Gerhard Buttner took time out from his position as sales assistant at Stanfords to volunteer in the fishing village of Celestun in Mexico, helping with an ecotourism project. Celestun is famous for an eco-system with over 300 documented bird species, including flocks of pink flamingos…
Part 1
People from the inland have been visiting and making use of the natural resources of the Yucatan coast for a very long time. The ‘gold’ they found here was salt, the ‘silver’ was the riches of the sea. In the mid-20th century the Yucatan sisal/henequen industry (the ‘gold’ of the Yucatan interior) collapsed and many more people moved to the coast from the haciendas inland. Nobody can tell me how long the flamingos have been searching for pink shrimps around Celestun, but could they be the new ‘gold’ of Celestun that has started attracting the first tourist flocks?
Or will the flamingos stop laying the ‘golden egg’ for future generations? Actually they breed elsewhere and only feed here, but you know what I mean. Recently I have been lured myself – was it the ‘golden’ sun after life in London? – to spend some months in this Mexican fishing village helping out in the local ecotourism project. In case you haven´t got a map handy, Celestun lies 90km from Merida and is located on the west coast of the Yucatan Peninsula – that chunk of Mexico that juts out north of Belize and Guatemala to separate the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean. Cancun is half a day´s drive away to the east.
Maybe you would also wish to visit to marvel at the intense colours of nature as displayed by the shockingly pink flamingos, enjoy the tropical paradise mangrove setting and hopefully learn something in the process.
Visitors help add an economic value to the local mangrove swamps creating an increased incentive to preserve them. Yet this is a fragile system and care must be taken that tourism does not end up destroying the very special part of our world they have come to see. Flamingos need to spend a large part of their day feeding and if they are disturbed too much they end up undernourished which can also affect their breeding habits. In an extreme disastrous case they might be chased from Celestun, leaving the local tourist trade without the ace in their pack and the flamingos rather hungry. The reality is that there are no alternative feeding sites offering all the advantages of Celestun where they could go in large numbers. Meaning this would cause a catastrophic decline in numbers. So we had better take care of this one. The local tourist boat owners are becoming very aware of this, as exemplified recently by their outrage when an unknown boat roared straight at the colony causing them to take flight in panic.
So what does a volunteer do here, apart from learning a lot of Spanish and enjoying a warm tropical climate, cold beers, sandy beaches and the company of extremely friendly Celestun inhabitants? Teach English for one thing. Then there is a good bit of computer data entry and interpretation of survey and nature research. General guiding skills and nature knowledge and awareness are other teaching subjects and I learn as much from them as in reverse. I never expected to be able to identify various local mangroves, specific habitats for bird species and local Mexican slang within weeks.
I am working with the organisation Pronatura Peninsula de Yucatan whose aims are to carry out research, protect the natural riches of the Peninsula, to raise awareness of the crucial importance of preserving them and to build skills to do this among local communities. Here in Celestun there’s a group of local fishermen turned nature guides that have become real bird enthusiasts (these are my students and teachers at the same time) who can identify innumerable species from sound alone and scholarly discuss – aided by state of the art fieldguides and binoculars partly donated by foreign Birding Associations – which one of two very similar species of flycatcher, gull or woodpecker we are looking at.
In Celestun the visitor can see the spectacular flamingo in a lush green tropical backdrop accessible to anybody, and even those with very limited nature interest are likely to enjoy themselves. For the serious nature lover, especially the birdwatcher, this is a fascinating eco-system with over 300 documented bird species and other diverse secrets.
On Friday night the tiny tree-filled plaza of Celestun was alive with the sound of disco rythms with thumping stereo, accompanied by a big screen, a fenced off dance area and enthusiastic DJ, all organised by a huge national beer producer. The local youth were looking on, yet something was amiss. Nobody had entered the dance area, in spite of the coaxing of the DJ. Why? Because this Saturday is disco night at La Palapa restaurant, a monthly local institution “not to be missed”. Celestunians were not keen on spending money for a night out twice on one weekend, so their locally famous event won.
Celestun showed the ‘outsiders’ that if you do not discuss and plan your actions together with the community, they might just end up ignoring all your impressive plans. This is an interesting lesson and it constitutes one of the basics of ecotourism.
The community wants jobs and utilises the surrounding nature in whichever way profitable. Yet saving the vanishing nature need not be contradictory, as one of the aims of ecotourism is to combine these aspirations. Jobs for locals in nature tourism create income and with the rise in education and awareness, protecting the environment for this purpose can become a community priority in a way that can never be achieved with restrictive laws. This is exactly what my organisation Pronatura Peninsula de Yucatan (PPY) is working towards here in Celestun, where tourism has now become the second most important economic sector after fishing.
A concise definition of ecotourism, from The Ecotourism Society, is, “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people.”
The ethically aware traveller can look beyond marketing slogans and specifically search out nature tour options – these include responsible travel and an increase in understanding, conservation of nature and biodiversity, benefit to the local community and sustainability for future generations.
Celestun for example has become known for its flamingos and stunning mangrove-lined estuary, so the attraction is definitely nature. The local community benefits from numerous jobs in a few locally owned hotels and restaurants and as tourist boat-drivers, and nowadays there is an awareness among the lancheros (tourist boat-drivers) for their flamingos and they take precautions to keep disturbance at a minimum.
Yet diverse pressure on the environment is still high from the vastly greater number of fishermen, salt gatherers in the salt flats and other occupations. Ensuring sustainability and conservation remain vital tasks and more ecotourism options that create more jobs will have to be found – without overloading the system.
One small group of boat-drivers calling themselves the Peregrinos is an example of what can be achieved; while others were content with simply taking tourists on the same flamingo tour week after week, this group has been working hard, increasing not only their birding skills, but also their general knowledge of nature. Fascination for peregrine falcons that travel a long way to spend their winter in Celestun like many other migratory birds, made them choose this name. They have always seen birds in Celestun, but now are aware of their behaviour and habitat needs.
Combining various training courses with their local knowledge as born Celestunians, they can now also tell you endless weird and wonderful facts, starting from a huge number of bird names (in English) to more about their habits and habitats and fascinating things about the plant species, ecosystems, other animals, nature and Celestun in general.
Since the informed and informative Peregrinos are all local, their income stays in the village and they are now helping plan a new nature trail. They have a huge interest in conserving their unique environment for the future since they have no intention of leaving Celestun and this fascinating new job – they were all fishermen in the past. So the Peregrinos exemplify several elements of ecotourism. This informal group is waiting just for you at the tourist boat launch site at the bridge over the estuary – especially for birdwatchers, Celestun can really be amazing with Peregrino help. Be sure to look them up, should you ever drift across to this far corner of the Yucatan in Mexico. These Celestun Peregrinos will not fly away.
On a recent short break to nearby Belize, which is known for ecotourism, I also found fascinating eco-options. The Belize Zoo did not leave a bitter taste in my mouth like most others, because in this one there are no tiny cages. It is more like bits of fenced off forest and you need to search the foliage before spotting the jaguars or tapirs. Only local animals live here and the focus is very much on education for the local youth. Cockscomb is a famous jaguar reserve further south. You probably won´t meet a jaguar but you will meet the local villagers that have lived here for generations and have now changed from subsistence farming to nature conservation in this pristine nature reserve. Then there is the low-key Monkey Bay Nature Reserve where they designed a multiple day nature trail for occasional groups only, leaving a feel of unspoilt nature to be entered only with guides from the local village with machetes to clear the way. No highways here!
With all this wonderful nature and great people and sunshine around, who knows when I will make it back to London?
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Author: Gerhard Buttner