26 to 28 and is being co-hosted with Canada and Japan. Over 13,000 participants from around the world have gathered to learn how to build a blue economy.

AraceliMárquez prepares dishes based on Mexico’s rich, nutritional traditional cuisine, at a fair in the southeast of Mexico City. Credit: Emilio Godoy/IPS

By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, May 27 2016 (IPS)

In a clay pot, Araceli Márquez mixes tiny Mexican freshwater fish known as charales with herbs and a sauce made of chili peppers, green tomatoes and prickly pear cactus fruit, preparing a dish called mixmole.

“I learned how to cook by asking people and experimenting,” the 55-year-old divorced mother of two told IPS. “The ingredients are natural, from this area. It’s a way to eat natural food, and to fight obesity and disease.”

Mixmole, which is greenish in color and has a distinctive flavour and a strong aroma that fills the air, is one of the traditional dishes of the town of San Andrés Mixquic, in Tlahuac, one of the 16 boroughs into which Mexico City, whose metropolitan region is home to 21 million people, is divided.

Márquez belongs to a cooperative named “Life and death in Tlahuac- heritage and tourist route”dedicated to gastronomy and ecotourism. The ingredients of their products and dishes, which are based on recipes handed down over the generations, come from local farmers.

Another dish on her menu is tlapique – a tamale (seasoned meat wrapped in cornmeal dough) filled with fish, chili peppers, prickly pear cactus fruit, epazote (Dysphaniaambrosioides) – a common spice in Mexican cooking – and xoconostles (Opuntiajoconostle), another kind of cactus pear native to Mexico’s deserts.

“We are trying to show people thelocal culture and cuisine.The response has been good, people like what we offer,” said Márquez, who lives in the town of San Bartolo Ameyalco, in Tlahuac, which is on the southeast side of Mexico City.

Márquez’s meals reflect the wealth of Mexican cuisine and the growing efforts to defend and promote it, in this Latin American country of 122 million people, which is one of the world’s fattest countries, meaning diabetes, hypertension, cardiac and stomach ailments are major problems.

Traditional Mexican cuisine, on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2010, revolves around corn, beans and chili peppers, staples used by native peoples long before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century.

The local diet was enriched by the contributions of the invaders, and is now rich in vegetables, herbs and fruit – a multicultural mix of aromas, flavours, nutrients, vitamins and minerals.

Activists offer beans on downtown Reforma Avenue in Mexico City to promote consumption of this staple of the Mexican diet, produced with non-genetically-modified native seeds, and to boost food security. Credit: Emilio Godoy/IPS

Liza Covantes is also dedicated to reviving traditional cuisine based on local products. With that aim she helped found a bartering and products cooperative in Zacahuitzco, in the south of the capital, in 2015.

“We are a group of people working for the right to a healthy, affordable diet who got together to foment healthy eating. We’re exercising the right to food, health and a clean environment,” she told IPS.

The cooperative brings together 45 families who produce food like bread, cheese and vegetables. To sell their products, in November they opened a store, Mawi, which means “to feed” in the Totonaca indigenous language.

“We don’t accept anything with artificial ingredients,” said Covantes. The cooperative sells six-kg packages of food, which always include vegetables.

Mexico’s world-renowned cuisine is a significant part of this country’s attraction for tourists.

To cite a few examples of the rich culinary heritage, there are 200 varieties of native chili peppers in Mexico, 600 recipes that use corn, and 71 different kinds of mole sauce.

But this culinary wealth exists alongside the epidemic of obesity caused by the proliferation of sodas and other processed food high in added fats and sweeteners.

The 2012 National Survey on Health and Nutrition found that 26 million adults are overweight, 22 million are obese, and some five million children are overweight orobese. This generates growing costs for the state.

The survey also found that over 20 million households were in some category of food insecurity.

Referring to the country’s traditional cuisine, expert Delhi Trejo told IPS that “its importance lies in the diversity of the food.”

“We have a great variety of fruits, vegetables and grains; they’re important sources of fiber, vitamins, protein and minerals. Their costs are low and they have benefits to the environment,” said Trejo, the senior consultant on nutrition in the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) Mexico office.

María Solís, who grows different varieties and colours of native corn, removes the kernels from a cob in San Juan Ixtenco, Tlaxcala state, during a traditional fair dedicated to corn, the country’s main crop, which originated in Mexico and forms the base of the national diet. Credit: Emilio Godoy/IPS

FAO declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses – one of the key elements in the Mexican diet.

But traditional cuisine not only has nutritional value; the preparation of foods employs more than five million people and the country’s 500,000 formal restaurants generate two percent of GDP in Latin America’s second-largest economy.

To improve nutrition and defend an important segment of the economy, in August 2015 the government launched a Policy to Foment National Gastronomy, aimed at fostering and strengthening the country’s gastronomic offerings, fomenting tourism and boosting local and regional development through restaurants and the value chain.

But its measures have not yet yielded clear dividends.

“The traditional diet would be a solution for diabetes or obesity,” independent researcher Cristina Barros told IPS. “It is indispensable to return to our roots…We are what we eat.”

The Dietary Guidelines launched by the United States in 2010 state that people with traditional plant-based diets are less prone to cancer, coronary disease and obesity than people with diets based on processed foods.

Márquez is calling for more support and promotion. “There is assistance, but it is not enough. I hope the federal programme brings results,” said the cook, whose goal this year is to make a Tláhuac recipe book.

For Trejo, the FAO consultant, part of the problem is that a segment of the population erroneously associates traditional food with what is sold by street vendors or food stalls.

“The country has to foster its gastronomy and do away with false ideas of combinations of fats, sugar and industrialised food that increasingly reach every corner of the country and put traditional cuisine at risk,” she said.

Initiatives in different parts of Mexico have pointed in that direction, like in the southern state of Chiapas, one of the country’s poorest, where several organizations launched in April 2015 the campaign “Pozol project: eating healthier as Mexicans”, aimed at fomenting the consumption of pozol, a nutritious fermented corn drink.

