- By way of presentation
The following document does not pretend and in fact I did not want it to be developed in a technical way, in addition, it does not want to pose as a "panacea" to the wide socio-environmental problem of the Juan Bautista Pérez Rancier National Park and therefore of the National System of Areas Protected.
planning-management-national-system-protected-areas-dominican-republicRather, I wish to raise a colloquial level and bordering on a structure even of friendship, a series of ideas and aspirations that, although they have a broad technical foundation, but there is a will, attitude and above all a "new vision" in planning, management and administration of protected areas, they can find paradigmatic walls of more than 10 meters thick and 100 meters high, impossible to cross and even more to jump.
From the "World Congress of Protected Areas" of Caracas Venezuela in 1992, which gave us the much consulted book "Parks and Progress" (IUCN -Juan Carlos Godoy- 1993), to the "World Congress of Protected Areas" of Johanes Burgos, South Africa in 2003, which allowed us to consult "Towards a new era in the planning and management of Protected Areas" (IUCN -Various authors-), have guided us to be more "innovative" and "less conservative " in the management of protected areas. And by being "less conservative" I do not mean the fact that we must change our attitude about the management and use of natural resources in protected areas.
It is true that the “management categories” and “conservation objectives” that internationally regulate and indicate how to manage and administer the territories that we call “protected areas” still remain. But what is the truth of these territories called protected areas, because we do not reflect based on the following strategic questions:
- Are we really managing to comply with the standards and objectives of the management categories that we have arbitrarily or technically imposed on protected areas? Will we have enough technical and legal institutional tools or instruments to provide effective management and administration to Protected Areas? Will we have a vision and / or institutional approach on the type and model of planning and management that we must implement in protected areas? Could it be that the simple fact of preparing a document called the Management Plan will allow us the conservation and appropriate management of the protected area, considering that in most cases the funds for its implementation, monitoring and evaluation are not available? With a budget each year less than the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources,with international cooperation every day less investing in projects for the protection and management of protected areas (and natural resources in general) from where? We will obtain the money for the implementation of the Management Plans? If we are lucky enough that through a Management Plan they build the infrastructure for public use, administration and protection, we equip it, as well as the staff, but how? we will maintain the infrastructure; who? will provide customer service services if we do not have enough funds to have a necessary number of park rangers, let alone specialized technicians; Where will the maintenance, fuel and lubricants come from? of donated vehicles, as in a number of projects, medium and long-term sustainability,What is the “real” level of involvement of civil society in the management and conservation of protected areas, what level of perception and acceptance of the conservation of protected areas exists on the communities settled within, on the periphery, to regional and national level? If, as has been proposed since 1992 (Parks and Progress), we must orient protected areas towards a vision of financial self-sustainability, why? There are fears of opening the planning and management of protected areas towards models of co-management, co-administration and interactive participation of civil society? What role should International Cooperation (KfW, GTZ, USAID, etc.) have, to ensure that investments persist in time and space, will it be? In case it is not your role to ensure it.How can we protect natural resources in a coercive way, if every year the number of Park Rangers and Technicians within the PNJBPR and the National System of Protected Areas is reduced? and finally I would like to ask what is the true role of governmental and non-governmental technicians in the social, economic, productive and environmental sustainability of protected areas, how? We can base our decisions and technical recommendations, towards where? do we want to direct the PNJBPR and the national system of protected areas? Will it be feasible? include a new strategy and approach to the long-awaited reform of the PA sector law, what alternatives? We will have at the labor level if the government budgets that support our fees are reduced every day?If each year the number of Park Rangers and Technicians within the PNJBPR and the National System of Protected Areas is reduced? And finally I would like to ask what is the true role of governmental and non-governmental technicians in the social, economic, productive and environmental sustainability of protected areas, how? We can base our decisions and technical recommendations, towards where? do we want to direct the PNJBPR and the national system of protected areas? Will it be feasible? include a new strategy and approach to the long-awaited reform of the PA sector law, what alternatives? We will have at the labor level if the government budgets that support our fees are reduced every day?If each year the number of Park Rangers and Technicians within the PNJBPR and the National System of Protected Areas is reduced? and finally I would like to ask what is the true role of governmental and non-governmental technicians in the social, economic, productive and environmental sustainability of protected areas, how? We can base our decisions and technical recommendations, towards where? do we want to direct the PNJBPR and the national system of protected areas? Will it be feasible? include a new strategy and approach to the long-awaited reform of the PA sector law, what alternatives? We will have at the labor level if the government budgets that support our fees are reduced every day?What alternatives? We will have at the labor level if the government budgets that support our fees are reduced every day?What alternatives? We will have at the labor level if the government budgets that support our fees are reduced every day?What alternatives? We will have at the labor level if the government budgets that support our fees are reduced every day?What alternatives? We will have at the labor level if the government budgets that support our fees are reduced every day?where? do we want to direct the PNJBPR and the national system of protected areas? Will it be feasible? include a new strategy and approach to the long-awaited reform of the PA sector law, what alternatives? We will have at the labor level if the government budgets that support our fees are reduced every day?where? do we want to direct the PNJBPR and the national system of protected areas? Will it be feasible? include a new strategy and approach to the long-awaited reform of the PA sector law, what alternatives? We will have at the labor level if the government budgets that support our fees are reduced every day?
