Tourism helping the planet
AMID piles of dried chilies, straw baskets and ripe papaya, Jeevanti Chatuvina’s wares — represented by her sister modelling a goldstudded red sari, dramatic eyeliner and a perfectly coiffed chignon — glamorised the weekly market found on the edge of a lagoon lush with mature mangroves about an hour’s drive north of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Her bridal beauty business, like the others at the popup, represents the economic link between protecting the mangroves — as nurseries of the island’s fish stocks, tsunami buffers and CO2 sinks — and sustaining communities dependent on them.
‘‘We can’t do mangrove conservation without the people,’’ said Anuradha ‘‘Anu’’ Wickramasinghe, cofounder of Sudeesa, a Sri Lankan nonprofit group advocating for smallscale fishing and farming operations. It was his idea to provide business training and $100 microloans to some of the poorest women in coastal fishing communities in exchange for their protection of the vital ecosystem, applying a social fix to an environmental problem caused by logging, mass prawn farming and, in the northern areas, civil war. ‘‘They get training from us and seed money from Seacology.’’
I recently joined Seacology, the Californiabased environmental nonprofit organisation, on one of its tours that showcase its projects. Mangrove restoration in Sri Lanka is its largest ever, with the organisation donating $5 million over five years to protect more than 8500ha of coastal mangroves by taking the microloan programme to 15,000 rural women.
Meeting the programme’s budding entrepreneurs and exploring solutions to environmental challenges with field experts were the highlights of an itinerary that also included more touristfriendly activities, such as a walking tour of Colombo, visits to Hindu and Buddhist temples and meals both traditional and trendy.
From the Paris climate agreement to the collapsing ice shelf in the Antarctic, climate issues have dominated recent headlines. Providing access to those front lines, the travel industry has mirrored ecoconcerns with the growth of climatefocused trips.
Many of these trips are concentrated at the poles. In Greenland, for example, the number of tourists rose almost 24% in 2015. Last year, tourism grew by nearly 10%, more than double the global average. Of the 34,539 travellers who visited the Antarctic this past winter, American travellers represented onethird, while Chinese made up the next largest chunk, at 12%, according to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators.
‘‘The Arctic and the Antarctic are changing in dramatic ways, more so than anywhere on Earth,’’ said Sven Lindblad, founder and chief executive of Lindblad Expeditions, the pioneer of cruise travel to the Antarctic and the Galapagos.
‘‘Clearly, there is a greater sense of urgency and interest on the part of travellers to see and understand these environments.’’
The travel industry contributes to carbon emissions, of course, but tour operators argue exposure to threatened regions converts the curious to conservation. As oceanographer Jacques Cousteau once said, ‘‘People protect what they love’’.
‘‘Our most significant contribution to the realm of sustainability is utilising the experiences our travellers are having as ‘Aha moments’ to come back and do more to protect the planet and our species,’’ said Ted Martens, vicepresident of marketing and sustainability at Natural Habitat Adventures, a wildlifefocused tour company that offsets the carbon emissions of its operations by funding green technology projects.
Natural Habitat runs trips in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund that have generated $10 million since 2003 for WWF programmes confronting deforestation in the Amazon and preserving orangutan habitats in Borneo, among others. Natural Habitat’s sixday trips to see polar bears in Canada cost $US6195 ($NZ8365) per person.
Some operators encourage citizen scientists to help researchers with their work. The nonprofit EarthWatch Institute runs ‘‘Climate Change at the Arctic’s Edge’’ trips, in which travellers take water and tree core samples to measure the health of animals and plants (from $2014 for seven days). EarthWatch Institute also offers teenonly departures.
Over the next two summers, Poseidon Expeditions will run trips to the North Pole featuring a citizen science programme to collect data on sea ice thickness and melting (from $6960 for 10 days). Data from the operator’s first citizen science launch, in 2015, is already being used by the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States’ Sea Ice Prediction Network.
Lindblad is celebrating its 50th anniversary in the Galapagos this summer with cruises aboard the
The Arctic and the Antarctic are changing in dramatic ways, more so than anywhere on Earth. Clearly, there is a greater sense of urgency and interest on the part of travellers to see and understand these
environments
96passenger National Geographic
Endeavour II (10 days from $6960)
and the new National Geographic
Global Explorers’ Programme. The latter’s educational activities include collecting plankton, recording wildlife sightings and earning an inflatable Zodiac boat ‘‘driver’s licence’’.
During the 201718 Antarctic travel season, Abercrombie and Kent’s Classic Antarctica trip, leaving on January 6, is devoted to ‘‘Understanding Climate Change’’ and features noted Antarctic researcher Dr James McClintock (from $NZ18,660 for 12 days).
Naturalist Richard Polatty, a veteran of 60 trips to Antarctica and guide for International Nature and Cultural Adventures (from $10,995 for 11 days), views familiarity as a source of support for the region.
‘‘Antarctica is the author of global climate in some ways and is a very sensitive indicator of global climate change,’’ he said.
But change is also felt as far away as Sri Lanka, where fishermen in the north say the tides have changed in the past two years, and at least 15m of new mangroves planted near Jaffna stand in parched dirt instead of being flooded. With the assistance of the navy, Sudeesa continues to plant seedlings with the goal of repopulating the sea with fish and empowering women to be protectors of the coastal forests by ensuring a family income.
‘‘We take care of the mothers, who will pass on their knowledge to their children,’’ said Sudeesa’s Anu as we drove down a sandy road separating woven fishing huts from the sparkling turquoise sea on a communitybased tour of the island better known for luxury resorts. ‘‘To the children we say ‘This is your wealth’.’’