On Apr. 28, the Mexican Senate approved the draft of a Federal Law to Foment Gastronomy, which outlines measures to strengthen the sector. The bill is now pending approval by the lower house of Congress.

“Collectively we can defend these principles and create a social trend that boosts the nutritional values of our gastronomy, to also benefit local producers,” said Covantes.

Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes

Lake Cholila, to the right, with part of its valley enveloped in smoke on Mar. 12, in the province of Chubut, in Argentina’s Patagonia region. Credit: Courtesy of Daniel Wegrzyn

By Fabiana Frayssinet
BUENOS AIRES, Mar 17 2015 (IPS)

In the wake of the fire that destroyed more than 34,000 hectares of forests, some of them ancient, in Argentina’s southern Patagonia region, the authorities will have to put out flames that are no less serious: the new socio-environmental catastrophe that will emerge from the ashes.

The worst forest fire in the history of the country will take a while longer to fully extinguish in the area surrounding Cholila, a town set amidst the lakes, valleys and mountains in the northwest part of the southern province of Chubut. Its 2,000 residents are longing for the start of the rainy season in April in this region that borders Chile and the Andes mountains.

But in the town, which counts among its tourist attractions the fact that the legendary U.S. outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid bought a ranch in Cholila in 1902, as a hideout, the big fear now is what will come after the fire.

The blaze broke out on Feb. 15 and was officially extinguished on Mar. 6, although there are still some hot spots, predicted to burn for another few weeks, according to experts.“The wind cycles will change, as will the availability of oxygen, the humidity and evapotranspiration in the environment will be reduced, temperatures will rise, there will be more solar radiation and light, and the greenhouse effect will be aggravated.” -- Silvia Ortubay

“We are very anxious. We lost the surrounding wilderness where we had chosen to live, and of course economic activity will be hurt,” pilot Daniel Wegrzyn, who had to close his inn on Lake Cholila, which was not affected by the flames but served as an evacuation shelter, told Tierramérica by phone.

“The fires could hurt air quality and health due to the smoke and dust for months or years,” Thomas Kitzberger, an expert in Patagonian forests at the National University in Comahue, told Tierramérica.

The fire also devastated pasture land.

But livestock farming and ecotourism are not the only areas that have suffered losses.

“Ecological damage is what lies ahead,” said Wegrzyn.

The blaze destroyed forests of cypress, Antarctic beech (Nothofagus antártica), lenga beech (Nothofagus pumilio), coigüe or Dombey’s southern beech (Nothofagus dombeyi), Chilean feather bamboo (Chusquea culeou), and giant trees such as the Patagonian cypress (Fitzroya cupressoides).

It also killed, or drove away, endemic fauna such as tiny pudu deer, lizards, birds and foxes, and endangered species like the rare huemul or south Andean deer.

Kitzberger explained that these ecosystems are home to plants that are “relatively well adapted to fire like species that grow in scrubland and on the steppes, which are resilient and quickly put out new shoots after a fire.”

An isolated hotspot throws up smoke in the Alerce River valley on Mar. 11, after some rain fell in the area. Argentina’s southern Patagonia region suffered the worst forest fire in the country’s history. Credit: Courtesy of Daniel Wegrzyn

Others, like the forests of cypress, Dombey’s southern beech or Patagonian cypress, which are moderately resilient, “can survive fire and recolonise burnt areas.” But in the case of Patagonian cypress trees that have been badly burnt, the seedbeds have been killed and are basically irrecoverable, because it would take centuries for a new forest to grow.

Furthermore, “the lenga beech is incapable of regenerating on these sites (of intense fires) or does so very slowly, which means it would also take centuries to grow back,” he said.

Kitzberger pointed out that the forests are the habitat of numerous species, and “create locally stable conditions that make it possible for ecosystems to function.” When they are burnt down, “they give rise to ecosystems with more bushes or species of grass,” which do not play the same roles, he said.

According to biologist Silvia Ortubay, there will be climate modifications that will extend to other ecosystems.

“The wind cycles will change, as will the availability of oxygen, the humidity and evapotranspiration in the environment will be reduced, temperatures will rise, there will be more solar radiation and light, and the greenhouse effect will be aggravated,” she told Tierramérica from the area.

There is a risk of worse flooding and drought, which means “drawing up a plan for restoring the ecosystem should be a top priority,” she added.

She stressed that the local vegetation, organic matter and tree roots are a protective layer for the soil and act as a natural barrier for water, and that with the first rains and the dispersal of ashes, this layer will erode and suffer fertility loss.

Runoff will also increase, causing mudslides and creating steeper inclines and ditches which aggravate the situation.

At a regional level, “when the forest cover is eliminated by severe fires that affect upper river basins, the capacity of regulation and provision of good quality water is undermined, and the supply of energy generated by dams downstream is modified,” said Kitzberger.

Ortubay said the transportation of sediments could also muddy Patagonia’s lakes, “which are considered the world’s clearest,” while the degradation of river basins, with lower water levels in the summertime and higher levels in the winter, would create floods or drought.

Moreover, said the biologist, the deterioration of the forest will generate grasslands that will attract cattle, which will be an obstacle for seedlings to take root and for trees to grow back.

And the cattle, through their manure, will spread seeds of invasive exotic species like sweet briar, one of their favourite foods.

Wegrzyn complained about the lack of risk evaluation and “the delay in taking action,” while warning about the risk of new fires breaking out, based on what he has seen while flying over the area.

He said everyone knew this was “a critical year” because of a phenomenon that occurs every half century: the flowering and death of the Chilean feather bamboo, which produces an enormous amount of highly flammable dry vegetation.

There was also a severe drought and climate conditions that favoured strong winds and high temperatures in the southern hemisphere summer, “which were decisive for the expansion of the fire,” that at one point was spreading at one kilometre per hour.

According to Wegrzyn, a few lookout towers in strategic spots, a good radio system and air patrols would have been sufficient to provide an early warning.

Activist Darío Fernández told Tierramérica from Cholila that if caught early, “the fire could have been extinguished with shovels,” avoiding the need for bringing in brigades of firefighters, airtankers and helitankers from neighbouring Chile.

