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Saturdsy, August 19, 2017
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DOES the expansion of the Iloilo Esplanade support the national government’s campaign for sustainable tourism and development?
Agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol summed up this concern with these words: “I don’t know why we should destroy such a beautiful area, the mangrove area (at the Iloilo River), to build something where people will jog and run.”
Instead of killing mangroves, the city government should intensify efforts in protecting biodiversity by integrating biodiversity conservation into its tourism development policies and agenda. It must recognize eco-tourism’s potential role in sustainable development.
The decline of our ecosystems has been found as one of the underlying drivers of disaster risks and poverty, in the context of climate change. Therefore, protecting ecosystems – which involves rehabilitating our forests, cleaning our rivers, and stopping pollution, among other actions, requires action by all sectors and stakeholders including civil society, the academe and the private sector. Multidisciplinary approach is essential in developing integrated solutions to these challenges.
We have to be appreciative of the natural bounty of our city and realize the effects of our exploitative practices. Hopefully, we can call be engaged in efforts to rehabilitate and preserve what is left of our protected areas and biodiversity, in general, and the mangroves at the Iloilo River in particular.
In different parts of the country, too, sustainable tourism is a continuing challenge as some natural tourist sites are poorly managed. But there are existing practices that can be emulated like in El Nido Resorts in Palawan which promotes environmental stewardship through its Environmental Code of Conduct called “Ten El-Nidos,” reminding guests about environmentally sensitive protected areas and the appropriate behavior to ensure conservation.
According to the Convention on Biological Diversity, “A well-managed tourist sector can contribute significantly to reducing threats to, and maintain or increase, key wildlife populations and biodiversity values through tourism revenue.”
We have to broaden our perspective and deepen our understanding about biodiversity, sustainable tourism and development.
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