Funding Travel Prize Winner 2010

My MA dissertation looks at the impact of ecotourism as a tool for sustainable development on indigenous people (IPs) in the Philippines. IPs make up around 15-20% of the population in the country and belong to the most marginalized and poorest people. In the last years, they were often displaced from their lands and their culture degraded due to development projects in the tourism sector.

In order to tackle these developments, the National Ecotourism Strategy was introduced by the Philippine government in 2002. Ecotourism projects put the natural environment as a focus of attraction, emphasize learning as a result of the tourist’s interaction with the environment, often involve the local population and are said to be sustainable. Hence, the National Ecotourism Strategy was implemented not only to help to protect the Philippine environment, but also to preserve the indigenous culture and to give the indigenous people a source of income.  

I investigated whether the IPs in two Philippine ecotourism sites benefit from the projects and whether the projects are sustainable. I looked at the two case studies from a neo-populist perspective which argues that a community approach, thus participation and empowerment, is necessary for IPs to benefit from tourism and to make it sustainable. I concluded that active participation of IPs in the projects is important to empower communities and to gain benefits from ecotourism. However, participation and empowerment do not guarantee sustainability.

My Trip

At the beginning of the second week, I travelled to Puerto Princesa on the island of Palawan. Around 38.8% of Palawan’s population are IPs. The four ethnolinguistic groups are the Tagbanua, Palaw’n, Tau’t Bato and the Bataks. I focused on the Tagbanua who are found in the area around Puerto Princesa and northern Palawan.

Puerto Princesa is also known as the ecotourism capital of the Philippines because of its abundance of ecotourism projects. One of the most famous is the Puerto Princesa Subterranean National Park which I chose as one of the case studies for my master thesis. Around 130 Tagbanua families live there. In Puerto Princesa, I was accompanied by the Philippine marines. They introduced me to local NGOs such as Haribon, the Tagbalay Foundation and the National Commission of the Indigenous People as well as to an attorney who had worked with the Tabanua and knew a lot about their issues. Other places to go were the local tourism office where I learned more about ecotourism projects and where I had to ask for permission to visit the projects sites and to talk to the Tagbanua. In addition, I went to the library of the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development and to the city library. One day, the Philippine marines accompanied me to the Puerto Princesa Subterranean National Park. At the park’s visitor centre and cultural museum, I met the Tagbanua chieftain who answered my questions and demonstrated some of tribe’s traditional cultural practices, like how to make fire. Although I gained a lot of insights into the Tagbanua life in the national park and how they have been affected by the ecotourism projects, I faced several challenges. One of the major problems were language barriers. Since the Tagbanua did not speak English, the marines had to translate all the information. Another major problem was the unreliability of some people. It happened that I made an appointment with, for example, an NGO and the dialogue partner did not show up. 

After Puerto Princesa, I went to El Nido, a small village in the North of Palawan which has become famous for its five star resorts involved in ecotourism. I had heard that many Tagbanua live in the area, but it turned out that it was not the case. Nevertheless, I got to talk to Mariglo Laririt, the Manager for Environment of one of the Ten Knot Resorts. She told me more about the resorts and how they have contributed to the preservation of the environment in El Nido, the local economy, the resort’s current challenges and also about ecotourism in general. 

When I was back in Manila I visited the library of the University of the Philippines Diliman and talked to Caloy Libosada who has been involved for a long time in ecotourism projects. He explained why ecotourism projects often fail and what factors need to be taken into consideration when working with IPs. After spending a few days in Manila, I went to Boracay. Boracay is the premier tourist destination in the Philippines. Its environment suffers from congestion, pollution and beach erosion due to unplanned tourism development. Furthermore, local residents have complained that they lost access to beaches and to areas of economic activity. This also led to a displacement of the Ati, the island’s IPs. After the tourism boom, many had to leave the island. So today, only around 50 Ati families remain. For me, it was interesting to see the contrast between Palawan and Boracay. While the former is relatively unexplored and underdeveloped, the latter is very touristy with crowded beaches and a large number of resorts. 

My last destination of my trip was the Calamianes group of islands in the North of Palawan, which are part of the region of Coron. There, I found my second ecotourism site, Coron Island which is espoused to an ecotourism scheme and is populated by the Tagbanua, just like the Subterranean National Park in Puerto Princesa. However, there are major differences between the two Tagbanua tribes. The Tagbanua in Coron are also called “northern” Tagbanua and follow a semi-nomadic, ocean fishing lifeway while those in Puerto Princesa still rely mostly on farming practices. Another major difference between the tribes concerns the management. While the local government of Puerto Princesa is responsible for the Subterranean National Park, all ecotourism destinations in Coron Island are owned and managed by the Tagbanua themselves.  

In Coron, I worked together with a Filipino who studied Tourism and worked as a tourist guide. He did a major contribution to my research because not only was he my guide, but also my translator who did most of the communication with the IPs. He took me to Cabugao, a small village on Coron Island which can only be reached by boat. In Cabugao, I met the tribal leader whom I had to ask for permission to visit the island’s ecotourism sites and to conduct some interviews with the Tagbanua. Afterwards, we went to the Kayangan Lake, one of the cleanest lakes in the Philippines and famous for its unique greenish colour. The lake is managed by the Tagbanua Foundation of Coron Islands (TFCI). Its members all belong to the Tagbanua community. At the lake, I had the chance to talk to some of the employees about how they have been affected by the ecotourism industry in Coron. The TFCI collects fees from the tourists. The money earned is used for paying salaries to park rangers and employees, maintaining ecotourism sites and a health program. However, there are Tagbanua families who claim they have not received any money yet.  

My next destination was Lajala, a small village located on an neighbouring island, whose inhabitants are all Tagbanua. While a few years ago, most of the people were involved in the fishing industry, they now bring the tourists to the ecotourism sites. I met many boat owners and housewives who wanted the level of ecotourism to increase due the positive effects of the industry for the families. Many of them now have a regular source of income, understand English, are able to send their children to school, are more self-confident in dealing with the tourists and also learn from the tourists how important it is to preserve the environment. However, it also has to be emphasized that some of the Tagbanua are now highly depend on the tourism industry, while others still have not become involved in the tourism industry at all and still rely on fishing. In Coron Town, I had a meeting with the city’s councilor Patrick Matta. He told me how the ecotourism industry has developed in the last years and the major challenges the Tagbanua and the local government faced. Additionally, I talked to a former employee of the National Geographic who now, has its own project with the Tagbanua on Coron Island and knows a lot about their issues. 

On July 15^th, I had to fly back to the UK. I will never forget the time in the Philippines which allowed me to gain insights into the life of the Tagbanua and to understand their situation in the society more. Furthermore, I learned that ecotourism is a useful tool for sustainable development, but in order for the Tagbanua to benefit from it, not only the tribe needs to become involved in the planning, implementation and execution of the project, but also the local government, NGOs and businesses.

 I am very thankful to have been awarded the Sir Stanley Tomlinson Scholarship. Without the funding of the Institute of Asia Pacific Studies, I would not have been able to travel to the Philippines and conduct my research.