Electronic Version, All Stories Copyrighted 1995. Planeta is available in both electronic and paper versions. It fills a relatively lonely niche in the English language by providing environmental and enviro tourism information regarding Latin America.
Feel free to copy this edition or reprint articles, but please inform me if you do so. I welcome your feedback, suggestions and literary contributions. Our next issue will appear in August, 1995 with a focus on environmental law in Latin America. Contact: Ron Mader, Publisher. (ronmader@aol.com and ron@txinfinet.com)
Also, if you'd like to be added to the mailing list, let me know. Financial contributions are nice, but optional for the email version. A more dynamic verision is available online, the newsletter at the web site http://www.txinfinet.com/mader/ecotravel/ecotravel.html.
El Planeta Platica (The Earth Speaks):
Eco Travels in Latin America
Volume 2, Number 2
Spring 1995
El Planeta Platica (The Earth Speaks) is brought to you from those globally-minded folks at Talking Planet in Austin, Texas. This newsletter is printed quarterly, bringing environmental information to travelers heading to Latin America.
Please support this effort at improving our hemispheric dialogue. Annual subscriptions are just $10. Planeta supporters contribute $50. Your literary contributions are welcome and rewarded. Want to advertise your connection to Latin America? Join a select and cherished club. Please ask for our rate sheet.
Everyday brings us closer together - whether we're ready for it or not. Let's crank up the North-South dialogue here on Turtle Island.
Ron Mader, Publisher
El Planeta Platica
P.O. Box 1044
Austin, TX 78767
E-mail: ron@txinfinet.com and ronmader@aol.com
Note: I also moderate the Mexico/Latin America conferences on Texas InfiNet, an Austin-based BBS accessible via telnet at 204.96.111.157 3000.
ELECTRONIC INDEX:
Bridges & Borders by Ron Mader
Summer Solstice at Sacsahuaman by Bernard Barken Kaufman
Costa Rica Makes the List by the Tropical Conservation Newsbureau
Alarm on Galapagos Marine Life by the World Conservation Union
Amazon Indians Evicted from Roraima by Daniel J. Shepard
Travel Notes: Chile, Sea of Cortes, Brazil and other places...
Guatemala News
La Cocina Latinoamericana: Picadillo by Melissa Biggs
Book Reviews: Sharing the Desert: the Tohono O'odham in History, Sharing the Desert, Environmental Codes of Conduct for Tourism.
Resources: Costa Rica map, Vientos publication list
Bridges & Borders
by Ron Mader
So, this is the virtual world.
In the two month's that Planeta has had its own Web site, information-seekers have made it one of the Internet's premier attractions. Now, we're not talking about anything on the scale of comet-crashing-Jupiter gifs, but Eco Travel in Latin America receives more than 1,000 visits a week. I'm happily surprised.
Some of the readers communicate directly with me. I've fielded numerous requests for contacts and information on everything from adventure tourism to Mexican media contacts. I'm eager to help. My thinking is that if I wanted this information five years ago, I have a responsibility of distributing it now.
A few months ago I attended a policy meeting in Bisbee, Arizona in which academics discussed the new information superstructure - or failed to discuss it in a meaningful way. It seems that university departments still want to have control over their libraries in a way made obsolete by the decentralized Internet.
We can pool our resources, provide online services in a way that compliments the activities of our neighbors. Unfortunately, academia is structured in a way that encourages departments and universities to compete for the same government or foundation dollar.
Thankfully, there are numerous exceptions to this rule. In my work along the U.S./Mexico border, I've been aided by the resourceful and cooperative university stars: Al Utton, Salvador Contreras, Mercedes de Uriarte, Stephen Mumme and Robert Varady to name a few.
In a more perfect world, information from seminars and workshops would be synopsized online - in real time, not three-to-four months down the road. Monterrey Tech (ITESM) would have more accessible windows than not. The UT system would have its NAFTA experts online (as does Texas A&M) and generally speaking, more resources would be available for the compiling and editing of Latin American news services.
Of course, one of the biggest drawbacks to Information-Wants-To-Be-Free is the Need-To-Have-An-Income. I probably post about 20% of what I actually write. Reason? Charity doesn't pay the rent. So I understand if universities or NGOs don't want to bring online publications they hope to sell in the marketplace.
