Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 12, 1 December 1994 — State, community explore ecotourism [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

State, community explore ecotourism

Ecotourism: Is it a viable alternative to the way the tourist industry operates in the state? This question is becoming an increasingly hot topic in business and government circles these days as the state tries to attract new visitors to the islands at the same time realizing that a new approach - one that takes the needs of the environment, the community, and the indigenous culture into consideration - is important if Hawai'i is going to remain competitive as a visitor destination. Ecotourism has developed into a kind of umbrella term that covers a range of different traveling options including adventure travel, health tourism, cultural tourism, and heritage tourism.

Any genuine ecotourism "product" should directly benefit Ioeal and indigenous communities, both financially and in terms of preserving their cultures and environments. The concept began in Kenya in the 1980s after authorities there recognized the enormous potential its natural environment held for tourism. Live elephants, it had become clear, were more profitable than dead ones. Ecotourism has since become a worldwide movement and was the center of discussion at the Hawai'i State Conference on Tourism held at the Sheraton Waikīkī last October. The state, specifically the Department of Business, Eeonomie Development, and

Tourism, is interested in studying eeotourism in Hawai'i and was a major sponsor of the conference. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is also interested in promoting ecotourism and was a co-sponsor.

The state, according to officials at DBEDT, is concerned that if the indigenous environment - both culture and nature - of Hawai'i is destroyed, the appeal of Hawai'i as a visitor destination will be destroyed. The state is also interested in diversifying the Hawai'i tourism options in order to enhanee the visitor experience and diversify the type of tourists that visit the islands. They have asked the University of Hawai'i School of Travel Industry and Management to carry out a feasibility study on ecotourism in Hawai'i. The results of that study and the conclusions reached at the ecotourism conference will be included in a strategic plan for eeotourism for the state.

For OHA, the central eoneem is both preserving the culture for its own sake and trying to help the native Hawaiian eommunity have a greater and more influential presence in the industry. "We have an obligation to preserve and protect the culture," OHA eeonomie development officer Linda Colburn explains. "The culture is what makes this plaee different. The enieial thing for OHA is that native Hawaiians become equal partners in the tourist industry and avoid the exploitation that has gone on for so long." Colbum moderated a panel on indigenous community-based eeonomie initiatives in ecotourism at the ecotourism eonference. One of the panel

members was Eric Enos, director of the Cultural Leaming Center in Ka'ala Learning Center. Enos spoke out against the large land-controlling groups in the state and said that if eeotourism was to work in Hawai'i these interests would have to give the land and the water back to the native Hawaiian people so they could rediscover themselves and their culture. "We need to learn who we are," he said. OHA is presently supporting efforts by Eric Enos and the center to help

the revenue-generating ability of the operation. The hope is to tap into the eeotourism market and use some of those revenues to underwrite the cost of the center's educational materials. (See story KWO July issue.)

Others on the panel included Chris Burchet, an Australian who works with the aboriginal community in that country helping in the development and marketing of small tours into the outback. Burchet dis-

cussed a number of ecotourism operations run by aborigines including a safari where small groups of tourists are taken deep into the Australian outback and shown ancient works of art, and a "university" where groups spend a week "in the bush" with an aboriginal tribe studying the customs and habits of the indigenous peoples.

Also speaking on the panel was Craig Chapman, who runs a campground at Mālaekahana State Park near on the north shore of O'ahu. Chapman says that the 37-acre Mālaekahana campground is a eommuni-ty-based operation and offers mueh more of the spirit of the islands than other popular tourist locations. The site has

campsites and several cabins and acts as a center for a variety of eommunity activities. "We get a lot of backpackers and environmentalists, people that want to get away from the mains t r e a m , "

explained Chapman in an interview after the conference. "But the main thing about the Mālaekahana is that it is becoming a center for the community. If tourists want to eome that's fine, but they have to stick to the rules." Chapman hopes to make Mālaekahana a model for other community groups around the state who want to take advantage of state lands that could be put to more productive use. The final speaker on the panel was Kaiopua Fyfe, whose group, Hui Ho'okipa O Kaua'i is trying to make Kaua'i tourism do more to benefit the different Hawaiian communities on Kaua'i in the aftermath of Hunieane 'Iniki. He said his group is trying to look at the different needs of all Kaua'i communities and support those needs with different types of technical assistance.

His vision of tourism in Kaua'i includes more cultural, community-based and environmental activities. These activities might be the restoration of sacred sites, reforestation, or nature hikes. Fyfe says he would like to see Kaua'i "returning to the future, onee again becoming sovereign, self-sufficient, and self-reliant, retaining and exemplifying our magnificent heritage while utilizing the best that modern technology has to offer."

"We have an obligation to preserve anel protect the culture." - Linda Colburn, OHA eeonomie development officer

Call the OHA Newsline at 594-1979 for a 24-hour, up-to-date recording on scheduled OHA meetings. Copies of meeting agendas are posted at the Lt. Governor's office, at Honolulu's OHA office and neighbor island OHA offices. Neighbor islanders may eall OHA or other state agencies using the state tollfree line. Call 1-800-468-4644 and, using a touch-tone phone, enter the last five digits of the state agency your are ealiing (for prefixes 586-, 587-, and 594-).

Kaua'i's Nā Pali Coast: ecotourism wouid mean more hiking, less hotels in the garden isle.

Students tend a taro patch at the Ka'ala Learning Center. Photo by Patrick Johnston