Ensuring Environmental and
Cultural Integrity
The level and type of tourism planned and developed
must be appropriate for the area’s natural resources and
cultural heritage and must be consistent with the community’s
wishes and expectations.
A fundamental characteristic of community-based tourism
is the quality of the visitor experience. This means that the culture,
heritage and natural environment should be maintained at very high
levels. Adverse actions on any of these elements should be minimized.
In the case of the Maroon communities such actions should not be
permitted. Tourism should encourage people to value their own culture
and heritage. However, culture is not static and communities may
wish to see change. The involvement of the agencies responsible
for overseeing culture and the built and natural heritage is necessary
for preserving cultural and natural assets.
A practical approach is to identify, with the assistance of the
communities, the limits of acceptable change that could be brought
about by the introduction of tourism and then to consider what level
of tourism activity would generate this change.
It is very important that communities decide on the level of tourism
they wish to experience. Consultation during the process of developing
the community-based tourism strategy should reveal the kinds of
changes that might be viewed as positive or negative by the community.
They can then be helped to consider what this change might mean
in terms of the numbers and types of visitors. This action leads
to the partial identification of the target market, when they should
come and their length of stay. These decisions should be made with
the following two important principles in mind:
- Products developed should be based on the community’s
traditional knowledge, values and skills; and
- The community should decide which aspects of their cultural
traditions they wish to share with visitors.
Working with the National Environmental and Planning Agencies a
similar approach can be adopted with respect to determining limits
of acceptable change and acceptable use with respect to the natural
environment. Scientific knowledge may be required to enable a judgment
to be made, taking account of the conditions of different sites
at various times of the year. Often it is found that the quantity
of visitors at any one time is a more critical factor than the overall
level of visitation. This number needs to be determined by the subject
area experts. Scientific expertise is also required in determining
which sites can be used for tourism and to what extent.
Useful tools in the management of visitors include the following:
- Agreement with tour operators on the number and size of groups
to bring to the community.
- Codes of ethics for visitors based on the WTO’s Code
of Ethics for tourism.
- Automatic application of Jamaican regulations demanding environmental
and social cultural impact assessments on all proposed development.
These assessments should also be concerned with details of what
is offered to visitors, such as the choice of products sold to
them observing all international treaties and protocols with respect
to culture, heritage and the environment.
- Zoning both within and outside protected areas. This should
cover both the siting of facilities and the degree of access allowed.
In some locations, communities have identified specific zones
for tourism, both with respect to facility provision and conversion
measures. Experts should confirm these site selections. A common
approach is to locate tourist facilities some distance away from
community residences. Care should be taken to establish and maintain,
and maintain the appropriate ratio of visitors to inhabitants.
The planning process should ensure that monitoring measures are
in place to indicate when these limits of acceptable change and
use have been reached or violated. Additionally, strategies for
making the necessary adjustments to overcome any problems should
be identified and appropriate measures adopted to establish, enforce,
monitor and evaluate them.
Agencies such as the Institute of Jamaica, the Jamaica National
Heritage Trust and the National Environmental and Planning Agency,
the University of the West Indies can assist in the development
of measurement tools with respect to their areas of expertise.
PIOJ document - Guidelines for South Coast
Project -
prepared by Carolyn Hayle
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