We have to be more creative. The Internet allows the publication and retrieval of a small newsletter such as Planeta as well as the ELAN and US_MEXBORDER listservs. My advice to us all - let's work together and figure out what we can accomplish both in the long-term as well as in the next three months. The times demand flexibility, not elitism nor cliques. If we can cross this border, we have it made.
Summer Solstice at Sacsahuaman
by Bernard Barken Kaufman
The Inca were the best planners of the South American pre-Columbians and were builders par excellence. By far, the most impressive work left behind by the Inca was their fine stone-fitted architecture.
In this they were innovators and had no equal in Latin America. Instead of using adobe brick, as did the Moche, the Chim£ and the Nazca, they constructed everything of stone - immense, extremely heavy, smoothly shaped gray-blue stone, precisely cut from large boulders and painstakingly hauled to the construction sites.
The means by which they build the trapezoidal walls for their living quarters, storage facilities and temples with stone which individually weighed up to 50 metric tons, and measured 20 feet square, is yet to be fully explained.
How these were transported is not exactly known, nor how they were set in place, nor how they fitted one stone to another, so precisely that s sheet of paper cannot be inserted between them - all this without the use of mechanical lifting devices and without mortar.
The capital of the Inca world was Cuzco, which in the Quecha language means the navel, or in a manner of speaking, the center of the universe. It was actually a hub for the famous network of Inca roads.
Cuzco today is a functional Andean city, 12,000 feet above sea level, with all of the Inca structures standing and with some of them converted to modern use.
The Coricancha, the Temple of the Sun, is in the heart of the city and upon its Inca stone foundations the Spaniards build a cathedral which has stood for 500 years and is still in use. The city was built in the form of a jaguar with the fortress of Sacsahuaman as its head.
Now, 500 years after the conquest of the Inca empire, the Quecha-speaking people of Cuzco still celebrate the arrival of the summer solstice. Each year, in the early cold morning hours of the 21st of June, the men, women and children of Cuzco and its surrounding areas, dressed in colorful alpaca wool ponchos and knitted earflap hats, gather together at Sacsahuaman.
(This fortress) covers a vast plain which served the Inca as an arena and the setting for the many religious ceremonies ordered by the emperor and supervised by the priests. The main entrance through the walls of Sacsahuaman was constructed with a trapezoidal doorway set into the huge stones, beneath which the people passed on their way to the observation areas.
Invariably the sun arrives at 6:00 A.M. and it appears right in the middle of the trapezoidal entrance way. The Inca precisely calculated the construction of the doorway at the exact spot above the astern horizon where the sun makes its dramatic appearance.
It rises quickly, bursting above the stone doorway, sends its rays over the entire floor of Sacsahuaman and then climbs and paints the facing of the stones, lighting up the colorful garments of the people, the platforms decorated with flowers and dried corn, and brightly reflecting off brass musical instruments.
Soon, one of the elders places a large conch shell to his lips, and blows three, loud, mournful notes, calling for the start of the ceremonies - the sun has been reborn.
Reprinted with permission from the book, Who Were the Pre-Columbians? by Bernard Barken Kaufman, New World Art, Inc., P.O. Box 3486, NC 28374.
Costa Rica Makes the List
provided by the Tropical Conservation Newsbureau
Tourism is now Costa Rica's leading source of foreign income, garnering $650 million in 1994 from 785,000 visitors. Most travelers want to get close to the country's natural wonders, so ecotourism development is booming... along with ecotourism scams.
"Some lodge owners in this country say their hotels are ecotourism models, but can't defend that claim," says Anne Becher, author of the popular travel guide, The New Key to Costa Rica.
With help from environmentalists and tourism officials, Becher designed a rating system based on "local, Costa Rican reality." According to the criteria, true eco-lodges should have minimum impact on the environment, provide economic support to the local community and promote the native culture.
The eco-raters surveyed hotels whose owners use the concept of nature tourism in their promotional brochures, own a nearby reserve, or offer tours to parks. Of the 90 lodges inspected, 45 received scores high enough be on the New Key to Costa Rica list.
Marianela Pastor, owner of Hotel Las Tortugas, which made the coveted list, believes the survey can have a positive impact on the growing tourism industry. "Now tourists can support Costa Rica's ecology by choosing hotels on the list," she says. "Lodge owners not on the list have an economic incentive to change their practices."
Honduras Ignores Park Status
provided by the Tropical Conservation Newsbureau
HONDURAS - One of Central America's largest parks is a United Nations Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site and named in the international Ramsar Convention which safeguards critical wetlands. But none of these official designations has stopped Honduras President Carlos Reina from exposing the Rio Platano Reserve to an invasion by 20,000 families.
