Tourism

Belize is still largely undiscovered and undeveloped compared to other Latin American countries with heavily developed, commercialized, mass tourism industries such as those in Costa Rica and Brazil.  While many developing nations are focused on industrialization and rapid urbanization, Belize has generally taken a much slower, conservation-oriented approach to development.  Many sources cite Belize as having a greater percentage of its land mass dedicated to protected parks and natural reserves of any country in the world.[1] This is one of the highest achievements for a nation, especially when countries have so much to gain financially from exploiting their natural resources.  Belize further distinguishes itself in terms of the low concentration of settlement within its rainforests, although this is more easily achieved due to Belize’s small population.

Belize and the International Tourism Industry

Belize made the list of the world’s top emerging tourism destinations, based on destinations that are growing at a rate above the world average and have an increase of at least 100,000 international arrivals.[2]  Tourists are consistently seeking out locations that are less associated with the overly-crowded, theme-park-oriented tourist locations, in search of more remote, unique, and beautiful locations that expose them to wildlife diversity and other cultures.  As tourists are becoming increasingly environmentally conscious, they are more actively seeking out travel that combines exotic natural experiences with the enjoyment and satisfaction experienced being a part of social and environmentally responsible contributions.[3]

Because the majority of tourists come from the wealthiest countries, tourism acts as an income transfer from wealthy nations to many of the world’s poorest countries.  Ecotourism is especially contributory since visitors are often venturing to remote, rural areas where communities tend to be poorer than the average regions in a developing country.

Numerous natural factors such as the climate, safe waters for boating, the second largest barrier reef in the world, pristine beaches, untainted cayes, caves, Maya ruins, plant and animal wildlife, and pristine rain forests, all make Belize appealing for the tourism industry.  One of Belize’s many competitive advantages is that an incredible amount of biodiversity, rainforest hikes, caves, and Maya ruins are near to and easily accessible from the beaches. Travelers to Belize are consistently described as more environmentally-focused than the uber-affluent or extreme party travelers.

The towns of Bullet Tree Falls (left), photo courtesy of Apolonio Mai, wildbze.com, and Hopkins Beach (right)

The number of tourists coming from America and Europe continues to increase every year.[4]  Belize is only two hours away from 3 major US hubs—Houston, Dallas, and Miami.  The United States provides more than 20% of the world’s travelers, and as a result of its close proximity to the U.S., Americans comprise 90%[5] of Belize’s international tourists.  Belize posted an average annual growth between 1995 and 2004 of 6.5%.[6]  In 2006 over 750,000 Americans visited Belize.[7]  Despite the increase in visitors, Belize still lags far behind the other Latin American countries in terms of volume and growth. This is not an accident; Belize believes in promoting its culture and country without compromising the environment, and even the Belize Tourism Board supports this mission, taking a firm stand against mass tourism.  This is a beautiful thing in terms of slower, more organic tourism growth and the potential for ensuring that projects are implemented according to the most stringent conservation principles.

Belize’s tourism industry generates approximately $180 million a year,[8] and accounts for about 17% of the GDP.[9]  The Government of Belize has been very supportive of increased funding for the tourist industry, and declared tourism as its second most important development priority behind agriculture.[10]  A $3.75 departure tax goes directly into the “Protected Area Conservation Trust” dedicated to protecting the barrier reefs and rainforests in Belize.[11] 

Because of Belize’s beautiful, undeveloped natural ecosystems, incredible biodiversity, and cultural diversity, any ventures that bring foreign visitors into Belize must adequately consider and incorporate proper conservation measures into the planning process so as to ensure that biodiversity is protected and any negative environmental impacts are avoided or at the very least, mitigated. Until now Belize has avoided the pitfalls experienced by other developing countries with pristine wilderness who sacrifice their natural environment in favor of quick profits. Belize is now increasingly experiencing negative impacts that include: fragmentation and clearing of the landscape, improper site planning and location of trails and buildings, inadequate handling of waste disposal, erosion from clearing land, and more visible negative impacts to plants, animals, and people.  There are areas in Belize where tourist development is expanding so rapidly that entire towns are beginning to resemble one big tourist resort, for example, Placencia and Ambergris Caye.

This is very worrisome because developing regions with pristine natural environments can destroy the very thing that brought the tourists there in the first place.  Increasingly, development in these beautiful places is happening under the guise of environmentally-friendly eco-tourism projects that “demonstrate their commitment to the environment” by putting up sprawling resorts with buildings made from toxic commercial building materials, few or no renewable energy or waste systems, and little involvement with or support for the local and indigenous community, wildlife, or wild areas.

Ecotourism: Greenwashed Tourism or Connecting Sustainable Travel, Conservation, and Culture?