Intentional fire

The government sacked the official responsible for the National Fire Management Plan over errors in how the fire was handled, and stated that it had been intentionally set.

That is also the conclusion of Chubut Governor Martín Buzzi, who said the fire was linked to the real estate business, which due to the ban on cutting down trees, protected as part of the country’s natural heritage, “makes them disappear.”

To curb the land speculation, Buzzi announced measures such as a 10-year moratorium on selling or transferring land with forests that have been burnt, and the creation of an investigative committee.

Fernández, born and raised in Cholila, who had predicted intentionally set fires, noted that between 2003 and 2011, the previous governor, Mario das Neves, distributed public land by decree, in violation of the provincial constitution.

Fernández said the “green business” involves everything from country clubs and tourist developments to the forestry industry, which “needs to eliminate native species” in order to introduce commercial timber like pine. “The common denominator is the clearing of forests,” he added.

These allegations run counter to the hypothesis that lightning started the fire – which Kitzberger and Wegrzyn said was improbable, since the last thunderstorm in the region happened on Feb. 3, 12 days before the fire started. However, both of them acknowledged that fire originated by lightning can smolder for days before a blaze breaks out.

“But it is not likely that such a long time would go by between the start and the spread of the blaze,” said Kitzberger, especially since one of the first fires was detected by satellite image in a valley, “and lightning tends to strike on mountaintops or hillsides, higher up than in valleys.”

Nevertheless, he said that since the 1990s, in the north of the Patagonia region there has been a marked increase in the frequency and magnitude of electric storms and drought, which intensify fires.

For example, in the Nahuel Huapi National Park, 160 km from Cholila, the last thunderstorm caused eight small fires, he said.

“From politics to the mafia there is just one tiny spark,” Cholila Online, a digital newspaper founded by locals, wrote, summing up the doubts about the origin of the worst fire in Argentine history.

This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network.

Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes

Roy Roger Gibson, an indigenous Kuku Yalanji elder, had to wait 20 years for his dream of being part of a native-owned sustainable ecotourism venture to become a reality. Credit: Neena Bhandari/IPS

By Neena Bhandari
MOSSMAN, Queensland, Australia, Jan 26 2015 (IPS)

Roy Roger Gibson, an indigenous Kuku Yalanji elder, would watch thousands of tourists and vehicles trampling his pristine land while working on the sugarcane fields in Far North Queensland. His people were suffering and their culture was being eroded. The native wildlife was disappearing. He dreamt of turning this around.

It took 20 years to bring his vision to fruition, but today the Mossman Gorge Centre is a successful indigenous ecotourism business in the world heritage-listed Daintree National Park in Queensland, Australia.

Indigenous people are three times less likely to own and run their own business than non-indigenous people.
With more people travelling the world and seeking authentic experiences, tourism has acted as a catalyst for preserving indigenous culture, providing employment, education and training opportunities and protecting the environment – especially in remote locations such as the Mossman Gorge, the ancestral home of the Kuku Yalanji people in the southern tip of the Daintree National Park.

Roy and the Mossman Gorge Aboriginal Community worked in collaboration with the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC), to build the Centre, which has a 90-percent indigenous workforce – 61 employees and 21 trainees.

Roberta Stanley, 18, who joined the Centre as a trainee along with her twin sibling, says, “Every morning, when I step out of home in my work uniform, I can’t stop smiling. It has helped me reconnect with our history, legends, languages, music and the arts. I feel a sense of immense pride and have the confidence to pursue my dream of becoming an artist and dancer.”

This was something young people like her couldn’t do before the Centre began providing accredited skills training in tourism, hospitality, retail and administration. Both her parents also work at the Centre. With four members of the Stanley family employed, it has made life easier.

In 2011, an estimated 207,600 indigenous people were in the labour force. About two in five (42 percent) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 years and over were employed, compared with about three in five non-indigenous people (61 percent).

With limited employment opportunities, pursuing their dreams is not something every native Australian is free to do.

Pamela Salt, 41, used to be a cleaner and paint in colours representing the rainforest and sea during her spare time. Since she began working at the Mossman Gorge Centre, she feels a sense of ownership with the place.

“Physically, mentally and emotionally, it has given our people the confidence that we can do it. One of my daughters is also employed here,” Pamela told IPS. A self-taught artist with no formal training, today her work is on display in the Centre’s gallery and bought by national and international visitors.

Since July last year, 250,000 tourists, 40 percent of them international, have visited the Centre. As Mossman Gorge Centre’s General Manager Greg Erwin told IPS, “Indigenous tourism is gaining momentum. It will add a cultural depth to the experiences that visitors have in any destination. The Kuku Yalanji people, like other Aboriginal communities, have been nurturing and looking after the environment for thousands of years. It is their supermarket and their pharmacy.”

Eighteen-year-old Roberta Stanley joined the Mossman Gorge Centre as a trainee. Now she, along with four other members of her family, works there full time. Credit: Neena Bhandari/IPS

In the next 10 to 15 years, the business will be totally owned by the aboriginal people of the Gorge – a long way from the ‘Stolen Generation’: the tens of thousands of children who were forcibly removed from their families between 1900 and 1970 under Australian government assimilation policies to “breed out” their Aborigine blood and supposedly give them a better life.

Roy, 58, who also belongs to the ‘Stolen Generation’, doesn’t want his people to ever experience that psychological trauma again.

“This Centre is a role model for our younger generation dreaming of a better life.” He, along with other indigenous guides, takes visitors on “dreamtime walks” highlighting the nuances of the world’s oldest rainforest, relating stories spun around creation, food sources, flora and fauna, the caves and Manjal Dimbi (Mt. Demi), a mountain with spiritual significance for the indigenous people.

“Now we are able to protect our ecosystem and at the same time provide visitors an insight into the lives, culture and beliefs of the Kuku Yalanji people and their connection to the natural environment. Our emphasis is on sustainability,” Roy told IPS.