Reina plans to settle the farmers in the Sico and Paulaya river valleys, which border the 1.3 million-acre Rio Platano reserve in northeastern Honduras. The serve joins two other Honduras parks and the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve in Nicaragua to form the largest biological corridor in Central America. It protects hundreds of endangered plants and wildlife species and is home to three indigenous tribes: the Peche, Misquito and Garifuna.
"Ecological worries must not deter a country's development," Reina proclaimed, ignoring evidence that the forest is one of the country's main economic assets and shrugging off legislation that protects the zone. Indigenous groups and conservationists oppose the president's plan to open the region to colonists, who will cut and burn forest in order to plant subsistence crops and cattle pasture.
The nonprofit group Mosquitia Pawisa (MOPAWI) opposed the incursion of more colonists without the required land tenure and environmental impact studies. "The river valleys are relatively small areas, just 61,000 acres, most of which is already populated," says executive director Osvaldo Munguia. "The new migrants will not find any available land there, but would have to invade the nearby protected areas."
Lighthawk, the "environmental airforce" based in New Mexico, recently flew Munguia over the area, revealing that colonists have already penetrated the reserve and cleared expanses of forest. "Natural areas can provide much more economically than the yield from cutting trees to plant basic grains," Munguia says. "The Rio Platano reserve is immensely rich in the archeology of unknown civilizations. The potential for ecotourism is enormous."
According to MOPAWI, the government has repeatedly denied land tenure to the 40,000 indigenous residents of the region.
Gland, Switzerland, March 31 - A group of international experts from several major environmental organizations met today at the Swiss headquarters of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) to sound the alarm about the survival of marine life in the Galapagos Islands, in particular, concerning the inadequate management of the Marine Resource Reserve created there by the Government of Ecuador in 1986.
The waters of this Ecuadorian archipelago, termed a "Natural Laboratory of Evolution", support a wide array of native species, including twenty-seven varieties of sharks - among them a rare hammerhead - and the world's only marine lizard. But this endemic richness is rapidly being depleted by the commercial overfishing of sharks, lobsters and sea cucumbers exported to Asian markets.
During the round-table meeting in Gland, scientists from The World Conservation Union, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Charles Darwin Foundation underlined that unless fisheries are reoriented towards sustainable practices, Galapagos marine life would suffer irreversible damage, threatening in turn the tourist industry, a major source of hard currency for Ecuador.
Ecuador has asked the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to consider the Galapagos Marine Resources Reserve a candidate for the World Heritage List, that comprises outstanding cultural and natural sites around the world, the "crown jewels" of our inheritance. But in view of the current overexploitation of marine life in the area, the World Heritage Committee last December deferred the decision to include it on the list. Instead, according to Fernando Ghersi, IUCN's Latin America Area Coordinator "concerns over inadequacies in the management of the waters surrounding the islands have already led to suggestions that the Reserve should rather be considered for the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger."
Peter Kramer, Director of Network Development at WWF International said that "many tour operators in Europe and the United States are standing up and sending notes of protest to the Ecuadorian government, since the well-being of their industry is directly linked to the pristine quality of the marine environment of the Galapagos National Park." Income from the over 60,000 tourists that visit the Galapagos annually is reportedly much higher than that from commercial fishing operations.
Craig MacFarland, President of the Charles Darwin Foundation, a member of IUCN, noted that "despite an official ban by Ecuadorian Government, thousands of fishermen are currently harvesting sea cucumbers and disrupting the marine ecosystem, since cucumbers play a vital role in recycling nutrients and serve as food for other sea life. If nothing is done the likely scenario will be that other resources will be overexploited leaving local fishermen without their traditional stock to fish".
A World Conservation Union technical team, with the support of scientists at the University of Guam and representatives of Ecuador's National Fisheries Institute (INP), found, in April 1993, that some populations of sea cucumbers had been completely fished out at certain locations. The team added that at the reported level of current exploitation, the species would be wiped out in four or five years.
The union's report recommends that fisheries in the waters of Galapagos remain closed and proposes integrated management of the marine area, with clear lines of responsibility and authority laid out to enforce regulations. It also asks that local communities be encouraged to actively participate in making their fisheries sustainable through an effective educational program.
