Responsible Tourism

The US$1,000 cash prize is underwritten by Texas-based Canyon Travel, a prominent and highly regarded ecotourism operator.

At a ‘floating’ reception held in Xochimilco on Monday, Canyon President Emilio Kifuri presented Jennifer Morfín Morgan with her Colibri (“Hummingbird”) Award.

The Colibri itself is a handsome copal wood alebrije from Oaxaca. Sculpted into the shape of a cactus bursting with flowers, it boasts petals of orange, pink and blue and pollinating hummingbirds hand-painted in yellow and violet.

First presented in 2001, the Colibri Award is presented to a leading catalyst working toward ecotourism in Mexico. The winner is selected by my gran amigo, Planeta.com founder Ron Mader, in consultation with members of the Mexico Ecotourism Network.

Trajineras – Xochimilco

Jennifer was recognised for her work developing the Conservation Learning Network (IMAC) – a programme established by the Mexican Fund for Nature Conservation, linking communities and making new technologies useful and relevant for those developing ecotourism.

The presentation took place aboard a ‘trajinera’ (flat boat) belonging to Don Fausto Miranda, which had been named “Marlene” after Marlene Ehrenberg, a previous Colibri winner.

As the trajinera moved serenely along the channels of Xochimilco, copious amounts of cerveza were tippled and mixiotes - neat parcels of steamed meats typical of the region – bolted down. 

All but one of the garlanded winners of previous years’ were present at the reception.

Left to right: Ron Mader (planeta.com), Jorge Chávez, Marlene Ehrenberg, Fernando Aguinaco, Jennifer Morfín, Antonio (“Febo”) Suarez, Emilio Kifuri (president, Canyon Travel)

More about Xochimilco – planeta.com

You hire a trajinera by the hour. Don Fausto’s trajineras are available for $160 pesos an hour from the boarding point at the Embarcadero Nuevo Nativitas (Tel: +52 55 5676 2472). A lunch costs $80 pesos per head.

Following my recent piece on the threat to the Leatherback turtle, we’ve learned that UK-based Echo Communities have a fantastic opportunity for anyone looking to take part in a popular 3-month gap year sea turtle conservation project in Oaxaca, starting at the end of September 2004.

Not only will volunteers get to live and work on a beach on the Pacific coast of Mexico, but a last-minute discount is being offered to fill the one remaining place on the project, which is located near Mazunte.

Contact Pete Masters on 07971 853 927.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is reportedly telling tourists that they should consider boycotting golf courses in arid areas, according to Giles Tremlett, the Guardian’s man in Madrid. Large parts of the coastline around the Mediterranean is being threatened by plans to built hundreds of new golf courses, concludes an environmental report. Research by the WWF suggests that a golf course needs about 1 million cubic metres of water per hectare per year – roughly equivalent to the water consumption of a town of 12,000 people.

Loreto Bay, with the imposing Sierra de la Giganta mountains, the Camino Real hotel, golf course and estuaries along the Sea of Cortez

Many golf courses are now being built or converted to use grey water and treated sewerage water. Courses can also act as a natural filter for stormwater and runoff by incorporating freshwater lakes into their design. However, I am left to ponder the potential environmental impact of the multi-billion dollar Escalera Nautica mega-project, launched by FONATUR, which includes the construction of 10 new marinas, dozens of hotels and more than 30 golf courses along the coastline of the Sea of Cortez (see Planeta.com).

WWF calls on the tourism industry to install water saving devices and re-use wastewater for landscaping and golf courses. In Mexico, Marlene Ehrenberg Enriquez has created Mariposa de Agua – a water saving programme for hotels in Mexico.  

So, try to pick out those hotels that use recycled water for watering golf courses.

I took this photo of a Leatherback turtle during the wee small hours of December 11th, 1994.

I recall the date precisely, so beautiful was the sight and so moving the experience of observing this gentle giant for ninety minutes (in the company of a small group of marine biologists from UNAM) on the beach at “Mexiquillo”, Michoacán – considered one of the world’s most important nesting beaches for leatherbacks.

Desperately sad then to hear this week that despite nearly two decades of conservation efforts, the leatherback continues to disappear from Mexican waters through disease, incidental capture in fishing nets, disturbance of nesting areas, and poaching.

I have read slightly conflicting reports in recent years, but the doomsday scenario of leatherbacks sliding toward extinction seemed to be confirmed at an important symposium held in Costa Rica four months ago – the largest ever dedicated to the biology and conservation of sea turtles.

The massacre of hundreds of olive ridley turtles at San Valentin in Guerrero state by armed poachers also made grim reading last January.

On World Wetlands Day, the Government of Mexico designated the beach strand at Mexiquillo as a “Wetland of International Importance”. It had already been re-decreed as a formal protected area in July 2002, and with seasonal fisheries restrictions, these moves present excellent opportunities for site-based coordinated governmental and NGO action towards sea turtle protection.

However, this may be too little, too late. This call to action suggests leatherback arribadas (‘arrivals’) have dwindled to single figures along the 18 km- (11 mile) stretch of sand at Mexiquillo, located some 80 km (50 miles) from Lázaro Cárdenas.

Those caught trafficking turtles can face severe penalties, but the threat of up to nine years in prison has not been enough to deter poachers.

As recent as December last year, a Mexican naval cadet was fatally shot on Mexiquillo by a gang of poachers. The Mexican Navy patrol designated beaches in the area such as Las Peñas, Calabazas, Chuquiapan, Playa Azul, as well as Mexiquillo, in support of SEMARNAT (the Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat). The sad reality is there is little these patrols can do to stop the thieves.

The age-old belief in the aphrodisiac power of turtle eggs sustains a thriving black market for the forbidden ovum.