Stimulating positive change

Sustainable indigenous businesses like the Mossman Gorge Centre are not only helping protect and preserve the ecosystem, but lifting out of poverty some of the most disadvantaged communities that suffer from alcohol abuse, domestic violence, chronic diseases, unemployment and high suicide rates.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults are 15 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-indigenous Australians; about half of the young people in juvenile detention are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

Meanwhile, indigenous women are hospitalised for family violence-related assaults at 31 times the rate of non-indigenous women, according to the 2014 Social Justice and Native Title Report.

Indigenous people are three times less likely to own and run their own business than non-indigenous people. The remoteness of places where many indigenous people reside plays a large part in this.

Still, Tourism Research Australia’s 2014 figures show 14 percent of international visitors enjoy an indigenous experience and these visitors spent 5.2 billion dollars in Australia, highlighting a huge demand for authentic experiences in out-of-the-way locations.

ILC subsidiary, Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia, offers unique experiences in iconic locations around Australia. Besides the Mossman Gorge Centre, it manages the Ayers Rock Resort and Longitude 131° in the Northern Territory, Home Valley Station in The Kimberley in Western Australia.

While the ILC is focused on acquiring land and assisting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders manage that land to provide sustainable benefits, Indigenous Business Australia (IBA) is a commercially focused organisation providing sustainable economic development opportunities for indigenous Australians.

As IBA’s CEO Chris Fry said, “Our Business Development and Assistance Programme (BDAP) assists indigenous entrepreneurs to start and grow their own enterprises, and indigenous-owned businesses to be strong employers of indigenous peoples.”

Jo Donovan, a beneficiary of the programme, turned her hobby into a business after attending IBA’s BDAP. She formed Bandu Catering with her son Aaron Devine and daughter Jessica, both chefs. Bandu (‘food’ in the Dhanggati language) provides quality food, blending native ingredients and flavours with innovative, contemporary Australian cuisine.

The BDAP, which has partnered with the banking sector, has provided over 90 loans valued at 55 million dollars during the last financial year.

“Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partners currently hold more than 68 million dollars in equity across a range of commercial businesses and assets through IBA’s Equity and Investment Programme and the IBA purchased over 2.4 million dollars [of] goods and services from approximately 30 indigenous businesses,” Fry told IPS.

IBA also has a scholarship programme for mature-age, full-time indigenous students to complete tertiary qualifications in business, financial, commercial or economic management disciplines.

As the international community prepares for a new era of development, one that puts sustainability at the heart of poverty-eradication, initiatives like these can provide a blueprint for inclusive and equal growth.

Edited by Kanya D’Almeida

The El Bosque children’s theatre group singing a song about protecting the wetlands, for which Cuba is seeking World Heritage Site status. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By Ivet González
CIÉNAGA DE ZAPATA, Cuba , Nov 28 2013 (IPS)

The 18 communities in Cuba’s Ciénaga de Zapata, the largest wetlands in the Caribbean, have long survived on the abundant local hunting and fishing and by producing charcoal. But that is no longer possible, due to climate change.

Years ago it was inconceivable that the people living in the Zapata Swamp, a UNESCO-recognised biosphere reserve in western Cuba, would one day stop using the forest here to make charcoal, extract precious wood, or hunt crocodile and deer.

“We used to pillage the flora and fauna,” said one local resident, Mario Roque, who lives on the small secluded bay of Batey Caletón, 200 km southeast of Havana. “I even poached as a fisherman. But I learned how to make a better living while causing less damage to nature,” he told IPS.

Enterprising residents of the wetlands like Roque have been spontaneously exploring green-friendly ecotourism initiatives, small animal production and small gardens, none of which were common in this area, where people have always been hunters, gatherers and fishers.

Roque, or “Mayito”, as he is known to everyone, started renting out four rooms in his house to tourists after Cuba’s communist government expanded the scope of private initiative in 2010.

Like him, many local residents in Playa Girón, Playa Larga, Caletón and other coastal communities in the wetlands have hung up “Rooms for rent” signs on the front of their homes.

Just 9,300 people live in the 4,322-sq-km Ciénaga de Zapata, the most sparsely populated municipality in this country of 11.2 million people.

The area’s wealth lies in its vast forests, swamps that cover 1,670 sq km, and more than 165 migratory and autochthonous species, like the Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer).

In 2000, UNESCO – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation – declared the wetlands, which occupy the entire Zapata peninsula and surrounding areas, a biosphere reserve. A year later, the Ramsar Convention included it on its list of wetlands of international importance.

“The tourists who come here are nature lovers, and they feel happy when they see we love nature too,” said Roque, who serves his guests lionfish (Pterois antennata), an exotic invasive species that is damaging the peninsula’s marine ecosystem.

“Every day I have to dive deeper to find a lionfish,” he said proudly.

He feeds his guests eggs and rabbit meat from his own small livestock, as well as herbs, spices and vegetables that he grows in his ecological garden. On the rooftop terrace he has a solar water heater made out of recycled plastic bottles and cans. “I’ve been saving 500 pesos [20 dollars] a month since I installed it,” he said.

Almost without realising it, Roque has adopted adaptation measures to global warming, a phenomenon that could raise the water level in the sea here 85 cm by 2050, which would affect between 60 and 80 percent of the swamp, said geographer Ángel Alfonso.

The wetlands cover 9.3 percent of Cuba’s land surface, and are extremely vulnerable and at the same time crucial for mitigating the predicted rise in temperature, intrusion by the sea and increase in extreme weather events, he explained to IPS.

“They protect life inland,” he stressed, because they filter and purify contaminated water while serving as coastal barriers against high tides, hurricanes and the salinisation of fresh water. A full 25 percent of the net productivity of Cuba’s ecosystems and more than 40 percent of its environmental services depend on the wetlands.

The Ciénaga de Zapata, in the province of Matanzas, has weak points when it comes to weathering future threats, even though it is the best-preserved wetlands system in the Caribbean islands, Alfonso said.

Its surface and underwater water have been salinised, the swamp system has been fragmented, and there are imbalances in its ecological functioning, he said.

Nor have the felling of trees and poaching of protected or endangered species like the Cuban crocodile been completely eliminated, just as there are still illegal charcoal kilns that use wood from off-limits species such as mangroves.