And like the 11 questions that encompass almost 30, I could continue to ponder and scratch the possibilities that would lead us to a series of conjectures, doubts and reflections, and could fall into an intellectual hangover, which would even lead us to ask you, what am I doing then? here ?, question that I can swear to you, I have repeated constantly, when I see that I write a lot and tangible things take time or never come to be constituted.
- As L. Mairich would say "… three little stories"
I do not wish to use my evolution of technical criteria, as the model to be followed by specialists in planning, management and administration of protected areas, but I wish to reconcile, based on the three stories that I will present, some lessons learned, which have allowed me to evolve to acquire certain criteria in the planning and management of protected areas.
2.1 Tikal National Park (my first school)
As you may have learned on your recent trip to Guatemala, I was 14 years old when, as a student and technician, I started research activities in protected areas, starting my activities in the Tikal National Park (PNT), I started as is known despite having As a base profession the "Dasonomy" in the development of ecological research in fact the "Analysis of Complexity Indices" according to the models of LR Holdridge and behavior of ophidiofauna especially the Boa constrictor imperiatorin the broadleaf forests of Tikal. During the development of the field studies (1990 to 1993), I was getting to know the reality of the management of a protected area, in fact, fighting against my conservationist paradigms, I looked at how it was given, according to my perception of that moment, inappropriate uses to the ecosystems that I am studying and therefore it caused me a lot of pain and especially anger. And the criticisms I made about the "ecotourism guides", "tour operators" and the administration of the PNT were very harsh and incisive.
It is worth remembering that together with the students of the University Center of Peten (CUDEP), I organized a student strike (it is known that I dedicated myself in my free time to these tasks) to prevent the so-called "ecotourism guides" from continuing to penetrate the PNT, action that earned me a very bad reputation among many people, I think they spared my life because I was still very young. From that, WCS subcontracted through USAID funds to CARE to develop a project called “EDUCAREMOS”, this brought the famous ecologist and naturalist closer to the scene (PNT) (it is not the same, the first is scientific the second is from the heart) Cesar Aguilar Cumes,He carried a baggage of 30 years of experience and the genes of his father José Ignacio Aguilar Girón, the creator of the first protected areas in Guatemala in the 1930s and 1940s.
The first thing Aguilar Cumes did was sit down to talk with me, to know what my vision of development was for the PNT, which was really going around my head, which made me suppose that the development of ecotourism activities, I, with my nascent rhetoric, decided to tell him that the interpretive trails (which at the time were not) were not being subjected to a load capacity that was ecologically eroding the ecosystems surrounding them, in addition that the amount of organic and inorganic garbage that they were discharging into the garbage collector was exceeding their capacities, in addition to attracting vultures that were displacing niches of Mountain Eagles (Spizaetus ornatus and Spizaetus tiranus) and a myriad of conclusions (which by the way well systematized and technically endorsed) that it also delivers in written form. I remember that Cesar, outlining a smile between ironic and benevolent behind his mustache, proceeded to glance at it for a few minutes and looked me in the eye, asking me a question. Marvin, do you know what year, who and how this National Park was delimited?
Como era obvio, no había terminado la pregunta cuando había expulsado de mis labios la consabida respuesta, “…fue en el año de 1939, por el dictador Jorge Ubico, para proteger los vestigios arqueológicos que existían”. El respondió con su acostumbrada lentitud, si de hecho fue en el año 1939, pero savias que fue mi padre José Ignacio Aguilar Girón, el que lo propuso, lo delimito y gestiono su declaratoria ante Ubico. Claro esta, que a pesar de que savia la embargadora intelectual de José Ignacio Aguilar Girón no savia que además de construir el zoológico, rehabilitar el jardín botánico, construir y crear el museo de historia natural, el herbario nacional y la biblioteca etnobotanica, había también creado los primeros 7 Parques Nacionales (o zonas de protección).
When I nodded a negative answer, Cesar proceeded to tell me that in his many tours José Ignacio had known well the flora, fauna and archeology of the PNT, but when he proceeded to make the proposal to Ubico, he was already old and tired, so When Ubico sent him to delimit the PNT, sitting in a tavern (grocery store) on the island of Flores, he extended an archaeological plan of the Archaeologist Tosser, he had elaborated and located the temple that for him and for many was the most beautiful, which was the "Great Jaguar" and I draw a perfect cross crossing the north-south courses on the east-west, each arm 12 that when joined together gave a cross of 24 x 24 kilometers. Marvin, how many square kilometers is the PNT?