By recognizing and combating the potential environmental, economic, and social harms that are linked to projects that bring tourists to a country, it may be possible to avoid socio-economic and environmental damage at all stages of planning and development, and strive for alternative solutions demonstrating best practices.

One source of confusion is the many names for projects that bring tourists into a country, as demonstrated by the following chart[16]:

Analyzing more than 480 of the top “ecotourist” projects from around the world, many of which claim to have “ecotourist certification,” confirms many of the fears about poorly implemented tourism based on conservation.  But, as tourism statistics indicate, travelers will continue to explore the world and to its credit, ecotourism provides the potential for an alternative to large-scale resorts with no environmental protection measures whatsoever.

Sustainable tourism is considered a starting point for organizations that fall within the ecotourism industry.  Sustainable tourism is “envisaged as leading to the management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, and biodiversity and life support systems.”[17] Ecotourism attempts to connect sustainable travel, conservation, and communities. Its planning, development, and operation should include participation by local and indigenous communities; its conservation should contribute to the total environment, including both natural and cultural heritage; and the economic returns should substantially benefit the host community. 

Researchers have indicated that it is difficult to obtain precise statistics on ecotourism because it is frequently grouped together with “nature” or “adventure” tourism.  The ecotourism boom began in the 1990s and has grown 20-34% annually.[18]  Ecotourism is the fastest growing sector within the larger global tourism industry; the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reported that that in 2004, ecotourism was growing 3 times faster than the tourism industry as a whole.[19] 

There is, and will continue to be, an onslaught of tourists to natural areas, further threatening already vulnerable, or endangered regions. Ecotourist projects have the potential to meet many of the strategic goals that international environmental organizations like the United Nations and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are continually failing to meet with foreign aid, and other hand-out oriented programs. Thus, ecotourism projects that are truly devoted to a sustainable mission provide unique opportunities for visitors to experience the last of our planet’s most valuable, beautiful, natural surroundings, while learning about and contributing to biodiversity conservation and local and indigenous cultures.  If implemented properly, ecotourism can provide direct and indirect social and economic benefits for rural communities, especially those in developing countries, and further create incentives for conservation.

Theoretically, “ecotourism” sounds good.  However, many projects that begin with an approach that embraces sustainable community development later abandon them for more traditional tourist resort models.[20]

Common Environmental, Economic, and Social Harms Linked to Projects That Encourage Tourism Include the Following:

Pollution, Depletion, and Strain on Local Natural Resources, and Overcapacity: Ecotourism, or environmentally-friendly travel, is an oxymoron since at its root, travel is inescapably damaging to the environment; airplanes, cars, and trains expend fossil fuels and emit pollutants.  Tourism causes strains on the local resources such as land, forests and wildlife, fuel wood, soil, and so on.  Tourism causes other pollution via solid waste and sewage, oils, and other chemicals. 

Considering the incredible loss to biodiversity that we have already caused, the increase in tourism—especially in the last of our planet’s natural environments—should be addressed with caution. As the ecotourism industry posts even more rapid growth than the tourism industry as a whole, ecotourist projects must be conscientious of visitor overcapacity.  The last of our earth’s remaining delicate ecosystems cannot withstand an unchecked flow of tourists.[21] The strongest ecotourist projects hold strictly to maximum capacity numbers for visitors allowed on site at any given time, and protect the natural environment and all its plant and animal species from the unavoidable stresses from human impact.  There are hundreds of creative ideas that projects and visitors can do to address the damage from tourists traveling to their country, such as paying a carbon tax to combat the amount of CO2 emissions generated, contributing to a plant a tree program, or participating in alternative ways to get around (i.e., walking more, renting a bicycle, hitching rides with friendly locals, etc.) all contribute to combating the effects of tourist’s visits.

Greenwashing & Eco-labeling: Greenwashing is a term that originated to describe the marketing approach whereby unsustainable projects apply a “green” label to their services that do not classify as remotely sustainable.  Greenwashing is a rampant problem for the ecotourism industry as increasingly luxury hotels, resorts, and tourist centers portray themselves as “green” while practicing destructive and polluting practices.

Certification programs were created to address this problem so as to identify the most environmentally friendly institutions. However, there is widespread criticism that they have done little to combat the problems.  Many criticisms of the ecotourist certification programs go so far as to indicate that certifications have in fact contributed to legitimized greenwashing. 

When Conservation is Sacrificed for Profits: Most ecotourism programs are implemented by foreigners who focus more on the business investment and profits instead of on conservation and creating substantial community benefits.  Before proceeding with development, foreign investors are not adequately analyzing a region’s biodiversity, protection needs for delicate ecosystems, or determining whether local people even want such development in their communities.[22]

Rejuvenating and protecting the last of our remaining natural wild places must remain one of the principle concerns for ecotourism and must be placed in check to ensure that sacrifices are not made at the expense of conservation measures.