“When you take a boat along the coast, you see crocodile hunters and charcoal ovens in the forest,” a biologist who spoke on condition of anonymity told IPS.

Leyaní Caballero with the science, technology and environment ministry’s delegation in the swamp said “there are laws and regulations that protect these resources, but they are not always enforced. Some people violate them out of ignorance or because it is the only way they know how to meet their needs.

“A management mechanism should be created so that people living in the reserve benefit from the forest, without being driven by the profit motive,” she said. “Nor is there an integral sustainable development plan, in line with the country’s general strategies.”

That and other problems were raised in the workshops organised by the project “Transformation for local development in small community groups in the Ciénaga de Zapata”, dedicated to training local leaders – 20 last year and 27 this year – most of whom were already running nature-friendly enterprises.

“We try to guide people a little towards a better kind of development,” one of the local leaders, Antonio Gutiérrez, told IPS. He combines his carpentry work with raising birds like cockatoos.

Gutiérrez is taking part in the project to get more people involved in his economic activity, “which creates awareness about taking care of birds.”

Once a month the project holds meetings with local craftspersons, people who raise livestock for family consumption, ecotourism promoters, and farmers who use agroecological techniques or grow ornamental plants, who have all come together with the hope of improving their own lives and those of their communities.

Together they assess the problems and learn about issues like leadership and marketing, to seek solutions.

“We don’t have to wait for all the food to be brought in from other parts of the country,” said Aliuska Labrada, a homemaker who rounds out her family’s diet with cassava, squash, guava, mango and other food grown in the rocky, saline soil of her garden, in Cayo Ramona (Ramona Key).

One of the most significant results of the project so far has been helping to create the first agricultural cooperative in the municipality, Caballero stressed. It joined the ranks of the 5,688 cooperatives operating in Cuba today.

The initiative was supported by the government’s local environmental delegation, with support from the Fundación Nicolás Guillén and the Swiss NGO Zunzún.

To strengthen the protection of the wetlands, the Cuban government made a submission to UNESCO in 2003 for the Ciénaga de Zapata to be declared a World Heritage Site.

Serah Kei stands beside her eco-lodge, Serah’s Lagoon Hideaway, located on the Malaita Province of the Solomon Islands. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

By Catherine Wilson
AUKI, Solomon Islands, Jun 1 2013 (IPS)

Forty-five-year-old Serah Kei began building her artificial island and eco-lodge resort 26 years ago in Langa Langa Lagoon, located on the Solomon Island’s Malaita Province, about four hours by boat from the nation’s capital, Honiara. Kei, a single mother, paid for the construction by undertaking the laborious task of making and selling ‘shell money’ and finally opened Serah’s Lagoon Hideaway, which accommodates up to twelve visitors, in 2006.

Although it has been a decade since the five-year civil war in this south-west Pacific nation ended, many provincial areas still lack adequate infrastructure, public services and sustainable economic opportunities.

Undeterred by the slow return of international tourist confidence, a growing number of grassroots communities are turning to ecotourism in the hopes of boosting local livelihoods in this country of 552,000 people spread across 900 islands.

“One good thing about tourism is that everybody in the village is getting something out of it,” Kei explained to IPS. Her extended community reside on some of the other twelve artificial islands built on coral, sand and stones in this 21-kilometre lagoon, devoid of fresh water, on the west coast of Malaita Island.

Guests who arrive from the mainland by canoe stay in traditional thatched bungalows overlooking the water. Visitors can engage with the surrounding natural beauty and culture through snorkelling, canoeing, performances of indigenous panpipe music and opportunities to learn about traditional shell money manufacture, local boatbuilding and village life.

Demonstrations of indigenous culture and village visits involve wider community participation with remuneration going directly to those providing services.

A short distance away from Kei’s eco-lodge, Busu Island Village Stay offers a similar experience.  Seven years ago, these were the only two local tourism operators, but today another seven potential eco-friendly resorts are being developed in the area.

“(Increased) interest in ecotourism is quite new,” Longden Manedika, director of the Solomon Islands Development Trust (SIDT) in Honiara, told IPS. “It is a growing phenomenon right across the country.  Even in Makira Province, where transport services can be unreliable, people are developing tourism sites.”

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), the industry has expanded globally in recent years, with developing countries attracting 46 percent of total international visitors in 2011. In 20 of the world’s 48 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) tourism is the first or second source of export earnings.

The Solomon Islands, a string of forest-covered volcanic tropical islands and coral atolls stretching for 1,448 kilometres southeast of Papua New Guinea, has enormous ecotourism potential, offering remote, unspoilt destinations and diverse cultures, wildlife and marine ecosystems.

The mountains of Guadalcanal Province offer serious trekking, while the world’s largest tropical coastal lagoon, Marovo Lagoon, located in Western Province, is home to 16 locally run lodges close to spectacular coral reefs. The easternmost province of Temotu offers remote diving, while Polynesian culture can be experienced on the islands of Rennell and Bellona.

The government remains verbally supportive of tourism, especially as the unsustainable logging industry, beleaguered by corruption, is predicted to collapse by next year.  However, investment in its fledgling infrastructure is yet to follow.

Challenges include developing reliable transport services from the capital, Honiara, to outlying islands and a sufficient trained workforce. In a 2008 survey by the Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI), 13 of 17 tourist operators wanted to see greater investment in air services and infrastructure.

General Manager of the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau, Michael Tokuru, told IPS that the government had begun upgrading two provincial airports at Gizo and Munda in Western Province, but said that broader infrastructure concerns had to be addressed by cross-sector strategies involving different ministries.

“At the moment the government is focused on fishing, mining, agriculture and forestry, so tourism is not a top priority,” he added.

Addressing visitor confidence is another hurdle.

Serah’s Lagoon Hideaway attracted 24 guests in 2011 and 14 last year from Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Europe, but Kei says this is not enough.

While international visitors to the Solomon Islands increased from 4,000 in 2002 to 22,000 last year, more than 50 percent have been business arrivals.

Tokuru believes the negative impact of the conflict, known as the ‘Tensions’ (1998-2003), as well as riots in Honiara in 2006, are still influencing the international community’s perception of security in the country, even though the withdrawal of the military contingent of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) this year represents a milestone in the restoration of peace.

