EDUCATION FOR CONSERVATION A proposal for Tulum.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Our idea is simple. If we wish to protect our natural wealth and diversity for future generations to enjoy, we must first ensure that young people today are able to enjoy it. People from all over the world save money all year to visit the Mexican Caribbean and enjoy its natural wonders. However, most of our youth has never snorkeled over the reef or explored the mangrove. They have never swam with whalesharks, watched a sea turtle lay eggs, or seen a flamingo. This is why we will work with tour operators and schools to offer scholarships to our youth so they may participate in wildlife appreciation tours. Through their enjoyment of this experience we hope to foster a greater curiosity, respect, and fondness for their environment. We will also work to implement permanent bird and reef monitoring programs through local schools. In addition we will use community based tour operators which will benefit from the additional income, particularly during low season. PROBLEM STATEMENT The Mexican Caribbean is, and has been for some time now, the fastest growing region in Mexico (and one of the fastest growing in Latin America). The state of Quintana Roo was a nearly unpopulated territory only 50 years ago, and is now the top tourism draw in the nation. For the most part this growth and development has been chaotic. The city of Cancun offers us a textbook case of unsustainable tourism, and Playa del Carmen is following in its footsteps replacing nature tourism with party tourism in less than a generation. Tulum has so far avoided the worst excesses of these neighbors to the north. The nearby Sian Kaan Biosphere Reserve has acted as a buffer zone, and so far no large hotels have been built on Tulum Beach, which is instead jam-packed with low-density accommodations. However, explosive growth continues as evidenced in the creation of a new municipality only 4 years ago. Satellite images of the region show a grid of new roads into the surrounding jungle where new housing developments are being built which dwarf the current city. The 2010 census showed that the population of the City of Tulum has tripled in just 10 years.
This explosive growth threatens not just the offshore coral reef, and the unique watershed which may be the largest system of underground rivers on the planet, but the ecological integrity of the region as a whole. It isn t just the sea turtles, toucans and monkeys which are vulnerable, but biodiversity itself. This population explosion is driven immigration. People from all over the country, and the world, have flocked here in search of economic advancement. Unfortunately this means the vast majority of residents know virtually nothing about local ecosystems, aside from how attractive the beaches are. Local knowledge about the natural environment is simply being drowned out. It survives only if it can be profited from by including it in a tour. Compounding the problem is a deficient educational system. Statewide at both the high school and university level, the emphasis (and in most cases the only option) is on preparing students for careers in Tourism or Business Administration. Tulum has a single public high-school which has two technical tracks: Tourism Management & Computer Maintenance. The single university offers an extension of the same with degrees in Administration and Information Systems. Biology, let alone Ecology, are simply not available as options, even as elective courses. And this in one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. It is a recipe for disaster. And that disaster has already happened in Cancun, and is happening in Playa del Carmen. The natural beauty which attracted tourism in the first place is no longer the reason those cities attract visitors. Nature has been replaced by the endless party of spring break style night clubs, all-inclusive resorts, golf clubs & timeshare condos. Nature tourism has shifted to the southern half of the state, and Tulum sits at the gateway that separates the ecotourism of the south from the sex & drugs tourism of the north. (As I m writing this I just got news that a jaguar cub was killed by security guards at an all-inclusive hotel in the Municipality of Tulum. ) Because of its proximity to the Sian Kaan Biosphere Reserve, Tulum stands a better chance of retaining its natural beauty and charm. The indigenous Maya community is also better organized here than it ever was in Cancun or Playa del Carmen. However, if we wish to preserve its wealth of biodiversity and natural beauty for future generations to enjoy, we first must ensure that our current youth enjoys it, gets to know it, and falls in love with it.