I recall one baking-hot afternoon when a woman strolled up to my house in Lázaro Cárdenas seemingly hawking fresh fish. Seeing that I was intrigued, she peeled back the thin cloth covering her pale turquoise bucket. To my surprise and horror, this revealed a dozen or so perfectly round white eggs the size of ping-pong balls protruding from fine sand.

Depressing as this story is, there are now examples where swords have been turned into plowshares, with some egg-takers becoming tourist guides, proudly showing off “their” turtles to people like me (for further reading, see Planeta’s Turtle Resource Guide).

At the Costa Rica symposium, the International Sea Turtle Society (ISTS) President Roderic Mast commented “We have a small window of opportunity to save the leatherback and other marine turtles but we have to combine our knowledge at every level in order to achieve this.”

He then sounded a stark warning: “These species are still largely a mystery to us – they haven’t been fully studied – but we do know they are excellent indicators of the overall health of the ocean. We also know we’re going to lose them if we don’t act immediately.”

On that December morning nearly a decade ago I was woken at dawn by the pounding of the waves on the shore. I rose excitedly and helped release a clutch of tiny leatherbacks that had hatched overnight from behind the relative safety of the sanctuary wire following their 45-60 day gestation.

Only one or two hatchlings in a 1,000 will survive to adulthood. That’s short enough odds as it is and we are shortening them still further. We must do more to prevent these magnificent reptiles disappearing forever.

The clock is ticking…

Happy to pass on news of the Third Rural Tourism Fair, which takes place in Oaxaca on Saturday 31st January. The event runs from 16:00 to 21:00 and there will be refreshments, including tamales! Exhibitors include local tour providers, artesans and community representatives. This event is free and open to the public, with both Spanish and English spoken. The event is co-organised by our amigo Ron Mader of Planeta.com.

The start of the Easter holidays is traditionally marked by many Mexicans with a dash to the beach. This year is no different with, for example, an estimated 1 million holidaymakers heading to the dark sandy beaches of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico this weekend. This is despite a mini-scandal that broke last week that has sparked a national debate regarding the safety of bathing in the country’s coastal waters.

A handful of beaches in the states of Veracruz, Guerrero and Oaxaca have been categorised as unsafe for swimming (animated graphic) and following an urgent mini-summit, the Tourism, Health, and Environment Ministers and a Navy Admiral announced that results from water samples would now be published monthly on their respective websites.

There is an excellent discussion thread on this topic on the Lonely Planet website.

Not that much of this news has filtered beyond Mexico’s borders – although the Dallas Morning News did publish an article by Laurence Iliff last month. Pacific resorts such as Zihuatanejo and Acapulco have come in for some particularly heavy criticism. “Our waters are healthy,” the News article quotes Acapulco Mayor Alberto López Rosas as declaring after a recent public dip in the bay. Rosas presented me with a tiny statuette of a cliff-diver two weeks ago, although I saw the telltale yellowish rings of gloop myself at La Quebrada that very evening (pictured left). Strong currents accepted, contamination along stretches of the surfing beach at Revolcadero was the worst I’ve seen on any beach anywhere.

Of course, the Mexican hotel sector is livid. On Friday, Mexican Hotel & Motel Association president, Miguel Torruco Marqués, pleaded for this information to be withheld from the public because it “hurts the purse of thousands of Mexicans.” This position is regrettable, although the timing of the announcement just before the busiest holiday of the year did inflame the situation. Donning the current administration’s new badge of transparency, Tourism Secretary Leticia Navarro defended the Federal government’s decision to make the results public and chose to draw attention to the 132 beaches (of 140 that are monitored) that are in “perfect condition,” and which “present no risk” to public health. This openness is to be applauded and will hopefully prod the powers-that-be into taking the appropriate concerted action – backed up with resources from the Federal government.

Rather than being “named and shamed”, perhaps the local authorities and hoteliers would be more persuaded if a positive system of rewards could be introduced similar to the Blue Flag ‘awards’ in Europe. Crucially, a criterion obliges public health authorities there to inform the public promptly and issue warnings if “the beach… is expected to or has become grossly polluted or otherwise unsafe.”

It should be stressed here too, that tourists themselves have a responsibility to take their litter home with them. Last year, the Mexican Navy cleared 58,000 tonnes of solid waste discarded on Mexican beaches – a sea of rubbish by anyone’s estimation.

More than 8.3m tourists visited Mexico’s archaeological zones in 2002. A disturbing article in Reforma yesterday suggests some of them (us?) literally leave their mark.

Yesterday at Chichén Itzá (pictured) – the second most visited site in Mexico after Teotihuacán with 975,000 visitors – we witnessed at least one person scale a wooden barrier and climb to the top of the Templo de los Guerreros in order to photo (I assume) the Chac Mool.

To be generous, perhaps there needs to be better signage. However, Reforma quotes a warden as saying “…between 5 and 6 people are thrown out of Chichén Itzá each week due to damage they’ve caused to the buildings.”

One result of this action is for ever more structures to be fenced off to the public (e.g. in recent years ‘El Caracol’ at Chichén Itzá and the Pyramid of the Magician at Uxmal). The bottom line: respect the signs and travel responsibly.

Innovative Oxford-based company Climate Care has a new website. It features a nifty tool – the Air Travel Calculator – that calculates the amount of CO2 created by you on your flights.

For example, on a return flight to Mexico City each passenger is responsible for releasing the equivalent of 2.5 tonnes of CO2.

You can offset your emissions (and let’s be honest – some feelings of guilt) by paying online to support renewable energy and reforestation projects. None, as yet in Mexico, but we’re talking to Director Tom Morton about one such project. Watch this space.