The growth of ecotourism could be an avenue to poverty alleviation, if managed wisely, by providing direct economic benefits to rural communities. The Solomon Islands, one of the world’s LDCs, is ranked 142 out of 187 countries for development, while 23 percent of people live below the poverty line.

Fifty-two percent of community respondents in the SICCI study had a high opinion of tourism, with 67 percent of those attracted to industry employment wanting to gain new skills. There was a clear community preference for small scale, locally managed sites, with 60 percent favouring the construction of traditional ‘village stay’ accommodation, in contrast to 20 percent who nominated large hotels.

“My people are happy to have tourism because we have very little to live on and many live day by day,” Kei said. “We live on man-made islands and have no land to cultivate for an income.”

She added a further benefit was that ecotourism activities supported the preservation of local knowledge for the next generation and created incentives for conserving the environment.

But the SIDT points out that the possible negative footprint of tourism also needs to be addressed through increased local education and awareness.

“We have our own lifestyles that could be disturbed and there are potential conflicts of interest if economic relationships between our people change,” Manedika told IPS. “Some will be more concerned about their business, while others will be concerned about relationships.”

Ultimately, he believes that rural people must be fully informed about their responsibilities, their rights and ownership over land and resources. Communities should also be adequately prepared before engaging in enterprises by reaching a consensus on which aspects of environment and culture they need to protect.

Coastal erosion in Carriacou, Grenada. Credit: Peter Richards/IPS

By Desmond Brown
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Apr 24 2013 (IPS)

Tourism, widely regarded as the mainstay of Caribbean economies, is being challenged to remain sustainable in an era of climate change and its impact on beaches, rivers and other attractions.

Carlos Vogeler, regional director for the Americas United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), speaking at a four-day Sustainable Tourism Development conference held here last week, said that World Tourism Day on Sep. 27 will be dedicated to tourism and water."We have to pay close attention because it is our very success which can threaten our most valuable assets." -- CTO Chair Beverly Nicholson-Doty

The goal is to shine a spotlight on water both as an asset and as a resource and on the actions needed to face up to the water challenge.

“Water is one of tourism’s main assets. Each year, millions of people travel around the world to enjoy water destinations both inland and in coastal areas and Caribbean destinations play a key role in this,” Vogeler said.

“Water is also one of tourism’s most precious resources, and as one of the largest economic sectors in the world, it is the responsibility of the tourism industries to take a leadership role and ensure companies and destinations invest in adequate water management throughout the value chain.

“If managed sustainably, tourism can bring benefits to the national and local communities and support water preservation,” Vogeler added.

In his message for World Tourism Day 2012, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recalled that “one of the world’s largest economic sectors, tourism, is especially well-placed to promote environmental sustainability, green growth and our struggle against climate change through its relationship with energy.”

Vogeler told IPS that UNWTO has been supporting better energy use in the tourism sector for years.

“We have been thrilled with the response we received from the international tourism community,” he said.

“The hotel industry accounts for 21 percent of the carbon emissions from tourism and in 2008, UNWTO launched the Hotel Energy Solutions Project for the accommodation sector and today we can provide hoteliers across the world with a free electronic software to assess their energy consumption and propose them the most profitable investment alternatives in terms of energy efficiency and renewable energies.”

The Sustainable Tourism Development conference was facilitated by the region’s tourism development agency, the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO).

Chairman Beverly Nicholson-Doty says devoting resources to develop and maintain a sustainable tourism industry for the future has a very strong potential for a high return on investment.

She told IPS that as one of the most tourism dependent regions in the world, it is crucial to ensure Caribbean residents and visitors fully understand that the preservation of its natural resources will determine its success in the future.

“The Caribbean is blessed with natural beauty – rainforests, beaches coral reefs, vistas, botanical gardens and rivers – there is no shortage of natural wonders,” she said.

“Discerning travellers are seeking a sense of the place – a term which encompasses how a destination cares for its environment and for its people. They feel the quality of their stay is linked to a destination’s commitment to sustainable tourism.

“Increasingly, travellers are specifically seeking out these experiences, and we must make a commitment to preserve our environment,” Nicholson-Doty added.

She urged Caribbean leaders to allocate resources to both the preservation of natural resources and the development of a cutting edge hospitality sector driven by high levels of service excellence in order to provide a well-rounded visitor experience.

“We have to pay close attention because it is our very success which can threaten our most valuable assets, and industry specialists tell us visitors are becoming increasingly aware of the potential negative impact of tourism on the natural beauty, cultural and historical offerings of a destination if not managed well.

“They want to feel their visit contributes to the conservation and enhancement of a destination’s environment, culture, health and general well-being,” the CTO chair said.

Co-Director at the Center for Responsible Travel, Dr. Martha Honey, agrees. She told IPS that growth in the tourism industry is being matched by growing interest in sustainable travel and it shouldn’t be a hard sell to get visitors to the Caribbean to assist in adopting environmentally friendly practices.

She pointed to an “increasing recognition among both travel professionals and consumers of the importance of responsible travel” adding that there is “strong evidence” that sustainable travel is “good for the economic bottom line”.

Dr. Honey cited several surveys which she said supported these points.

“Conde Nast Traveler found, in 2011, that 93 percent of readers said that travel companies should be responsible for protecting the environment; and in 2012, 71 percent of TripAdvisor members said they plan to make more eco-friendly choices in the coming year, up from 65 percent last year.

“A 2011 Harvard Business School study found that companies that adopted environmental, social, and governance policies in the 1990s outperformed those that did not. Adoption of these policies…reflect substantive changes in business processes,” she noted.

Nicholson-Doty told IPS many of the CTO’s 32 members were at varying stages of environmental consciousness and it was therefore necessary to “work together to ensure our policy makers provide the enabling environment for an industry seeking to maximise its sustainable tourism development.

“We must educate our industry to the tangible benefits of sustainable practices and how to make those profitable.”

The Caribbean has long been a leader in tourism.