GOALS Our first year goals will be to: offer each participating student at least two (one marine & one jungle habitat) fullysponsored wildlife appreciation tours. develop a comprehensive curriculum designed to introduce high-school students to local wildlife, and foster not only a sense of awe, but a sense of place, of belonging and being an integral part of the landscape, while at the same time instructing them in the fundamental principles of human ecology. provide students with the materials (binoculars, snorkel masks, wildlife guidebooks) so they may continue to enjoy wildlife observation on their own. create a local wildlife observation club that contributes real data to scientific monitoring efforts. sponsor outstanding students so they may participate in internships and volunteer opportunities with other NGOs which due to their high cost are usually occupied by foreigners. provide additional income for community-based tourism operations, particularly during low-season. raise funds for the project by selling ebooks and apps about local wildlife. also educate tourists on responsible tourism practices through these ebooks and apps. Though we will only work with a subset of students during the first year of the program as we work out the details, our long-term goal is to extend the program to ensure participation by every high-school student (currently about 800, with nearly 250 in the graduating class). METHODS The cornerstone of the project will be an effort to provide local high-school and university students the opportunity to participate in the very same wildlife observation tours that tourist come here to enjoy. The tours offered will emphasize birding and snorkelling the reef, to encourage skills that will permit a lifelong appreciation of wildlife, but hopefully will also allow for special excursions to see flamingo colonies, whalesharks, wild dolphins or wild monkeys. By participating in normal tour groups, instead of school sponsored field trips, we expect students to benefit not only from being exposed to nature, but also from interacting with visitors from around the world. Educational materials will be bilingual (as is our website) to further facilitate student integration into tour groups, and supplement their foreign language classes.
(Though we hope to negotiate discounts with local tour operators, we expect to pay for these tours not only so students get a sense of the economic value of local wildlife, but also to support the community by providing additional income during the low-season.) Although we expect these tours to be inspiring in their own right, we wish students to get the most out of the experience and so we will work with schools to prepare students and ensure they can identify key species, know how to use their observation equipment, and understand why the ecosystems we visit are important. And we will require that participants follow up on their excursions by sharing their experience with their fellow students. For university level students we will complement all these activities with a short course on Human Ecology based on Dr. Gerald Marten s textbook Human Ecology: Basic Concepts for Sustainable Development which we have translated and have available free-of-charge on our website. The purpose of the course will be to apply the lessons from the book to the environmental challenges in the community, by encouraging thoughtful analysis, cooperation and strategic thinking to problem solving. We will also provide wildlife guidebooks to the school library, as well as snorkel masks and binoculars to students willing to join a wildlife observation club that will provide real data for scientific monitoring. Although the emphasis will be on enrolling high-school and university students, the club will be open to the general public. And its members will be trained in the REEF (www.reef.org) protocol for coral reef monitoring, and in Mexico s Biodiversity Commission (CONABIO) birding platform (www.averaves.org). Through this club we will work with local Mayan experts to cover special topics, such as 1) medicinal and edible plants of the jungle, 2) sustainable agroforestry, 3) sustainable fishing, 4) raising the stingless native honey bees and 5) orchids- if possible with customized field trips. In addition we would like to sponsor at least one outstanding student each summer to volunteer at other NGOs with hands-on wildlife projects. Because of their high cost, these positions are usually filled by foreigners (or wealthier kids from other parts of Mexico). Because this will be an expensive project, particularly if we wish to expand it to all high school students in the long run, we will also work on developing a steady stream of income and thus lessen our dependance on donations and grants. Towards this goal we have already published an ebook which is available on Amazon, and of which we are offering customized versions to hotels and tour operators. The idea is to get the tourism industry to adopt the book by putting their own logos on the cover and inserting their own introduction, and having them offer it to their customers.
In this way we hope to raise funds for our project while at the same time helping educate tourists. Similarly we hope to develop and sell a more interactive app which allows users to keep track of when and where they ve seen different species, and share that information with other users (and with the scientific community). HOW TO HELP The easiest way is simply purchasing our book and helping us promote it. If you represent a business, we invite you to talk to us about customizing the ebook for your customers. It is a good gift, for a good cause. But we are also going to need all sorts of help. Not just money, but volunteers to help us with administration, logistics and promotion. As well as in-kind donations, and not just of snorkel masks and binoculars. For example, you could let us use your accountant to keep the books for the project. If you have an empty storefront, you could let us use it as an office to coordinate the project. If you know any experts in a relevant field, you could invite them to speak to the kids. If you ve got pull with any donor agencies, let them know about us. If you re a programmer, help us develop our app. And if you are interested in taking a more active role in the organization, we are also open to admitting new members to the Mexiconservacion Board of Directors. In brief, there are many ways you can help, and if you wish to do so we will do our best to find a way to put your goodwill to use. Simply write to us at info@mexiconservacion.org.