Okay! 576 square kilometers, I quickly completed 24 x 24 kilometers in analysis and understanding where it was going (according to ME).
Do you realize, do you think that my dad actually thought about the ecosystems, flora and fauna that are integrating in the 576 square kilometers, NO, do you think he thought he was leaving the communities of Tzocotzal, Las Lagunas, within the limits, La Chiclera and part of Uaxactun, NO.
And not only did my father do the same, I myself have made this mistake, not once but several times, now tell me a few about your results, because you want to prevent tourism and ecotourism activities from being developed in the PNT.
Again, I began a long rhetoric, exposing my findings (by the way, today I understand that they were very precocious) on the existence of 7 plant associations, with a complexity index bordering 104 points, that the use of the Boa constrictor imperiator as Indicator was feasible, because they had a home range that did not exceed 6 square kilometers, which were generally within that range to 1 male and 3 females, which consumed approximately a population of 23 field mice / year, 7 cotuzas / annual, 3 raccoons / annual, 2 tigrillos or ocelots / annual and also 2 neglected spider monkeys / annual (by the way, I very rarely found a boa consuming birds or reptiles). After I had concluded my extensive presentation, she proceeded to tell me, may I ask you some questions,.settled positively with my head.
- What is the real use of the information you are giving me? What is the use of Tikal, Peten and Guatemala, knowing that we have 4 snakes for every 6 square kilometers and that 23 mice and two monkeys are eaten a year? How are you going to protect the seven plant associations that you identified if you do not make known that exist and what is the best way to make them known? How important is it that the PNT forests have 104 complexity index, what does that information tell me, I don't understand, what other people will understand? More importantly Tell me, do you know the real area of incidence of the tourists who visit Tikal? What brings you to visit Tikal, what information do the ecotourism guides give you, will it be that they know the results of your research, and even more so that of the 15 years that the Peregrine Falcon Fund has been running, the 10 years of the WCS Paseo Pantera,the 5 years of research on diurnal butterflies by Claudio Méndez and the USAC, the follow-up given to the Sanjol –Ligero Perico- (Eria barbarie) since the 70's and not to mention the almost 100 historical discoveries of the Mayan culture? Do you know if the tour guides are really trained and give truthful information? Do you know if the children of the tour guides, They were able to eat a couple of weeks ago, because you had blocked the path that prevented their access to perhaps the only way to earn a living? Do you know a case like this the training and financial situation of the Resource Guardians, who must protect your vegetable associations and your snakes?
Despite the fact that I wanted to answer some, more out of anger (you know I'm angry, more at that time) than out of knowledge, he simply ordered me to shut up and asked me again. Duck voice, how much time do you have here? Responding, well almost eight months. He without hesitation told me, look why you are not taking advantage of your time more and instead of counting how many mice, they eat the mazacuatas (boas) you help me to carry out some studies that give us the answers to the questions I asked you. Putting my pride aside and having earned my respect and admiration in a single talk, I decided to support him. And you know one thing this was what we achieved (if my memory serves me correctly):
- Through a study of " Tourist Cargo Capacity", we were able to determine that the visitation impact to the PNT was only limited to 35 square kilometers, counting the access road, the administrative area and the central ruins, leaving for my little snakes (as Cesar would say) 541 square kilometers of ecosystems almost without any type of ecological disturbance; We carry out a 100% census of tourist and ecotourism guides, being able to establish: a. That for the year 1992, 170 families (1,360 people) depended directly on the earnings from guide activities; b. 130 families (1,040 people) depended on support activities such as service to hotels, restaurants, and transportation; c. That 9 communities counting Flores, San Benito and Santa Elena depended on the visitation to Tikal because 98% of the 576,000 visitors (average 1989 to 1992) its main (and almost only) point of interest was the visit to Tikal; That the average income in 1992 for guide activities was an average of $ 500.00 (American dollars) / month, 300% above the monthly minimum wage approved for Guatemala in that year; but we also got incessant data like d. That 70% of tourist and ecotourism guides gave erroneous data on the archaeological and natural characteristics of the AP on purpose or due to lack of training. We carried out a census of visits to the PNT for a period of six months, doing random interviews with tourists national and international, among the results that I can remember, I will mention: a. That they visited Tikal since it brought together natural and archaeological beauty in the same territory; b.That they did not have appropriate paths to observe natural beauty; c. That the information provided in the printed materials and by the tour guides was scarce and of very poor quality; d. That they would not mind paying at that time (1992) up to an amount of $ 20.00 international and Q. 30.00 national, for the entrance to the PNT if it provided a quality service; and. That they did not know the results of ecological studies of the PNT. It is evaluated through a survey of key and educational actors, on the perception of the PNT, the results were disastrous: a. 90% of those surveyed did not have an acceptable perception of the PNT; b. 100% of technical and university students indicated