Last year, the region welcomed nearly 25 million tourists, 5.4 percent more than in 2011 and the largest number of stayover visitors in five years. This rate of growth outpaced the rest of the world which saw arrivals increase by four per cent.
Back in 1950, only 25 million tourists travelled internationally. But the latest figures show one billion tourists travel the world in a single year and around five billion more travel domestically within their own countries.

“These tourists generate over one trillion U.S. dollars in exports for the countries they visit every year, which is close to six percent of the world’s exports of goods and services, and 30 percent of exports, if we consider service alone. One in every 12 jobs worldwide is connected to the tourism sector,” Vogeler told IPS.

“UNWTO is forecasting an average annual growth of 3.3 percent to the year 2030 to hit 1.8 billion international tourists,” he added, noting that “not many industrial sectors can claim this level of average sustained growth.”

On the water in the San Crisanto mangroves. Credit: Emilio Godoy/IPS

By Emilio Godoy
SINANCHÉ, Mexico, Mar 6 2013 (IPS)

The residents of San Crisanto, a small communal village nestled in an idyllic setting in the southeastern Mexican state of Yucatán, have learned that valuing and protecting natural resources can generate employment and income.

The San Crisanto initiative, which combines ecotourism and other economic activities, is a model for other communities located along Mexico’s Caribbean coast, which is rich in biodiversity but exposed to unpredictable weather hazards.

Visitors to San Crisanto can take boat tours, swim in the crystal-clear waters of “cenotes” or sinkholes, stay in environmentally friendly “eco-cabins”, and purchase locally produced crafts and sweets made from coconuts. In 2012, the community received 12,000 visitors, although it has the capacity for 50,000 annually, according to the residents.

In addition, “we work a great deal on education. The majority of the people are very much aware of the importance of taking care of the natural resources. We must take care of them because of climate change, to protect them from hurricanes,” said Reyes Cetz, 44, one of the 35 registered landholders in the “ejido” or communal village of San Crisanto.

There is as yet no incontrovertible scientific proof that the extremely powerful and destructive hurricanes of recent years are caused by climate change. But it is highly probable that atmospheric warming has had an impact on the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events.

In 1995, Hurricanes Opal and Roxanne devastated the mangrove forests of San Crisanto, located 1,400 kilometres southeast of Mexico City. First the residents organised to repair the damages. Then they proceeded to strengthen the ecosystem against future threats by clearing channels through the mangrove, to allow water to flow through freely.

“The mangrove forests recovered quickly, because the water currents carried nutrients to them. The more mangrove forests there are, the more birds, fish and crocodiles there are,” said José Loria, 56, the operations manager of the ejido, which created the San Crisanto Foundation in 2001.

The ejido system dates back to the Aztecs, and was re-established in Mexico in the 1930s. It is based on the communal tenure and farming of public lands. The San Crisanto ejido was established by a group of farmers who requested land from the state government for growing coconuts in 1957, although its creation was not authorised until 1973.

The community jointly holds 850 hectares of mangrove forests and 100 hectares of coconut groves. In addition to ecotourism, they use these communal resources for agriculture, craft production and salt extraction.

Today they earn a living from “selling scenery,” Loria told Tierramérica. “We have created a company to make use of the resources. We aren’t fighting poverty here, we are improving the quality of life.”

The average income of each “ejidatorio” or communal landholder is 6,000 dollars a year, earned from ecotourism, salt extraction, and payments for environmental services like reforestation and protection of the mangrove forests. These various activities provide employment for 300 people.

“During these months – between February and May – we concentrate on extracting salt and preparing for the tourist season,” Cetz told Tierramérica. This year they have already produced 250 tons of salt, which the ejido sells for 39 dollars a ton.

Since 2001, the community has restored 11,300 metres of canals in the mangrove forests and 45 cenotes fed by underground water sources. While these efforts have reduced the risk of flooding, they have also led to growth in the populations of endemic species.

The area around San Crisanto, home to 570 habitants, is exposed to hurricanes and storm surges caused by an increase in sea level, which means there is an urgent need here to adapt to weather variations.

But the state of Yucatán, highly vulnerable to these problems and extensively studied by scientists, has still not developed a plan to confront climate change.

Mexico loses 10,000 hectares of mangrove forests of year. There are currently more than 770,000 hectares of these coastal ecosystems remaining in the country, according to the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO).

If the current rate of destruction continues, by 2025 Yucatán will have lost almost 30 percent of the mangrove forests it had in 2010, according to projections by the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change.

Mangrove forests, made up of numerous tree species adapted to swampy, saline soils, provide a habitat for a wide range of fauna, serve as a natural water filter, and protect coastal areas from storm surges, hurricanes and erosion. As they grow, the trees absorb large volumes of carbon dioxide.

Their destruction in Yucatán is largely the result of urbanisation and the expansion of tourism, particularly the hotel industry. Other threats include pollutants from fertilisers, pesticides and wastewater that are washed into the mangroves by rivers and streams.

In this region “there are two fundamental elements” that need to be protected: the coastal barriers provided by coral reefs and mangrove forests, said Lorenzo Rosenzweig, executive director of the non-governmental Mexican Fund for Nature Conservation.

“The best way to protect the coasts is to protect the mangroves,” he told Tierramérica.

The Mexican NGO participated in the creation of the Mesoamerican Reef Fund, established in 2004 to protect the coral reefs off the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, and between 2009 and 2012 it designed adaptation programmes for four ecosystem areas in southeast Mexico, including the Caribbean coast.

The success of San Crisanto’s efforts has attracted national and international attention. In 2010, the United Nations Development Programme awarded the community its biennial Equator Prize, and the following year, it received a national prize for forest conservation.

The community has also been the subject of a study, “Campesinos-pescadores de Yucatán: uso de la biodiversidad y apropiación de recursos naturales costeros” (Peasant farmers-fishers of Yucatán: Use of biodiversity and appropriation of coastal natural resources), published in 2010 by Luis Arias and Salvador Montiel of the Centre for Research and Advanced Studies at the National Polytechnic Institute.

The study identified 144 species used for livelihood purposes in San Crisanto and noted that ecotourism has become the leading economic activity, due to both the revenues it brings in and the “social recognition” that it earns the community.

