86 lines
3.6 KiB
Plaintext
86 lines
3.6 KiB
Plaintext
EDITORIAL: Tourism and the Land
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by Alan Wilson
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from Jan/Feb 1992 issue of Wave~Length
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Many of us are concerned about the degradation of
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our planetary environment and are taking steps to
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lessen the impact of our actions. The experience of
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an unspoiled environment is becoming a value in
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itself, one enjoyed particularly by paddlers.
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Paddlers know that a wilderness trip helps reverse
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in us the pell mell rush of a growth-fixated
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culture. It teaches us that 'slow is beautiful'.
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In times of recession, however, industry leaders and
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some workers argue that such environmental concern
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is overdone, our standards are too high, that to
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meet our "green goals" we would have to collapse our
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economy and sacrifice our well-being, beginning with
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their jobs. "Jobs or the environment" is the
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rallying cry.
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The 1991 State of the World report of the Worldwatch
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Institute says, "Shifts in employment are inevitable
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whether remaining forests are liquidated or
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protected: jobs and profits based on a rapidly
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diminishing resource simply will not last.
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"Continued cutting of the last ancient forests will
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do little to sustain timber industry jobs. Moreover,
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it will foreclose the option of diversifying from
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narrow wood-based economies to broader forest-based
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economies that capitalize on such nontimber values
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as tourism."
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"Tourism? C'mon, we don't all want to be bellhops!"
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Proponents of tourism have often been derided for
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promoting what their detractors call a 'Third World
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economy' low paying service jobs. But the tourist
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industry is a broad-based, grass-roots, industry of
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small business people, men and women in the fields
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of kayaking, whale watching, river rafting, etc.,
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who through a love of the outdoors, have created
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satisfying and sustaining careers. Simultaneously
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they have created a uniquely diverse industry
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providing incomes in many small communities.
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Wilderness tourism is small scale, decentralized,
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and low-impact. This is a model quite different from
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the heavy, extractive industries, often foreign-
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owned corporations, which ship out products, leaving
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a residue of pollution or deforestation.
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Tourism is reshaping the coastal economy. In the
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province of British Columbia, for instance, tourism
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has now become the #1 employer, growing at 5% per
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year, while traditional industries show increasing
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job loss. Tourism is now a $5 billion a year
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industry spread throughout the province (only $2
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billion in Vancouver and Victoria). And although the
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forest industry is still the #1 generator of wealth
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in the province, that centerpoint of BC industry is
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likely to eventually be replaced in top spot by the
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upstart Tourism.
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Tourism offers the hope of resolving the "jobs or
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the environment" dichotomy, proving that jobs and
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the environment are compatible, undermining the
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rationale for continued resource extraction which
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has been promoted by large, corporate employers.
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It is important to remember that logging was not
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always number one. The west coast native economy
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persisted over millennia, based on a sustainable
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relationship with the land. Since contact we have
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experienced a rapid succession of economies based on
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consumptive 'boom & bust' industries: the fur trade,
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the gold rush, fishing and forestry. Now in Tourism
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we are at last turning back towards a less
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consumptive relationship with the land.
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This economic transition will only succeed if all of
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us entering the wilderness, whether for business or
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pleasure, exercise a high standard of
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environmental responsibility.
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