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by Rukshan Widyalankara, Chartered Architect

Eco Tourism has become the rage now. It has a nice ring to it and brings to mind bedspreads of unbleached, undyed, hand woven cotten, the same fabric decorated with green eco motifs used to clothe staff in native local attire last seen on genuine natives some 30 or 40 years ago, "ambula" being served in put up "kamathas' and numerous other window dressings that are vague pointers at best to the real meaning of the word.

Where did it all begin? Let us examine this trendy word under a powerful beacon of light shed by a Sage who lived to inspire the world two centuries ago.

Humble letter

This was Chief Seattle, leader of the Suquamish Indian tribe who wrote to the American government in the 1800s, when the said government wanted to acquire their land.

The splendours of Mother Earth - components of Eco-tourism

His letter begins humbly enough, "The president in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? the land? The idea is strange to us.

"If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?" and goes on to trigger in the mind of the reader a compelling reasoning process, which if followed through has the power to make many things clear. It is as Chief Seattle said, we are part of the earth and it is part of us.

The perfumed flowers are our sisters.

The bear, the deer, the great eagle are our brothers and we belong to the same family as the rocky crests, the dew in the meadow, and the body heat of the pony. Isn't it then natural for us to want to be with our "sisters" letting their beauty sooth us? Can we be blamed for coveting the company of our "brothers" or the embrace of our "family"?

Boundless ambition

May be we, in our teeming millions and boundless ambition have grown too far apart from them to be able to go back for good. Can we then at least go as visitors, as tourists? When we go amidst our estranged "family", our "brothers and sisters" can we manage to remember Chief Seattle's words; that "Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it.

Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself"?

When Chief Seattle said that the shining water moving in the streams and rivers was the blood of his ancestors he was voicing a sentiment even the most exploitative minded can relate to.

Man may leave the shining water cloudy and cluttered with debris when he is finally through, but as he stands gazing into it he agrees that each glossy reflection in the clear water indeed does speak of memories and events past.

If he looks longer he will even claim to have seen a probable future as lovely as those pristine depths.

Tell an environmentalist and an industrialist to stand in a meadow, a field, a hill top or any relatively untouched site letting the breeze envelope them and both will feel embraced, comforted, refreshed, happy and optimistic as if they have travelled long miles and finally come home.

Genuine need

Man has a genuine need of a place where he can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by meadow flowers.

He needs to return however transiently to his primary cradle. It is a need that has given rise to process of merciless exploitation called tourism. But it is a real enough need for all that; one Chief Seattle would have understood and sympathised with.

It is a need therefore that cries out to be catered to.

After driving countless species to extinction and corrupting the genetic and cultural integrity of a number of native tribes it has finally become fashionable to accept that we can't continue to travel in the 21st century as we have in the past, that conventional or mass tourism is on its way out and that Eco tourism with its minimalistic infrastructure requirement and restrictive, conservationist approach is the option compatible with fragile eco systems.

In a nutshell

In a nutshell, Eco tourism is taking environmentally and socially responsible vacations.

It is about making the world's largest industry environmentally sustainable and socially and culturally responsible while keeping it economically viable at the same time.

In the last analysis Eco tourism is civilised man's belated response to a two centuries old admonition by an uncivilised savage, "So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it.

"Care for it, as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land, as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children, and love it, as God loves us." Although some elements of Eco tourism lend easily to fashion, for the most part it demands serious compromises on the part of the tourist and the tour operator and letting go of a lot of presumptions.

According to the Ecologically Sustainable Development Working Groups (1991), Eco tourism or low impact tourism is concerned with the quality of experiences, entails local community involvement, operates within the limits of the resource, is based on activities or designs that reflect the character of the region, allows the tourist to gain an understanding of the region and encourages tourists to be protective of and concerned about the host community and environment.

No doubt, tourism has an important role to play in poverty alleviation, employment generation, human resource development, environmental regeneration and advancement of women and other disadvantaged groups.

Yet the growth of this wonderfully yielding industry should be restricted to keep its impact on environment and local indigenous communities within the limits of acceptable change.

Unique opportunity

Architects and designers involved in the tourism industry have a unique opportunity to reduce environmental impact through specification of appropriate materials. In Eco tourism the emphasis is on building developments that fit more comfortably into the local environment by minimising use of materials, using local, recycled, natural, non toxic materials and avoiding use of finite resources in short supply.

Accommodations, transport and infrastructure developments aim to be locally, socially, culturally and naturally authentic. A sense of place is created through analysis of local climate, customs, beliefs and heritage values.

While it is almost universally accepted that tourist access to eco sensitive areas should be limited and where necessary prevented, controlling numbers through banning access or diluting traffic by multiplying the number of attractions or charging higher admission fees are either not popular or difficult to implement because of high administrative costs.

Less unpopular tactics involve controlling tourist traffic around destinations by effective shift systems, promoting appropriate behaviour by tourists, minimising pollution through proper waste disposal, recycling, sewage treatment and litter control, respecting the integrity of local cultures and utilising local products and skills. Somehow, a balance needs to be struck between use and conservation.

Chief Seattle, the ideological ancestor of the modern environmentalist says towards the end of his missive. "Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted with talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone!".

Into the wilderness

And today the eco tourist goes into the wilderness with strict instructions to maintain their distance from wild life, not to follow or harrass the fauna for photography, not to deviate from laid out nature trails, not to remove the flora as souvenirs and take all precautions to ensure that all aspects of their experience are in harmony with the natural and cultural environment.

Compare this with the trophy collecting safaris associated with conventional tourism, also known as invasive tourism, also known as rape of the wilderness. What a remarkable transformation.

"When the last red man has vanished with this wilderness, and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?" asked Chief Seattle of "Civilized" man.

Perhaps we are not too far off from being able to answer this passionate query in the affirmative because we too now know what they knew: "... our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its "creator".

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