ACB: Keeping biodiversity intact a boon for farmers and tourism
Preserving the natural landscape and biodiversity improves the sustainability of farm operations and, in turn, farmers’ incomes, the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) said.
“Biodiversity, the variety of life on Earth, provides the resources and supporting functions for farming and tourism. Thus, safeguarding biodiversity is essential to achieve sustainability in farm tourism for present and future generations,” ACB Executive Director Theresa Mundita Lim said at the Sixth Philippine Farm Tourism Conference in Cebu City last week.
Speaking before an audience of agriculturists, farm and farm tourism business owners, representatives from government and nongovernment agencies, and researchers, Lim shared how biodiversity-friendly practices can boost farming and farm tourism.
She cited the “innovating farming method” of the farmers of Agusan Marsh in Agusan del Sur as an example of adapting to the natural landscape.
Since water in the marsh often inundates farms during rainy season, farmers decided to plant rice and other crops in floating bamboo paddies instead.
“Instead of trying to control the marsh, the locals have learned to adapt and build their farms according to the nature of the marsh,” Lim said.
She explained that keeping the Agusan Marsh healthy contributes to the local tourism and provides additional income from community members who run boat tours.
Lim also encouraged farmers to make the most of the natural landscape.
“Instead of cutting down trees, plant crops that thrive under
the shade of trees like coffee,” Lim said.
Forests are important to the health of watersheds, which supply water for the irrigation of farms and serve people’s daily needs.
The ACB executive director pitched multicropping, crop rotation and other natural pestmanagement methods, instead of using pesticides, which threatens pollinators like bees.
Seventy-five percent of the world’s food crops and nearly 90 percent of wild flowering species depend on pollination, according to an Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services report.
A European Union-funded study estimated the value of pollination services to be approximately $169 billion per year.
Lim emphasized the need to strike a balance between fulfilling the needs of the business and of tourists, and maintaining the natural condition of the area.
Citing the principles of sustainable tourism from the United Nations World Trade Organization, Lim explained, “Farm tourism should fulfill the social, aesthetic and economic needs of the farm owners and the tourists, while maintaining the life support systems, ecological processes and cultural integrity of the area. These systems and processes and their benefits come from biodiversity, so we need to protect biodiversity.”
Meanwhile, protecting iconic and charismatic species can also
be a source of tourism-based livelihood.
Lim pointed out that in Cambodia, farmers practicing biodiversity-friendly agricultural methods, such as chemical-free cultivation, help protect the critically endangered giant Ibis, the country’s national bird.
“Because Ibis birds are rare, tourists want to see them,” Lim said. “Farmers also become tour guides, and it becomes additional income for them.”
Reacting to Lim’s presentation, Mina Gabor, former Tourism secretary and current chairman and president of the International School of Sustainable Tourism, affirmed the importance of integrating biodiversity in farm tourism planning.
“Mahogany trees are water suckers,” Gabor said. “And for some time now, we have noticed that any farm or anything that is planted near mahogany trees look undernourished, and farmers do not get the same healthy harvest as areas without mahogany.”
Gabor asked farmers to refrain from planting mahogany, and to alert the Philippines’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources should mahogany be growing in their farms. By applying biodiversity considerations, like natural pest management, planting the right crops and trees, and adaptation to the natural environment to farm tourism, Lim said she is hopeful for the future of the farm tourism industry. She also emphasized the importance of working together. “If we from the different sectors—agriculture, tourism and biodiversity—work together, share our knowledge, and maximize resources, we can achieve sustainable farm tourism,” Lim said. Farm tourism is the business of attracting visitors and tourists to farm areas, generally for educational and recreational purposes, encouraging economic activity that can provide both the farm and the community additional income. The ACB, established in 2005, is Asean’s response to the challenge of biodiversity loss. It is an intergovernmental organization that facilitates cooperation and coordination among the 10 Asean memberstates and with regional and international organizations on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of these natural treasures.