NHH
GEO 302
Economic and Social Change in Developing Countries
The Environmental, Economic and Social Effects of Mountaineering and Trekking in Nepal
Anna Kulmala s021043
INTRODUCTION
Earlier travelling was small-scale, limited to the wealthy and privileged. After the Industrial Revolution travelling became more common among the ordinary working people. Increased productivity, regular employment and growing urbanization gave people the means and motivation to go on holiday. Also the advent of transportation vehicles played an important role in improving accessibility and in the development towards mass tourism.
Mountain trekking is part of a type of tourism called “adventure tourism”. Adventure tourism attracts people who desire to see exotic and unknown places, primarily in the developing world. Adventure tourists are searching for authenticity. This means that mountain treks are slow journeys which pass through the landscape, allowing time to explore both nature and village life.
The fact that people now more than ever search out-of-the-ordinary experiences has led to an enormous increase in adventure tourism. This market segment is growing at double the average growth rate of tourism as a whole, since it is estimated to grow between ten and fifteen percent every year.
Nowadays also mountain climbing can be considered as adventure tourism. Earlier it was only small groups of individuals who tried to reach the top of the world. Now it is even possible to take a package tour to climb Mount Everest. This shows the trend of tourism. A small, privileged group finds a new interesting place to travel to. After a while the large public notices this and starts travelling to the place. This is when the pioneers move onto a new unknown place.
The core problem is that the environment and communities begin to change as a result of their newfound popularity. The local cultures become influenced by the presence of the trekkers and climbers and become modernized in their own way. When this happens they are no longer considered authentic and this is when new more remote locations must be found. The idea behind adventure tourism is that the more remote a location is, the more it is desirable. This means that unless precautions are taken, degradation will inevitably occur.
The development described above can be seen in Nepal. The growth rates of tourist arrivals to Nepal have been striking during the past decades, since the Himalayas attract trekkers and climbers. The growing amount of tourism has both positive and negative affects. On the positive side tourism brings money to this extremely poor nation and employs a lot of local people. Tourism has negative effects as well. The large amounts of tourists have created serious environmental problems, including deforestation and vast amounts of garbage that the trekkers and climbers leave in the nature. Tourism has also affected the society and the culture of the local people in a negative way.
In this paper I will analyze the problems that trekking and mountaineering cause in Nepal. I will start with some background information going onto a deeper analysis of the problem. Then I will discuss what has already been done in Nepal and what could be done in the future to minimize the negative affects and to maximize the positive effects of the tourist loads arriving in Nepal.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Nepal is a small country situated between China and India. It is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. The per capita income is one of the world’s lowest at approximately $ 160 a year. The population of Nepal is over 20 million. Majority of the people (90%) are Hindus. The area of Nepal is 54,000 sq. km and this area is divided into three regions: Himalayan belt in the north, mountain and hill regions in the middle and tropical forests in the south.
Nepal has a lot of geographical variation. The landscape varies from near sea-level elevations in the southern Terai to the world’s highest mountains. Nepal contains eight of the world’s ten highest mountains. Nepal has a variety of ecosystems: treeless alpine areas, dense fir forests of the high valleys, oak and rhododendron woods of in the middle hills and in the south the lowland jungle and grasslands. Animal habitat has been somewhat depleted as a result of agriculture and deforestation, but due to Nepal’s effective park and reserve system there still is a more varied flora and fauna than in most other areas in Asia. Nepal has about 850 species of birds, 640 species of butterflies, 6500 species of flowering plants and 175 mammal species. There are several endangered wildlife species such as the Bengal Tiger, one-horned rhinoceros and the Asian elephant. The varying landscape and the wildlife makes Nepal a popular destination for the adventure tourists.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, providing a living for over 90 percent of the population. Nepal is also a producer of cannabis and a transit point for heroin into the West. With the growing number of tourists, however, the Nepalese Government is trying to exploit this resource as well.