"With some financial and technical support from the international community, Ecuadorian authorities could use existing resources to enforce the rules that protect the marine reserve", noted Craig MacFarland. "However as a first step to save the area, an international mission of experts should be formed this year to gather data and produce an accurate assessment of the site's current state" concluded the President of the Charles Darwin Foundation.
For additional information or interviews, please contact The World Conservation Union, 28 rue Mauverney, 1196 Gland, Switzerland, Phone (41 22) 999 01 15.
Amazon Indians Evicted from Roraima
by Daniel J. Shepard/Earth Times News Service
BRAZIL - Amazon Indians are being forcibly evicted from their lands in the Brazilian state of Roraima in order to clear the way for a hydroelectric dam, according to groups supporting indigenous people.
The Pro-Indian Commission of Sao Paulo and the Indigenous Council of Roraima issued a statement saying that on January 7, 50 Roraima Military Police officers, accompanied by seven Brazilian soldiers, expelled 400 Macuxi Indians, including women, children, and elders, from their community of Carapuru II and destroyed their livestock. A second invasion occurred on January 14, and there are reports that 12 Indians were beaten, 2 seriously.
The state government of Roraima has pushed plans to go ahead with a Cotingo River Hydroelectric Dam at a site that is considered well within lands that have been set aside for the Indians, despite the fact that they have not received the necessary authorization from the Brazilian government to proceed. Under Brazilian law, it is also necessary to consult with indigenous peoples before proceeding with projects on their lands. The national electric power company has advised against building the project.
The Macuxi occupied the dam work site in order to halt construction, fearing that the dam would flood their fields, kill fish, and clear the way for major agribusinesses to take over their lands.
Glen Switkes, of International Rivers Network, a non-governmental organization, said meetings have been held between the Brazilian Attorney General and indigenous leaders, and the Attorney General said he would start legal action to remove the police from the area.
Switkes, who called Roraima an "outlaw state" consisting of a high concentration of gold miners, said it was unclear whether Roraima had sufficient financing in place to build the dam, and said this "may all be posturing." He said, "The state government wants to defacto overturn Brazil's Indian policy. They feel the Indians are in the way and they want to force the issue."
This story was provided by the EnviroNews Service, a project of the EnviroLink Network. Phone: 412-268-7187; Fax: 412-268-7036; Email: newsdesk@envirolink.org. Archives for the EnviroNews List are available at http://www.envirolink.org/archives/enews/
Travel Notes
compiled by Ron Mader
GUATEMALA - The Ruta Gucamaya is a cooperative project of ProPetÄn, a local non-governmental organization, and rural communities in The PetÄn of northern Guatemala. This ecologically sensitive trip is strategically developed to generate alterantive sources of income for the local population. Its success will help protect the endangered Scarlet Macaw and stop the advance of the agricultural frontier within the Maya Biosphere Reserve.
For information, contact:
Ñ Greg Ringer, Recreation, Tourism Management & Design Program
University of Oregon
872 Polk St.
Eugene, OR 97402 USA
Phone: (503) 345-8545
FAX: (503) 346-3595
E-mail: gringer@oregon.uoregon.edu
Ñ ProPetÄn
Flores, PetÄn
GUATEMALA
Phone: 502-9-501 370
FAX: 502-9-500 495
COSTA RICA - Paying volunteers are sought for the 40th annual green turtle tagging project at Tortuguero, Costa Rica, July 15-September 2, 1995. Research and monitoring activities consist of daily beach surveys, tagging, collection of biometric data and determination of egg clutch survival.
One and two week openings are available, costing $1,570 and $1,890 respectively. The fee covers round-trip airfare from Miami, food, accommodations and the cost of the research project. The project is sponsored by the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC), a not-for- profit organization and much of the fee is tax-deductible.
Scientists and volunteers will be housed at the CCC's Tortuguero Biological Field Station. Tortuguero is a remote roadless area on the coast, at the edge of a wet tropical rain forest, criss-crossed by rivers and streams. Access is by boat or plane. The field station is located adjacent to the small village of Tortuguero and the 20,000 hectare Tortuguero National Park.
In addition to working with the turtles, volunteers will have the opportunity to meet the residents of a typical Caribbean coastal community and go on day-trips, organized by field station staff, to explore the rain forest and other landscapes of the northern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
For more information, reservations and group discounts, please contact Caroline Reiners, Tortuguero Coordinator, Caribbean Conservation Corporation, P. O. Box 2866, Gainesville, Florida 32602, USA. Phone: (904) 373-6441; fax: (904) 375-2449; email: creiner@ccc.org.
