Category: development
Ecotourism trumped by ethical tourism?
By contributor Sean Carey
One of the great success stories of the travel sector in recent decades has been the development and growth in ecotourism, which is currently estimated to be worth around $60 billion annually. Companies, which operate in diverse environments, including cities, villages, religious sites and wildlife sanctuaries, have realized that to be perceived by consumers as “eco-friendly” bestows considerable status, especially where it has become the dominant benchmark of the new visitor economies in countries like Costa Rica, Ecuador, Kenya, Madagascar and Nepal. In these nations ecotourism contributes a significant amount to GDP, at the same time as it brings in much-needed foreign currency.
However, ecotourism is not always a progressive force. For example, the sector has sometimes been accused of profiteering at the expense of environmental degradation and hiding its sins behind “greenwashing.” Ecotourism has also been accused of the violation of human rights by colluding with the displacement of indigenous peoples — the shocking fate of the Maasai when the Masai Mara National Reserve in south-west Kenya was established in 1948 being a prime example.
Some cultural anthropologists have added to the criticisms. For example, Carrier and Macleod claim that the distinction between ecotourism and mass tourism is difficult to sustain when “the destinations and experiences sold to tourists are abstracted from their contexts, thus inducing a distorted image of them and of ecotourism itself” (p. 315).
So, the purity of the “ecotourism” brand image has been damaged to some extent: it is no longer self-explanatory (and self-justifying), and many consumers are now uncertain about whether to trust the claims being made. Is there now a gap in the marketplace? The people behind Ethical Traveler, a small, non-profit organization that is part of the San Francisco-based Earth Island Institute, certainly think so. It has the tagline “Empowering Travelers to Change the World.”
Ethical Traveler has just issued its fifth annual “top ten” list of the developing world’s best ethical destinations for 2012. They are Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Latvia, Serbia and Uruguay and four island states, Bahamas, Dominica, Mauritius and Palau. All except the Bahamas, Mauritius and Serbia appeared on the 2011 list.
Using data from institutions like Freedom House, Millennium Challenge Corporation and the World Bank, three initial criteria — “environmental protection”, “social welfare” and “human rights” –- were used to draw up a shortlist of 30 countries. Then a more in-depth study was carried out to identify the actions of governments over the previous 12 months, in particular to find out whether policies implemented have improved or degraded the welfare of the population and the environment. This makes the Ethical Traveler list of approved ethical destinations broader in scope than many mainstream eco-tourism locations, which tend to have a much narrower remit focused on environmentalism.
West Papua update
Stuart Kirsch, anthropology professor at the University of Michigan, shared a link to a Huffington Post editorial updating the human rights situation there. Written by the Lowenstein International Law Clinic at Yale University, the essay highlights land grabbing and controversial development plans in the West Papua rain forest. The Clinic will be producing a full report in near future.
India’s consumer society might have to wait
By contributor Sean Carey
Last week it looked like U.S. and European supermarket chains like Wal-Mart, Tesco and Carrefour would soon be allowed to enter the $396 billion retail market in India. The fast-growing country, Asia’s third-largest economy after China and Japan, has a population of 1.2 billion, which makes it the world’s second most populous nation.
The Indian retail market is expanding at an unprecedented rate and is expected to more than double in size to $796 billion (£514 billion) by 2015 as Western-style consumerism gains momentum.
The current market is largely controlled by a small family-owned stores, street vendors and hawkers. But under ever-increasing political pressure as economic growth slows, the Indian Government led by Cambridge-educated economist Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, hoped that opening up the retail market to competition would reduce food price inflation as well as indicate that the country welcomed more foreign direct investment.
The Indian Government’s decision, which did not require parliamentary approval, signalled that it would not be a free ride for foreign companies. In return for a 51 percent stake in “multi-brand retailers” and 100 percent ownership of “single-brand stores” like Nike they would be expected to contribute to the country’s infrastructure, and source at least 30 percent of supplies from small and medium-sized Indian companies. Another condition highlighted in the proposal was that foreign companies would only be able to open stores in cities of more than 1 million people that have an “organised retail sector.”
U.K. retail giant Tesco said the announcement was good news but that it was awaiting “further details on any conditions” before making any move.
Concerns about the impact of the initiative on the traditional retail system were quick to appear, however. An editorial in the Financial Times said: “A consolidated retail sector would require consolidated agriculture to supply it. Such changes could cost millions of Indians their livelihoods. With no functioning welfare system that is a serious worry.”
