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Pabalan, Rencel R.
BSTM-3 AFRICA
ARTICLE

DOT to tourists: Interact responsibly with marine

wildlife
June 22, 2021 – 7:43 PM

MANILA – In celebration of World Environment Month this June, the Department of Tourism
(DOT) reiterates the need for tourists to educate themselves on sustainable interaction with marine
wildlife.

“Observing marine wildlife in its natural habitat is incredibly fulfilling and quite an experience you
cannot forget,” Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said in a statement on Tuesday. She
stressed, however

that while this is an extraordinary experience, "irresponsible interaction with marine wildlife can
cause severe long-term damage to them and their environment."

“Respecting the ocean and its inhabitants must be the top priority of every tourist who wants to
connect with marine wildlife. Learning how to properly engage with these species is a small but
crucial step in protecting and sustaining our marine biodiversity,” Puyat added.

She said the DOT will conduct awareness seminars to educate tourism stakeholders on sustainable
and responsible marine tourism guidelines come second half of the year, especially now that local
tourism continuously picks up on coastal destinations.

These guidelines are part of the Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2020 – 01 on Rules and Regulations
Governing the Conduct of Marine Wildlife Tourism Interaction in the Philippines issued last year by
the DOT in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR),
Department of Agriculture (DA), and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

The memorandum guidelines include the establishment of zones in marine tourist destinations (No
Approach Zones, Interaction Zones, and Waiting Zones), the Code of Conduct for persons and sea
vessels within the zones, the Prohibited Acts within Dedicated Interaction Sites, specific regulations
per type of marine activity, and the responsibilities of the lead agencies in compliance monitoring and
enforcement of the said regulations.

The circular was crafted to ensure that tourism interactions do not adversely affect marine wildlife
behavior and population, particularly large marine vertebrates, such as "dugong", cetaceans (dolphins,
whales, and porpoises), whale sharks, other sharks, manta rays, and marine turtles.

Future plans in the memorandum also include identifying, accrediting, and recognizing marine
wildlife tourism sites in the country that are dedicated and compliant with the regulations. These
highlight how collaboration between public and private institutions is beneficial for preserving the
Philippines’ natural resources. (PR)
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https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1144616?fbclid=IwAR1J-
LU64BjGOZre0SbIi_2Cgtvoe_NmaCEgPu-5d_wprWHZAhf-oIvC-hU

Previous Study

A New Study Finds that Working in Wildlife

Tourism Can Act as an Incentive for the
Conservation of Marine Species
March 22, 2021

A new study by researchers from the University of Victoria and Large Marine
Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines has found that working in wildlife tourism
can act as an incentive for the conservation of marine species. Community-based whale
shark tourism workers had more protectionist views, recognising the inherent  value of
wildlife, and were more likely to report positive changes in their attitudes and
behaviours to protect whale sharks.

Several studies have documented the impact of wildlife tourism on the tourists, but this
is the first to explore the relationship between wildlife value orientations, and
conservation attitudes and behaviours of locals working in community-based wildlife
tourism

The Philippines is one of the only places in the world with multiple community-based
whale shark tourism sites thus allowing a comparison of tourism sites. Between 2016-
2017 the research team led by Dr. Jackie Ziegler conducted 114 interviews across four
different community-based whale shark tourism sites in the Philippines: Talisayan a
failed tourism site in Misamis Oriental, Donsol a mid-tier site in Sorsogon, Pintuyan a
small-scale site in Southern Leyte, and Oslob a mass tourism site in Cebu (Figure 1.).
Interviewees at each site were asked whether they had changed their behaviour to
protect whale sharks and the ocean since tourism started, whether they thought whale
sharks should be protected from being killed and whether the Philippines will change if
whale sharks become extinct.

The analysis showed that respondents who worked in tourism recognized more the
inherent value of wildlife than those from a failed tourism site, demonstrating that
tourism can have the power to change communities by encouraging them to value their
marine resources and be incentivized to protect those resources. Respondents reported
more conservation outcomes, including changes in attitudes and behaviours to
protect whale sharks.

The researchers identified three groups of varying beliefs regarding the value of marine
wildlife. On one end of the spectrum, there was a group whose beliefs were closely
aligned with the idea that the main value of wildlife is providing for humans; the
highest proportion of respondents in this group were from the failed site in Talisayan.
On the other end of the scale was a group who believe that marine wildlife has value
whether or not humans’ benefit (high protectionist group); the highest proportion of
respondents in this group were from Donsol (mid-tier site). The beliefs of the middle
group lay between the two. Respondents from Pintuyan (small-scale site) were evenly
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split between the high protectionist group and the middle group, while respondents from
Oslob (mass-tourism site) fell across all three groups.

The study found that the scale and/or length of tourism operations is important and that
the proportion of respondents in the high protectionist group is larger at smaller-scale
tourism sites and those that had been open the longest, rather than those that provide the
greatest economic incentives.

Up until now, previous research has focused on the values that tourists associate with
wildlife, rather than local operators. This study provides a valuable insight into the
influence tourism can have on local tour operators to the conservation of marine
species. Further studies should expand to wider community members to gain a better
understanding of locals’ relationships with marine wildlife beyond those who work
directly in tourism.