that having the PNT did not yield any type of academic benefit,since the scientists did the research and left without making it known, and that when the scientists decided to make the research known, they provided it in another language and if they provided it in Spanish they were almost incompressible; c. That despite the income that the PNT had in financial resources, the management conditions were precarious. A technical, administrative and financial evaluation of the PNT was carried out: a. It was assessed that the level of knowledge of the Resource Guardians was not optimal but it was quite acceptable; b. That the administrator of that time (Roger Chi Ochaeta) possessed the technical and administrative capacities to manage theThat despite the income that the PNT had in financial resources, the management conditions were precarious. A technical, administrative and financial evaluation of the PNT was carried out: a. It was assessed that the level of knowledge of the Resource Guardians was not optimal but it was quite acceptable; b. That the administrator of that time (Roger Chi Ochaeta) possessed the technical and administrative capacities to manage theThat despite the income that the PNT had in financial resources, the management conditions were precarious. A technical, administrative and financial evaluation of the PNT was carried out: a. It was assessed that the level of knowledge of the Resource Guardians was not optimal but it was quite acceptable; b. That the administrator of that time (Roger Chi Ochaeta) possessed the technical and administrative capacities to manage the
PNT; c. That the PNT had as entry $ 3,438,000.00 (Dl.
Americans) / annual, for tickets and payment of services to hotels, restaurants and tour operators, but which were transferred to a common fund where they were difficult to access; d. That despite financial limitations, the PNT had an adequate number of vehicles, personnel, infrastructure, etc.
- Considering the five previous results, the technical and research team decided to develop three lines of work: a. An environmental interpretation and education plan, which to date is used in the PNT, making known the information from 60 years of archaeological research and 40 of biological research, the subcomponent of environmental education achieved the incorporation of gaps in its tools to the primary education curriculum of the Peten communities; b. A reorganization and training plan for ecotourism guides, forming the "Association of Resource Guardians and Ecotourist Guides" as well as a program within the "Guatemalan Tourism Institute" (INGUAT) for the training and technical endorsement of Ecotourism Guides,integrating to the staff of the PNT a person permanently who would supervise and update the members of the Association (I know that to date it follows the same scheme and has even been strengthened); and c. The development of an “Environmental Fund” from PNT income, to strengthen the management of the PNT itself and other protected areas, a struggle that Cesar Aguilar Cumes continued until his death, achieving what is now known as the “Guatemalan Fund for Environment ”(FOGUAMA), which in addition to attracting and managing part of the funds from the PNT's income, seeks international financing and special taxes (environmental compensation).The development of an "Environmental Fund" from the income of the PNT, to strengthen the management of the PNT itself and other protected areas, a struggle that Cesar Aguilar Cumes continued until his death, achieving what is now known as the "Guatemalan Fund for Environment ”(FOGUAMA), which in addition to attracting and managing part of the funds from the PNT's income, seeks international financing and special taxes (environmental compensation).The development of an “Environmental Fund” from PNT income, to strengthen the management of the PNT itself and other protected areas, a struggle that Cesar Aguilar Cumes continued until his death, achieving what is now known as the “Guatemalan Fund for Environment ”(FOGUAMA), which in addition to attracting and managing part of the funds from the PNT's income, seeks international financing and special taxes (environmental compensation).seeks international financing and special taxes (environmental compensation).seeks international financing and special taxes (environmental compensation).
Thus, by defending my little trees and snakes (as Cesar said), I was able to achieve my first "lessons learned" in planning, management and administration of protected areas:
- Many times (if not the majority), we plan the protected areas without considering the communities that may be affected by integrating them within their territorial limits or in the near periphery, limiting their actions and survival strategies (something that the ILO tried to correct through Convention 169, which is signed and ratified by the Dominican Republic); That pure ecologists or biologists, must on many occasions to achieve the protection and conservation of ecosystems sacrifice some areas (such as 35 square kilometers) to achieve gain physical spaces with little or no human alteration (541 square kilometers); That research directed to the development of planning in "Protected Areas", You must not only consider the ecological and / or biological aspects, we must delve into social, economic, demographic and organizational structures.The most important thing about ecological and / or biological research is not the results, but to transmit them in an understandable and that these are valued to encourage conservation and protection in the general population; That it is important to provide tools that generate a better level of "quality" to the services they offer within and on the periphery of protected areas; yThat to achieve the protection of the natural resources contained in the ecosystems found in the protected areas, it is necessary not only research and writing (a lot), but also the search for the necessary financing in the short, medium and long term.