NORTHERN MEXICO - Ajo Stage Line tours offers natural and cultural tours within the Sonoran Desert. Although summer is a poor time to introduce this fine service, I'll recommend interested travelers to contact Bill Nelson at 800-942-1981. Some of the Ajo tours include: Rocky Point, Pinacate Volcanoes and the Kino Missions.
SEA OF CORTES - Clipper Cruise Line offers sightseeing trips in the Sea of Cortes. While not eco tours, they are environmentally responsible voyages which "minimize the conflict between tourism development and the natural environment." The May 8 voyage is completely full and a second trip is planned for November 13. Contact Clipper Cruises at 7711 Bonhomme Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63105. Phone: 800-325-0010
MEXICO - If you want to partake of an "ecotrip," contact EcoGrupos de Mexico, Insurgentes Sur 1971, Loc. 251, 01020 Mexico, D.F.. Trips include excursions to Huhuecoytotl, Bosques de Michoacan (Mariposa Monarca), and Cuetzalan. Phone: (011-52-5) 661-9121; Fax: (011-52-5) 662-7354
COPPER CANYON - Mexico's Tourism Secretariat SECTUR has begun to link tourism projects on the Sea of Cortes with Copper Canyon. A media blitz this spring brought attention to the refurbished Copper Canyon train trip. Unfortunately, little has been said about the protection of natural or cultural resources. Your input on these topics is greatly appreciated.
CHILE - Take part in Global Exchanges delegation and learn who is really
benefiting from the "booming economy." A tour is planned for September 7-21. Meet with NGOs, Church leaders, and a human rights group. Visit an agricultural school, a factory, an indigenous community, and a cooperative. For more information please contact Global Exchange. Phone: 800-497-1994; Fax: 415-255-7498; Email: globalexch@igc.org.
BRAZIL - Amizade provides short volunteer vacations that combine community service, environmental understanding and recreation. Two 15-day trips to the Amazon region of Santarem, Brazil will be offered in July. Group sizes for each session range from 10 to 16 participants.
Community service projects include the construction a workshop for handicapped children. Other service projects include building a playground for a day care center and planting trees at a forest preserve. Recreational activities include boating down the Amazon, hiking through the jungle, spending a day at beach town, attending a voodoo ceremony, fishing, swimming and canoeing in dugout canoes.
Volunteers stay in a dormitory, and Amizade provides all meals. Volunteers do not need any special skills, just a willingness to serve. The cost of this trip is $2,800. For more information contact Daniel Weiss, 1334 Dartmouth Lane, Deerfield, IL 60015 USA. Phone: (800) 484-9722, ext. 5931; fax: (708) 945-5676; email: weis0076@maroon.tc.umn.edu.
Service Civil International (SCI), an international peace and justice
organization, with a history of 75 years. One of the main goals of this
movement is to break down barriers and stereotypes which may exist
between people and cultures. Work camps generally last 2-4 weeks, and take place all over the world.
Volunteers provide their own transportation to the work camp and pay a registration fee to the branch that sends them. However once on the
work camp, all food, accommodation, and insurance is covered.
For more information on SCI, send email to Barbara Kavanaugh at kavana@u.washington.edu.
La Olla Latinoamericana: Picadillo
By Melissa Biggs
The Carlos Gardel Restaurant used to be on Columbia Street in Washington, D.C. My parents took us there after Sunday excursions to the Smithsonian, or Saturday shopping trips. We often stayed for hours, my parents chatting with the owner and whoever else dropped by, my brother, sister, and I chasing around the wooden chairs and tables. I remember it as dim and somewhat stuffy.
Until I prepared the reception food for the recent wedding of our friends, Phil and Janet, my memories of the Carlos Gardel remained in an equally dim and stuffy place. I made various sorts of empanadas (turnovers). As I filled what seemed to be the 500th picadillo empanada, I suddenly thought of the Gardel.
When our interest in running around the place waned, my dad always placed an order for another round of empanadas de picadillo. I adored them, and my brother and sister stayed busy picking out the raisins. Picadillo also appears as a filling for tacos and chiles rellenos, or served plain, with rice.