On Monday, two coalition allies of the Congress Party, which governs with a slender parliamentary majority, announced that they could not back the proposed change in policy towards the retail sector. One ally, M. Karunanidhi, leader of the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam party in the southern state of Tamil Nadu said: “It is dangerous to allow foreign direct investment in retail trade as it will affect hundreds of thousands of small traders as well as the poor and middle-class consumers. It will also be a cause for economic decline for our country.”
On the same day, hundreds protested at the prospect of international retail giants arriving in their country outside a Carrefour wholesale outlet in the northern city of Jaipur.
On Tuesday, after Parliament was adjourned for the third day as the BJP opposition and its allies demanded that the initiative should be abandoned, the Prime Minister used the platform of the Youth Congress party convention in New Delhi to defend his plans. “We have not taken this decision in haste, but after a lot of consideration,” he said. “It is our firm conviction that the decision will benefit the country.”
The Hindu reported that the Prime Minister has offered an olive branch to state governments. “State governments that are not convinced of its usefulness have the means to prevent foreign participation in retail businesses in their States,” he declared.
Commentators think that the most likely option is that the Prime Minister will refer the initiative to a ministerial committee, “a traditional way of Congress kicking problems into the grass.”
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry has announced a nationwide strike on Thursday to protest against the proposed changes in the retail sector.
The lesson? It is surely that in the world’s largest democracy it is not a good idea to force through measures which have not been debated and do not command popular support. This is a pity since some reform of the retail market in India is urgently needed as it is estimated that around 40 percent of food and vegetable rots before coming to market.
Anthro connection: cultural heritage and development in the Middle East and North Africa
An article in Nature discusses the potential of archaeological heritage sites in Egypt and Libya for contributing to post-Arab Spring stability. For those who want more information on archaeological heritage sites in the Middle East and North Africa, cultural anthropologist Michael Cernea provides an excellent overview in his report, Cultural Heritage and Development: A Framework for Action in the Middle East and North Africa.
In addition to Cernea’s excellent recommendations, I would add a plea that any and all heritage projects in the MENA region, and elsewhere, pay special attention to participatory approaches and, particularly, inclusion of women in leadership and income-generating positions.
This land is your mine or…is this land my land?
Source: The Canadian Press, Nov 11, 2011:
Canada’s Tsilhqot’in Nation is going to court to block Taseko Mines Ltd. from doing preparatory work on its controversial New Prosperity mine in British Columbia’s Cariboo region.
In a petition filed with the B.C. Supreme Court, the First Nations group is asking the court to halt drilling, excavation, timber clearing, road construction and the like while reviewing provincial approvals for the work on a revised mine plan.
Chief Joe Alphonse, tribal chairman of the Tsilhqot’in National Government, said the decision affects the group’s rights and culture: “The province refused to acknowledge these impacts, no matter what we say; it is more concerned with handing over approvals,” Alphonse said in a statement. “We’ve gone to court before, we’ve stood in front of the federal panel, we have proven over and over again how important these lands are to our people and our culture — but the province never seems to get the message.”
Several First Nations oppose the project because the mine proposal would mean the destruction of a lake considered culturally significant to them.
Take a look at the mining company’s positive view of a copper mine.
A different kind of cooking show
For those of you (including me) who enjoy watching TV cooking contests, we know that the worst that can happen is that an aspiring winner is perspiring, or the presentation was chaotic, or the judges made nasty comments about the taste of one of the dishes.
For millions of women who cook family meals, especially in developing countries, the challenges are quite different. There is no panel of judges and no “time’s up” called out to arrest the work of the contestants in their well-equipped stainless-steely kitchen.
Instead, there is a “killer in the kitchen” which calls time’s up for mothers and children who spend a lot of time inhaling cook stove fumes.
On November 3, Rob Bailis, assistant professor of environmental social science in the department of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University, gave a CIGA seminar entitled, “Arresting the Killer in the Kitchen: The Promises and Pitfalls of Commercializing Improved Cookstoves.”
Bailis took the audience on a rich and insightful tour of how improved cook stoves could have a major positive impact on women, children, and the environment. His talk drew on knowledge about the effects of various types of fuel for daily cooking on the cooks and the wider environment.