Lack of Economic and Social Benefits to Local Communities: One of the most important principles of ecotourism is to provide substantial economic and social benefits to local communities.  It is critical for projects to take this into consideration so as to prevent the problems that we are seeing throughout the ecotourism industry, where development projects are monopolized by rich foreign investors who are reaping all the economic gains and sacrificing environmental conservation and economic gains for local communities.[23] 

Socio-Cultural Threats: Tourism can create significant, lasting changes in the cultures people visit.  These changes threaten indigenous identity and may affect value systems, morality, behavior, ceremonies, community structure, family relationships, and traditional lifestyles.  Many visitors want cultures bundled up as song and dance, wanting to dip their toe in the local culture without venturing too far from the resort. Throughout the world indigenous cultural, artistic, and religious artifacts are lost to designs that appeal to tourist’s tastes and the potential to be mass-produced for sale.  There is a loss of authenticity that goes along with this, as hotels and resorts stage “authentic” cultural spectacles for tourists to voyeur.  Unique destinations have also become more standardized to appeal to tourists who want to see some familiar surroundings in the middle of the strange new environment they are exploring. 

Environmental Programs—The Best of the Best in Belize

If you are interested in coming to Belize to visit or volunteer for some unique projects that strive to “get it right” and provide social, economic, or environmental benefits, here is a list of some of our favorites.

• Monkey Bay Wildlife Sanctuary: This group is awesome!  Monkey Bay is an environmental education center that offers experiential learning programs and training opportunities focusing on three themes: nature, culture, and service. They specialize in hosting student groups and classes in their wooden dormitories and campgrounds, all surrounded by an expansive protected area filled with wildlife.  We cannot wait to send student groups who visit Wild Earth Stewardship Center their way to check out their wonderful programs and wildlife area.
• Sustainable Harvest International:  This group is doing amazing work in the Toledo district, providing training and tools for farming families to overcome poverty while restoring the rainforest through sustainable agriculture, reforestation, business skill development, home improvement projects and school programs.  We couldn’t be more blown away by all of the incredible work that Nana, Flo, and the team have done—in 2007 alone they managed to plant 174,000 trees!  We cannot wait to send interested individuals and groups to help volunteer on their projects, while visiting the unique culture and wild places in Southern Belize.
• Toledo Ecotourism Association: This is one of the most successful ecotourism associations, owned and run exclusively by indigenous Belizean.  It is comprised of more than a hundred families in Maya and Garifuna villages working together as a network to create local jobs, maintain an acceptable level of tourism, and educate visitors about the environment.  The group manages numerous guesthouses and guide services and pride themselves on sharing the benefits of the tourism industry as widely as possible throughout their communities.
• Earthwatch Institute: This is the world’s largest nonprofit environmental volunteer organization, creating community-based research programs that give volunteers the opportunity to work with research teams.  Research is focused in four main areas: climate change, oceans, sustainable resource management, and sustainable cultures. Earthwatch Belize programs are currently focused on coastal projects and marine wildlife.
• Coastal Zone Management Authority & Institute: A research, monitoring and education institute with a mission to raise awareness about the importance of Belize’s coastal ecosystems.
• Possum Point Biological Station and Wee Wee Caye Marine Lab: Biological field stations, created for pre-formed school groups to visit the tropics and gain field research experience.  Features dormitories, cabins, dining hall and a dock.
• Blackbird-Oceanic Society Field Station: Field station and dolphin research center at Blackbird Caye where students can study tropical marine ecosystems hands-on.
• Lamanai Field Research Center: Programs range from brief vacation experiences to university credit. Studies include: archeology, radio-tracking of crocodiles, birding, and wildlife research.
• Belize Foundation for Environmental Research and Education: A private research and education facility located on 1,153 acres in Southern Belize with student programs ranging from one week to a semester.
• Pro-Belize:  This non-profit is doing wonderful work! They are devoted to the conservation of Belize’s natural heritage, principally through the management of the 260,000-acre Rio Bravo Conservation Area—the largest private reserve in Belize and the second largest protected area—with the help of volunteers from around the world.  They offer rainforest and ecology workshops and are part of the international for-profit volunteer organization Pro-World, offering assignments from one-week to six-months or longer in health, environment, micro-business, youth sports, fine arts, journalism, and women's issues.  The Rio Bravo Conservation area has two field stations: La Milpa (NW Belize) and Hill Bank (New River Lagoon).
• The Belize Botanic Garden: This is a spectacular place to visit when you are in Belize.  It is adjacent to duPlooy’s Jungle Lodge, just west of San Ignacio.  The garden has two miles of walking paths from which you can see native hardwoods, fruit trees, palms, ornamentals and medicinal plants of the Maya.

If your group is not listed, please email us, as we always love to hear about people doing amazing work for the earth and communities and we would love to review your program.