2 lbs. lean ground beef
1 small onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
1 medium potato, diced
1 small bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 small, tart apple, such as Granny Smith, cored and diced
16 oz. can crushed or diced tomatoes,
or three fresh tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 or 2 minced fresh jalapeno or serrano peppers
1/2 c. raisins--I prefer golden raisins
1/4 c. pimiento stuffed olives, cut in half
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. crumbled oregano
1/4 c. slivered almonds
olive oil
Brown the beef with the onions, potato, and garlic in a skillet. When thoroughly brown, add all of the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the almonds. Stir, and cook for twenty minutes. As the meat mixture cooks, heat a small, heavy skillet over a low flame. Pour in just enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the heated skillet.
When the oil releases its fragrance, add the almonds. Stir fry until golden. Remove the pan from heat, and drain the almonds briefly on paper towels. Sprinkle the almonds into the meat mixture, and serve.
If you want to make empanadas, mix up a batch of your favorite pie crust dough, and roll it out. Cut circles 3"-5" in diameter. Fill each circle with 3-4 tsps. of picadillo. Pinch the edges of the circles together to seal, prick lightly once or twice with the tines of a fork, and brush with a light coating of egg white. Bake at 375 until pale gold, about 25-30 minutes.
When Janet's dad tried the picadillo empanadas at the wedding, he said they tasted just like the Cornish meat pies, called pasties, that his family made when he was a boy. Empanadas are wonderful appetizers or food-on-the run, since you eat them straight from your hands. Plus, they freeze well.
Guatemala News: Job Offer
The Bio Itza Committee and the EcoLogic Development Fund seek an archeology student for this unique opportunity to survey and map part of the Peten with the Itza people. EcoLogic works to reduce destruction of significant tropical ecosystems by advancing economic development and self-determination among local communities in threatened habitats.
Those interested in applying must be fluent in Spanish, willing to live with the Itza for at least two-three months, have a demonstrated knowledge of archeology and mapping and be able to conduct the study in 1995.
EcoLogic will work with student to obtain research funding. The Bio Itza Committee with provide student with room and board. The student is responsible for additional personal expenses. For information, contact Shaun Paul at EcoLogic, P.O. Box 3405, Cambridge, MA 02238-3405. Phone: (617) 441-6300 ; Fax: (617) 441-6363; Email ecologic@igc.org.
Guatemala News: Rainforest For Sale
The Nature Conservancy working with Defensores de la Naturaleza is helping to protect the cloud forests of Sierra de las Minas. These forests are one of the last refuges of the quetzal, Guatemala's national bird. More than 800 other species of mammals, reptiles and birds also make their home here. Two thirds is privately owned. Nature Conservancy will help Defensores to purchase the 250,000 acre reserve.
To help, purchase an acre of Guatemalan rain forest for $35 contribution. Call 1-800-84-ADOPT (1-800-842-3678). Deeds will be issued 7-10 days after placing an order.
Book Reviews
by Ron Mader
Last fall, Planeta devoted most of its November issue to the Sonoran Desert, the bioregion that crosses the U.S. Southwest and Mexico's Northwest. Since that time two books have appeared which deserve a terrific readership.
Sharing the Desert: the Tohono O'odham in History
by Winston P. Erickson
Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994 $30
Finally. A readable, fascinating account of the O'odham people, cultivators of the Sonoran Desert. This book traces the history of this people through political invasions and cultural challenges. Commissioned as a text book for the Tohono O'odham school system, Sharing the Desert is a welcome addition, explaining how native culture is shaped by one's geographical homelands. Perhaps the text is a bit dry, but gems outweigh slow passages in this book.
Ñ Summer weather is extreme. Rarely does a gentle rainfall soak the ground over hours or days. Instead, storms crash in, cool the earth, and disperse. But the heat returns quickly, with temperatures up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Such extreme heat can last for weeks. (5)
Ñ The Spanish military was known for being extremely harsh with any who opposed it, and to some extent, the O'odham, as well as other Native Americans, benefited from the presence of the Jesuit fathers, who often acted as mediators between the O'odham and the military. It is likely that the military would have slaughtered many more rebels if the priests had not interceded. (25)
Ñ Only a few O'odham embraced the Catholic religion and lived on the missions. Most did not consider the missions permanent dwelling places, but came to the missions only for the planting and harvesting seasons or in times of need because the missions had surplus food and opportunities for work. (50)
Ñ The people who retained most of the native traditions were usually those who has been least influenced by the encroaching culture. They were the farthest removed from the towns, the least willing to change their ways and the last to be drawn into the educational system. (147-148)
Desert Legends: Re-storying the Sonoran Borderlands.
