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EVALUATING
ECOTOURISM: THE CASE OF OPERATION WALLACEA
Tourism is one of the fastest
growing industries in the world with international arrivals approaching the one
billion mark. Ecotourism is widely believed to be the most rapidly expanding
segement of the tourism market. The nature of ecotourism means it has the
potential to contribute to both conservation and development. It has been
eagerly seized upon by third world countries as a means to earn badly needed
foreign exchange without destroying resources and thus compromising
sustainability. As a minimum ecotourism should create positive synergistic
relationships between tourism, biodiversity and local people through the
application of appropriate management strategies
Indonesia is a megadiversity nation and ecotourism is viewed as an appropriate means of meeting biological diversity plans and economic development plans. Operation Wallacea, a UK based NGO is exactly the sort of operator needed to meet these needs and forms the basis of a case study for my study.
There exists a vast array of literature praising the concept of ecotourism as a means to achieving conservation and development. But what is lacking is actual evaluation of ecotourism at the site level. Therefore my aim is to evaluate an ecotourism operator, Operation Wallacea, that works out of the Wakatobi Marine National Park, SE Sulawesi.
To do this a model has been utilized ( Ross & Wall, 1999) from a the paper ‘Towards Congruence and Theory in Ecotourism. This model was chosen as it incorporates comprehensively the concept of ecotourism as defined by many sources. By examining the dynamics of this model, that looks towards postive synergistic relationships between tourism, local communities and biological diversity. The status successes, weaknesses and potentials of an ecotourism site can be revealed. Thus my aim is to apply this model to evaluate Operation Wallacea.
Economic benefits
The economic benefits to the area are small but significant in what is one of the poorest regions of Indonesia and provides an important alternative income. A major concern is the leakage of economic benefits away from the host nation, from assessing the budgets 59.6% of total expenditure for Op Wall is spent in Indonesia.
Socio-cultural exchange
Generally good, potential negative cultural impacts are well controlled by Op Wall. Op Wall has recently opened a cultural and language center in Ambeua, Kaledupa which currently teaches 200 adults and children English, as well as teaching Indonesian to ecotourists. More could be done to increase the awareness of what and why Operation Wallacea are doing in the region.
Sustainability
Operation Wallacea works well within sustainable limits
- conservative use of water ( 2% of the aquifer on Hoga throughout 4 peak months)
- waste recycled/incinerated minimal in void space
- diver impacts assesses and evaluated, compare favorably to dive sites around the world and reefs are conservatively dived.
There are positive future plans
to increase links with the local community as environmental advocates to
resource management. A stakeholder zone, a 40 km2 area is being incorporated
into a community led management approach to resource management. A committee is
being developed to incorporate members from all the villages of Kaledupa &
the Bajo village of Sampela. The first meeting was conducted on 17th July and
the zone has been accepted. Op Wall has a five year science programme to monitor
the zone and ensure it’s sustainability and the support of livelihoods for
generations to come.
Initial Conclusions
Operation Wallacea is contributing to both the environment and development of a poor region of Indonesia, they appear to be a successful case of an ecotourism operator in a remote region. They are creating positive synergistic relationships between tourism, local communites and biological diversity. For future success the stakeholder zone is key, but is a long term and slow approach which needs time to determine any benefits.
Report
A dissertation entitled Evaluating ecotourism: the case of Operation Wallacea will be produced by Chris Stubbs, University of Loughborough by May 2003.