Abstract

Wildlife tourism can act as an incentive for the conservation of marine species and habitats. One of
the most important outcomes can be a change in the views of participants towards target species and
their habitats that may promote more conservation-oriented actions. While a handful of studies have
documented the wildlife value orientations (WVOs) of tourists participating in marine wildlife
tourism, no studies have explored the WVOs of locals working in tourism. However, it is equally
important to understand the WVOs of locals working in community-based tourism, and whether these
are linked with changes in locals' attitudes and behaviors towards marine wildlife and the ocean. This
article assesses the WVOs of locals working in community-based whale shark tourism at four sites in
the Philippines, and explores the relationship between WVOs and conservation attitudes and
behaviors using a mixed methods approach with a total of 114 structured interviews. Three WVO
groups were identified (mixed utilitarian–protectionist, moderate protectionist, and high protectionist),
suggesting a WVO continuum. Those respondents with more protectionist views reported more
conservation outcomes, including changes in attitudes and behaviors to protect whale sharks. Further,
respondents who worked in tourism had more protectionist views than those from a failed tourism
site, indicating that tourism can change communities by helping locals value their marine resources
and incentivizing protection of those resources.

https://www.lamave.org/news/wildlife-tourism-incentive-for-conservation-of-marine-species?
fbclid=IwAR0ErTFuzc_vH6PLE_HbHN-Q4J_bKQTn88d2T7Z5f1Q9pCr18m5yjQVKG
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/tme/2021/00000016/00000001/
art00003;jsessionid=1apfvbnkgub1v.x-ic-live-01
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THEORY

Tourism and Development Theory:

Which Way Now?
December 28, 2021

ABSTRACT

Abstract

Tourism has long been explored through the lens of development theory. David Harrison was one of
the earlier academics to do so, subsequently turning his attention to critiquing the relevance of such
theory to tourism, concluding that although much tourism research has been framed within it,
development theory has contributed little if anything to knowledge and understanding of the tourism-
development nexus. Recognising David Harrison’s contribution to the field, this paper reviews his
critique of development theory as related to tourism before going on to suggest that the increasingly
popular notion of degrowth offers an alternative conceptual lens though which tourism and
development may be viewed. More specifically, it argues that within the context of the global
environmental crisis and the need to address growth-inspired excessive production and consumption,
degrowth can be considered a viable approach to or theory of development that demands attention in
the context of tourism.

it is increasingly recognised that continuing economic growth or, more precisely, continuing growth
in the production and consumption upon which economic growth depends is environmentally
unsustainable. According to Liegey and Nelson (2020, p. 5), “we know that capitalist trade and
production has increasingly outstripped [the Earth’s] regenerative capacity over the last 50 years”;
more simply stated, we are living not with, but off the planet’s resources. The impacts of the
excessive demands placed by humanity on the global ecosystem are arguably most acutely manifested
in fossil fuel-induced climate change and global warming; at the time of writing, the forthcoming
CoP26 climate conference in Glasgow is considered by many to be “the world’s best last chance to
get runaway climate change under control” (CoP26, n.d.). However, as pressing the need is to halt
(and ideally reverse) the warming of the planet (the consequences of which have become increasingly
apparent), the exploitation and loss of the Earth’s natural resources more generally are an equally
important part of the environmental crisis equation. This loss is widely documented (see
Attenborough, 2020 for a detailed, accessible account) and is starkly revealed in the work of the
Global Footprint Network which annually assesses the ecological footprint of around 200 countries
and territories. Currently, that footprint is calculated to be 170% greater than the Earth can provide
for; globally we are using resources as if there were 1.7 Earths (Global Footprint Network, 2021).
But, access to and use of these resources is unequal; as MacKinnon (2021, pp. 32–3) summarises, for
the world’s population to live like the average American would require five planets and like the
average European about 3.5 planets. For a sustainable future, the objective should be for all people to
live a “one-planet lifestyle”.
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Conclusion

As established in the introduction, the purpose of this short essay has not been to propose a new
approach to fulfilling tourism’s contribution to development or, more precisely, ways of
“operationalising” degrowth in the tourism context; this is attempted elsewhere (e.g: Hall et al., 2021).
Rather, through reviewing David Harrison’s work on the contribution of development theory to
tourism studies, it has sought to demonstrate that not only has “traditional” development theory been
ineffective in informing our understanding of tourism and its role in development but also that
David’s argument, based on his assumption of “business as usual” in tourism, for the adoption of
globalisation theory is no longer appropriate. In so doing, it has suggested that as the validity of
development based on economic growth becomes increasingly questioned, the concept of degrowth
represents a potentially strong and critical framework for exploring the relationship between tourism
and development. That relationship has, of course, been thrown into sharper focus during the
coronavirus pandemic, giving rise to some rigorous academic debate on issues central to degrowth
(see for example, Butcher, 2021 and Higgins-Desbiolles, 2020; Higgins-Desbiolles et al., 2019), but
the developmental challenges facing the post-pandemic world will be such that, both in theory and in
practice, it can no longer be “business as usual” in tourism.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21568316.2021.2021475