Stories by Gary Paul Nabhan
Photography by Mark Klett
New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1994, $45
One of the most beautiful books reflecting on the Sonoran Desert, Desert Legends brings together titans of prose and photography Sonoran residents Nabhan and Klett. But this is more than a coffee table gateway, it's a new call for conservation. Heed the lessons inside:
Ñ We've probably all read in some western history book how this land has been defined by its natural poverty, its aridity, so we don't expect much. Page after page has told us about waterless, treeless stretches of the desert, of its lousy capacity for supporting other lives, those of our kind in particular. At best, such books will grant that its presumed emptiness offers a stark, sterile beautify, one that's form-fit for postcards, calendars and posters. No wonder we carry in our heads a range of pictures that sweep out of sight any evidence that there are living, breathing homebodies down there in the Big Empty. Life has been airbrushed out of the picture, like so many scars and scratches on a bathing beauty's leg of leisure. If Nature has to be pretty as a pinup, most of us get left out of the scene. (3)
Ñ The hidden garden. There, amid the paloverde and mesquite, the bur sage and the barrel cacti, a prehistoric Hohokam crop had persisted at least half a millennium after being last tended. The same plant - the identical genetic stock that had been transplanted here in prehistoric times - had reproduced vegetatively on its own, clinging to the same terrace where it had been originally placed. Rick had discovered the hidden garden, a horticultural experiment so well adapted to the desert that it ultimately needed no human intervention to keep it going. (171)
Ñ We are learning of the need to restore not only the physical aspects of habitats but the cultural commitment to protect, to heal, to let the wildness of living communities continue to evolve. Like the Seri hunter-gatherer or the Sonoran farmer, we must be encouraged to listen, live and work like natives of our own particular homeland, and to pass that work on to the next generation. (193)
UN Considers Ecotourism Codes of Conduct
provided by UNEP
PARIS, 17 April 1995 - The Industry and Environment office of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has issued another in its series of Technical Reports -- this one dealing with Environmental Codes of Conduct for Tourism.
Over recent years, voluntary environmental codes of conduct have come to the fore as a new and promising tool to raise awareness of environmental issues and improve behavior and practices.
They provide an interesting complement to other tools such as regulations and economic instruments. Chapter 30 of Agenda 21 encourages business and industry "to adopt and report on the implementation of codes of conduct promoting best environmental practice".
Within the tourism sector, codes of conduct are now sufficiently numerous and widespread to warrant an interim review of their content, implementation and effectiveness.
The UNEP report is based on the results of a survey and analysis of existing codes developed by countries, industry associations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Highlights of the report include:
Ñ The objectives and benefits of voluntary codes of conduct;
Ñ Examples of environmental codes for the tourism industry, for host communities and for tourists;
Ñ Essential elements common to successful codes and some of the most common pitfalls;
Ñ Implementation and monitoring tools and programs currently in use to activate codes and monitor and report on performance.
To order a copy of Environmental Codes of Conduct for Tourism, ISBN 95-807-1-1470-8, UN Sales No. 95-III-D2, send $30 to UNEP Industry and Environment, UN Publications, Tour Mirabeau - 39-43, quai Andre Citroen CH-1211, Geneva 10, Switzerland.
Travel Resources
Everyone's favorite map distributor, Treaty Oak Maps, has released its new 1995 catalogue as well as the new 1995 Costa Rica Highway and Roads map for only $4.95. If you're traveling in Latin America, write to Treaty Oak at PO Box 50295, Austin, TX 78763-0295. Phone: 512-326-4141; Fax: 512-443-0973.
Vientos publishes various brochures of monographs and government documents throughout Latin America. Want to read about La Modalidad de Pandillerimso or San Luis Potosi en una epoca de cambio? Write to Vientos at PO Box 16176, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-6176. Email: vientos@vnet.net
The Austin, Texas-based Documentation Exchange has a publications list of social and environmental resources focusing on Latin America. Ask for their 1995 Catalogue. Documentation Exchange, PO Box 2327, Austin, TX 78768.
Travel Matters is Moon Publications' quarterly newsletter, providing travelers with timely, informative travel news and articles. The Winter 1995 issue focused on Mexico! To receive a free subscription, call (800) 345-5473 or e-mail travel@moon.com.
Copyright 1995: (ronmader@aol.com and ron@txinfinet.com)