Like mentioned earlier the growth rates of tourists arriving in Nepal are tremendous. The first Americans and Europeans entered the region in 1950. Up until 1964 only mountaineering expeditions were permitted to visit the Himalayan area. In the begin of the 1970’s scarcely one thousand visitors came to Nepal per a year. A decade later five times that number visited Nepal and by the end of the 1980’s more than 8 000 tourists came annually. In the end of the 1990’s the figure was already approximately a quarter of a million. The Nepalese Government hopes to attract a million people within the next ten years. More than ninety percent of these tourists are trekkers and climbers, coming mostly from the United States and Western Europe, but also from Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
It can be imagined what kind of effects this amount of tourists has on the environment and the society especially, since the travelling season lasts only four months of the year. One of the prime motivations behind a need for a holiday is that of a break with routine. Tourists are consequently likely to behave in ways that would not be possible at home. Tourists feel freed from the restrictions and codes of normal living, anonymity is assured and they are likely to spend more freely. Much of this behaviour will offend the host population, because it will quite often run counter to their cultural and religious beliefs.
The people who are affected by the tourism the most in Nepal are the Sherpas. The Sherpas inhabit the high altitudes of the Himalayan region along the borders of Tibet and Nepal. The size of the Sherpa population is 35 000 and they are Buddhists. The main sources of livelihood of the Sherpas are agriculture, trade, yak farming and sheep rearing. The Sherpas are known to be skilled guides and are well known for their endurance and talent in surviving and navigating through the difficult Himalayan terrain. Including the first summit of Mount Everest Sherpas have been crucial to the success of virtually every ascent of Mount Everest. The Sherpas are also known to be very hospitable and welcome guests into their homes.
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
Garbage
The large number of tourists leaves signs of their trip in the environment. Perhaps the most visible impact of trekkers on the Himalayas is the growing amount of rubbish left behind. The sides of the trekking routes are starting to cover with candy wrappers, empty bottles, film containers etc.
The situation is even worse near the top of Mount Everest due to the difficulty of cleaning. Since Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit in 1953, nearly 150 expeditions have bivouacked at South Col, the last camp before the final ascent. On the way down the climbers are besides being triumphant also tired and anxious to lighten their load. They have all left rubbish in the mountain. The rubbish consists from tin cans and beer bottles to empty oxygen tanks and tents. There are also abandoned helicopters on Everest.
The estimates of the amount of rubbish on Everest vary greatly. In some estimates it is suggested that over the past forty years, eighteen tons of garbage have been dumped on Mount Everest. On the other hand the environmentalists estimate that the amount of garbage is closer to hundred tons. The Nepal Mountaineering Association estimates that there is at the moment approximately 50 tons of rubbish and over 20 bodies at South Col. No matter what the amount of garbage on Everest is, there is a lot of cleaning to be done.
Deforestation
Even bigger environmental problem than garbage is deforestation in the Himalayan area. This is a problem in the lower areas where the trekkers come to. Over half of the trekkers come to Nepal in commercial groups. For a twenty-two to twenty-five day trek a group of approximately 12 tourists need a support group of up to fifty people. All these people are a part in creating serious environmental problems.
Most tourists come to Nepal to expecting to see massive forests and they are not expecting to find Western amenities. Very often the truth is reverse. The forest is gone and the tourists find Western amenities in teahouses and guest lodges by the trails. The tourists have influenced and encouraged change in the use of the forests for fuel wood and construction material. In Nepal forests have typically been used as fuel wood. The fact, which causes problems, is that the amount of consumption differs between the Nepali and the tourists. The demand for fuel wood from tourists has always been a concern, but several years ago this turned into a serious problem due to the growing amounts of tourists. Therefore fuel wood use of the mountaineering and trekking groups is seen as the main environmental threat for the parks in Nepal.
It is estimated that one trekker consumes five to ten times more fuel wood than one Nepali. For cooking a Western tourist needs almost four times as much fuel wood as one Nepali. This is largely due to differences on diets. Tourists also need fuel wood for daily warm showers and bonfires to keep them warm. Besides the tourists using fuel wood there is also the large amount of supporting staff accelerating the deforestation.
More and more tourists stay in the lodges, which are large users of fuel wood as well. The number of guest lodges and teahouses has grown rapidly. These also use fuel wood to provide services for the tourists. They use approximately four times as much fuel wood in a day than a local household.