The ejido’s strategic plan for 2009-2029 foresees an increase in this trend. “We see ourselves as a community that lives from tourism,” said Loria. “We need to diversify and improve our offerings, to reach a bigger market,” he added.

However, he warned, “if the mangrove disappears, it will be good-bye, San Crisanto.”

* This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network.

Clemente Caimani leads a procession at a traditional festival in Asunción de Quiquivei. Credit: Rafael Acuña Coaquira/IPS

By Rafael Acuña Coaquira
ASUNCIÓN DEL QUIQUIVEY, Bolivia , Sep 12 2012 (IPS)

The Tsimane Mosetene people in Bolivia’s Amazon jungle region have found a tool to preserve their habitat and way of life: a community ecotourism project that won a United Nations-sponsored international award.

The Mapajo Indigenous Community Ecotourism Company “is the result of a decision reached by the women and men of the Tsimane community, to have a source of income in order to educate our children, because we saw that it was impossible to do so with our small-scale agricultural production,” one of the community’s leaders, Lucía Canare, told IPS.

The active participation of women in the ecotourism project is a big step for this native community, where gender roles have traditionally been strictly differentiated, decision-making has been the domain of men, and polygamy is a waning but still persistent custom.

The ecotourism company is named in honour of the giant Mapajo tree, a sacred tree that grows 40 metres high and provides protective cover for many other species of trees used for their wood in the Amazon rainforest.

“We work in our gardens, and then we take turns working in our tourism company,” Canare said. “That way we all benefit, and we all take care of our other work too. We feed our families with what we grow, and we earn an income from ecotourism, even if it only covers the cost of school supplies and not much else.”

The women in the community received training in gastronomy and take turns working as waitresses, cooks, drivers or guides. Canare is head of the kitchen in the indigenous lodge, where traditional dishes are served based on food grown in the family gardens planted in small clearings carved out of the jungle.

Rice, cassava, plantains, peanuts, beans, chilli peppers and sugar cane are grown in the gardens, which the women tend to early in the mornings, after serving their families breakfast. The men, meanwhile, bring in food from hunting and fishing. To all of this are added the fruits of the rainforest.

In Rurrenabaque, the most inhabited of the four municipalities where the Tsimane Mosetene (also known as Chiman Moseten) people live, it is clear how weak the connection is between these communities and the outside world.

Although the town is located just 410 km northeast of La Paz, it takes between 12 and 18 hours to make the trip by road. And it takes another two to three hours to get to Asunción del Quiquivey by boat, along the river.

The village, which is near the banks of the Quiquivey River, a tributary of the Beni River, is home to just under 300 people.

Rivers are a central part of the life of the Tsimane and Mosetene people, two ethnic groups that joined together in 1991 in the Tsimane Mosetene Regional Council (CRTM), which groups 22 native communities made up of some 2,000 people.

In 1997, life changed in Pilón de Lajas, the district where the Tsimane and Mosetene people live. The CRTM achieved one of their chief demands: the official declaration of their territory as a Tierra Comunitaria de Origen or communally-owned native territory, which gives them full rights over their 4,000 square kilometres of rainforest.

It took 10 years before current President Evo Morales finally formally granted the CRTM collective title to their land, which has enabled them to create and strengthen productive initiatives, such as the harvesting and use of jatata palm fronds.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) had already designated Pilón de Lajas – adjacent to the enormous Madidi National Park – a biosphere reserve in 1977.

The Tsimane Mosetene Indians have always lived in harmony with nature. Few of them leave the area to live elsewhere, and food insecurity is not a problem, as their communities are located in the biosphere reserve’s buffer zone where they use the natural products around them to barter and trade with their neighbours living at higher altitudes.

Traditional roofing panels made by weaving jatata palm fronds are among the products made for other population groups, Clemente Caimani, the 44-year-old chief of Asunción and vice-president of the CRTM, told IPS.

Women also produce craft products on their looms, and make mats, baskets and “maricos” – traditional straw bags that the people of Pilón de Lajas carry around with them, full of the articles of everyday life.

In 2010, the CRTM was awarded the international Equator Prize, in recognition of the communities’ efforts to preserve the biosphere reserve and improve the lives of the people of Pilón de Lajas through ecotourism and sustainable development projects.

The prize is granted by the Equator Initiative, a partnership bringing together United Nations agencies, governments, civil society, businesses and grassroots organisations to advance local sustainable development solutions.

“We have managed to reduce poverty in our territories, by means of productive projects,” said Caimani, who received the award in New York.

The 20,000 dollars in prize money, he said, were used to strengthen initiatives like the ecotourism project in Asunción, the production and use of jatata palm fronds, and the production of cacao, which improve the lives of local communities while preserving the natural habitat.

Caimani acknowledged that the roles of men and women are strictly defined in
Tsimane Mosetene society.

“Women weave, knit, dye, and make the ‘maricos’. Men would be seen as women if they did those activities, and women can’t make arrows or hunt, for example,” he said.

“But we are together in the effort to improve our lives and those of our children, in harmony with nature, which is leading to positive changes in our families,” he said.

“We don’t plant on large extensions of land, we just grow enough to feed ourselves,” said Canare, a 46-year-old mother of 12. “The jungle is a store for us. It gives us food, the meat we need, the fruits of the forest, and medicinal plants.

“That is why we protect it, and we are opposed to the government’s undoing of our work through megaprojects; instead we are asking it to help us continue protecting our territory,” she said.

She said that in Asunción and other areas of Pilón de Lajas, threats from mining, oil and infrastructure interests are constant.

“We have experienced many difficult situations, and at this moment our territory is threatened by megaprojects of the current government, such as the Bala dam and oil drilling,” Canare said.

The Bala hydroelectric dam, a project that the government revived in 2011, would flood the natural access to the native communities’ territory, and would leave some 1,000 local families – who are also threatened by growing oil industry activity in natural gas-rich Beni – without land.

The people of Asunción say the projects endanger their future, unlike other development initiatives, such as the Mapajo ecotourism company, which they have proudly run since 2000.