Tourism killing world’s eight wonder
by Maurice Malanes
Taken from Oxford English for Careers, Tourism, Robin Walker and Keith Harding.
The Ifugao rice terraces in the northern Philippines are considered the world's
eighth wonder. Long plagued by erosion caused by earthworms, this UNESCO World
Heritage site now faces a more dangerous threat: tourism.
A new study has pointed to tourism as the main factor in the deterioration of the region’s forests. 'Tourism has encouraged the commercial production of woodcarvings and handicrafts and this has depleted local forest resources says the study.
Tourism also has a direct impact on water resources. In the central town, thecommunity now has to share water with the growing number of hotels and restaurants servicing tourists in the area. Thus, the water left is only enough to irrigate the rice paddies inthe higher terraces.
Land Conversion
With tourism, some locals have converted their rice paddles into residential lots. The study cited cases in the villages of Bangaan, Poitan, and Bocos where farmers either built traditional houses for lodging or sold their rice paddles for residential and commercial purposes.
The study also noted the absence of people to maintain the fields because the people expected to take care of the fields have become either white-collarprofessionals or entrepreneurs in tourism-related industries.
Threats to cooperative farming
Until now a traditional cooperative farming practice has helped sustain and nurture
the rice terraces. But this practice is being eroded as the money economy invades the area, thanks to tourism, said the study.
Under the cooperative practice, neighbouring farmers would go voluntarily to a field to clear weeds, plant or harvest rice, and repair terraces. Not anymore. According to the study, workers who now help in the fields are paid in cash.
The demise of llugao's cooperative farming tradition has led tolabour costs, which the ordinary farmer cannot afford. As a result, many have given up farming in favour of tourism-related jobs such as posing before the tourists' cameras for a fee.
To meet the needs of visitors and tourists, other farmers have shifted to plantingvegetables. But this shift demands the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides which could damage the ecology of the rice terraces.
Ecotourism as marketing gimmick
Coming under a new package in recent years, tourism now hasa new prefix: 'eco' — for ecology or ecologically friendly. But canecotourism save the world's eighth wonder? Some experts sayno. The new study, for example, exposed ecotourism as 'more ofa marketing tool than an ecological necessity or a condition ofsustainable development.