His slides included maps of types of household fuel in various regions of the world. He brought together data from the fields of environmental studies, public health, and local surveys.
He discussed the “energy ladder hypothesis” which says that as people get wealthier, they use cleaner fuels. As I was listening, I was thinking: okay, this doesn’t sound good for the earth, given the way the economy is going.
Another point to share is this: Bailis said that Western development experts have been pushing improved cook stoves for three decades but there is very little evidence about their effectiveness in terms of reducing health risks for cooks/children and reducing deforestation and other environmental problems.
China is the country to watch on improved cook stoves. Of the 200 million improved cook stoves in the world, 80 percent are in China. Let’s hear about the “best practices” there and how they might be replicated elsewhere.
Thirty years is a long time, especially without much to say in terms of what works. Time to switch channels and get back to the cooking throw-down.
Maybe we need a TV show about what works in development?
Update from Professor Rob Bailis:
In fact, there is evidence that some improved stoves certainly improve quality and, based on that, we can justifiably hypothesize that if families adopt such stoves and use them regularly, then their air quality will improve and their health risk will be reduced. More importantly, there is evidence of this – just last week (about a week after my presentation) a paper was published in the Lancet by Kirk Smith and his team. This reports the results of the first randomized control trial based on improved cookstove adoption. They found that the stoves they promoted reduced the incidence of severe forms of respiratory infection by around 30%. So the evidence exists. What is lacking is program-specific follow-up to understand whether a given intervention is resulting in effective and long-term stove adoption. But, like I hinted at in my talk, the carbon markets are having an interesting influence on project monitoring by creating elaborate protocols to make sure stoves are actually used.
It’s the people…
An article in Nature reports that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation realizes the importance of social science insights and indigenous/local knowledge in generating innovative approaches to improving human welfare in developing countries and promoting the adoption of such approaches.
This is not news to cultural anthropologists. What is news is that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has adopted this “innovative” approach. That’s very good news.
It is always been a major challenge to get those in power, with money, at the top, to adopt a more grassroots, local approach. Now let’s see if big money can actually lead to big changes in people’s well being by listening to the people (and the people who study people first hand).
It is essential for the Gates Foundation to also support adequate funding for long-term monitoring and evaluation of social impact, not just recording stats on micro-outputs. We need to be able to see what various innovations accomplish five, ten, twenty years out. We need baseline studies now and follow-up studies on into the future. Local people could be trained to collect basic social data and enter it into a computerized database each week, week after week. In this way, development monitoring and evaluation becomes participatory and sustainable. It’s development for local people, with local people, and monitored by local people.
Sounds like the Gates Foundation may be on an important learning and listening curve. Stay tuned.
Council on Anthropology and Reproduction announces web overhaul
The Council on Anthropology and Reproduction (CAR), a subgroup of the Society for Medical Anthropology and the American Anthropological Association, recently completed a website overhaul! Visit the new website here.
CAR’s mission is to build strong and active networks among practitioners, researchers, teachers, trainers, activists, policy makers, scholars and others interested in the anthropology of reproduction in its many permutations. CAR has members in countries across the globe and in professions at the center of and well beyond anthropology.
CAR’s Advocacy Committee encourages anthropologists to join with activists and to offer our skills, services, and research results to allies who work to improve reproductive health and rights around the world. CAR members speak many languages and are from and/or have worked in dozens of countries, including the United States. Our collective expertise covers issues such as mothering, childbearing, infertility, midwifery, contraception, abortion, adoption, new reproductive technologies, and the local effects of global policies.
Among other updates, they have added great new imagery to their site making it more engaging to a wider audience, added a New Publications page and expanded their Links page to include links to the International MotherBaby Childbirth Initiative, Raising Women’s Voices, and DONA International among many others.
Interested in becoming a member? See the Membership page for more information on how to join. Students and professionals, both within and outside of academia, are welcome!
Open CCAFS call for proposals
CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has launched an Open call for Proposals for the “Farms of the Future” research project, aiming at the:
Development of a method to study farmer’s social, cultural and gender specific barriers for enabling behavioral change and improve adaptive capacity, based on farmers’ exchanges between climatic analogues locations
The project will particularly improve understanding of social and cultural perceptions of future climates, local practices and available tools for enabling change. The adopted approach will allow the participatory diagnosis of capacities and needs, thus aiding in the design of community-appropriate adaptation strategies.
anthropologyworks 