One can only imagine what are the effects of exploiting the forests like this. The World Wildlife Found estimated in the beginning of the 1990’s that if the rate of deforestation continues Nepal’s forests will be gone by the year 2000. This did not happen due to actions taken to slow the deforestation, but still the problem is serious. The destruction of the forests will cause soil erosion and habitat lose, but also other problems, since 86 percent of Nepal’s energy comes from the forests.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EFFECTS
Besides affecting the environment, tourism also leaves its marks on the local society. Tourism brings money into the country, but the money has affected the standard of living of only some people. Instead of creating long-run development plans the money has been spent on very few people’s well being. The lifestyle of the Sherpas has changed significantly after the explosion in the tourist rates.
The Nepalese Government gets direct income from tourists. Each expedition climbing Mount Everest has to pay at least $ 70 000 for the access to the mountain. The government was hungry for money and gave more and more climbing permits to expeditions. This created serious problems on Mount Everest. The route to the top was so crowned in some places that this endangered people’s lives. Since climbing to Mount Everest is only suitable a couple months of the year, the Government on Nepal could not go on selling more permits each year. Now the amount of climbing permits is limited. The growing crowd in base camp made also the garbage problem even worse.
Trekking and mountaineering brings money into the country, but the amount is smaller than what could be thought. Since half of the trekkers come in commercials groups, they often have there own guides with them and they also import a lot of things for their own needs. This means that hardly any money is goes to the local communities. WWF estimates that only 20 cents of every
$ 3 spent by an average trekker each day reaches village economies. The rest goes for imported goods coming for outside especially the West. Individual tourists however rely on the local people for guiding, food and accommodation. This means that more money is dispersed to the local communities.
Tourism has also created jobs. It is now the largest source of employment besides agriculture in Nepal. The tourist season is limited from October to November and from March to early May. This means that the employment from tourism is seasonal. Most people employed by the tourism industry work only four to five months in a year. Employment in trekking has been predominating for men but the number of women earning income from trekking is rising. There has been also an increase in the employment and income generated from establishing teahouses by the trekking routes.
Sherpas are also employed by the expeditions climbing Mount Everest. They are paid for to be guides, carry things and take care of the commercial climbing expedition’s members. Each expedition hires usually one or two Sherpas, because the Sherpas are used to the thin mountain air and their ability to work high up Mount Everest is fairly good. Unfortunately the Sherpas are willing to risk their lives for the money. Each year several people die on Mount Everest and the Sherpas are taking big risks since they are for example the ones going up and down if something has to be fetched from a lower camp. The Sherpas are very loyal to their employers and they are willing to risk their own lives to get the whole expedition down safely. This results in increasing the number of young women left alone to raise the children and take care of the farm work. The young unmarried women are also disadvantaged since there are fewer young men.
There is also disruption to the family life. Men working for tourism are often away from their home ten months a year. Many of “the trekking Sherpas“ who are married keep another woman in the cities where they stay in-between the treks. Other Sherpas are enticed by the forward gestures of western women, who often initiate the affair. A number of Sherpa women have lost their husbands or fiancés to foreign women.
Trekking is one of the highest paying employments in Nepal today. The wealth available from this job draws young people out from school and into tourism. This is ironic since one of the qualifications in working for trekking is the knowledge of spoken and written English and Nepali. Earlier teaching and government jobs were valued highly, but they are not desirable anymore since they do not provide the same income as trekking.
There has also been a decrease in agriculture, since working for tourists is more convenient and pays off a lot better than farming. More agricultural fields are left fallow as more men are seeking wealth from tourism. Another effect of tourism is that the local crafts are dying out. The crafts cannot generate the same amount of income as tourism and the supplies needed are also harder to obtain. The Sherpas are now able to purchase manufactured items rather than make their own. Wool is one of the items, which has become scarce, since layers of cotton are now bought and worn to keep warm.
The Sherpa villages are not self-reliant anymore instead they are dependent on cash coming from the tourists. More food must come from outside and this makes the prices to rise. The prices become too high for the families who do not get income from tourism. The higher prices have also a destructive effect on some Sherpa traditions for example drinking Tibetan salt- and butter tea. The extremely high price of butter makes the drink unaffordable and the supply of tea is uncertain.
Earning more money can be seen as a positive thing especially when talking about a very poor developing country like Nepal. However it is not that simple. Sherpas have not saved or invested the money they have earned from tourism. Instead they have spent it on Western items degrading their own traditional culture even further. Trekking Sherpas do not wear their traditional dress anymore, but they have imported hiking boots, colorful sweaters, down parkas etc.