Aruba is on the Watch.

Alarm bells ring in tourist paradise

The tiny island of Aruba is a popular attraction for sun, sea worshippers
But officials worry about the effect on island's environment, Jen Ross reports

Jun. 10, 2006. 01:00 AM

JEN ROSS
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Oranjestad, Aruba—This Caribbean island nation's stunning turquoise waters, white sand beaches and romantic sunsets have lured tourists for decades. Its position outside the hurricane belt allows for a year-round influx, and the constant trade winds have made it a windsurfing, sailing and kite-skiing hotspot.

But in recent years, residents have begun questioning just how much tourism this tiny island (covering less than 200 square kilometres) can sustain, given its impact on the coastline. The local population of 100,000 has almost doubled since 1980. Meanwhile, tourism has grown sixfold, from some 200,000 tourists a year in 1985, to more than 1.2 million in 2005.

After years of emphasizing economic development, Aruba is now on a mission to protect its delicate coastal environment, both for — and from — its booming tourism industry.
Across the Caribbean, scientists have raised alarm bells about the increasing damage to coral reefs and the loss of marine life.

Byron Boekhoudt is a marine biologist and policy adviser to Aruba's minister of labour, culture and sport (which has control over parks). He says human contact has harmed corals and intense hotel development has reduced the population of seabirds, fish and sea turtles.

"Tourism keeps growing, while our beaches aren't projected to grow; in fact, some may be shrinking," says Boekhoudt, who blames cars and all-terrain vehicles for eroding sand dunes. Meanwhile, he says, car rental agencies entice tourists to drive on the dunes.

"We cannot keep selling, or prostituting, ourselves in that way," he says. "Here in Aruba, we built the hotels first and focused on bringing a lot of people, and now we are trying to play catch-up in terms of protecting the environment."

After years of neglect, several Caribbean islands are now jumping on the environmental bandwagon. Aruba has made major strides, and is now in the midst of launching an ambitious plan to protect its delicate coastal waters and marine life. Dubbed "Coastal Zone Management," it would designate all of the island's national waters as a marine park.

Boekhoudt says Aruba's waters are now "a free-for-all" for boats, fishing and water sports. But through specific zoning changes, the government will create sanctuaries in areas with more complex ecosystems, making them off-limits to all human activity, with fines as enforcement.

To operate in specific places, water users will have to get permits, which can be revoked if the users don't comply with environmental standards. Permits will also allow the government to control the number of tour boats, and the government also plans to introduce standardized training for catamaran and scuba diving tour operators.

There will also be more regular beachfront cleanups, using schoolchildren and volunteers instead of paid janitors.

It's a way of expanding the prized Reef Care Initiative of the Aruban Tourism Authority (ATA), which includes a yearly public cleanup of the waters and beaches, as well as school visits to raise awareness about the need to protect the island's precious marine environment. The government will also organize slogan and poster-painting contests to help raise awareness in schools.

"As a diver, I used to see beer bottles and plastic cups, and that's where I got the inspiration," says Castro Perez, ecotourism project manager for the ATA.

Perez says each year there is less garbage to collect. He recalls how a Swedish photographer once came to shoot a magazine cover of Perez collecting garbage underwater for a feature story, but the cleanups were so successful, he says the photographer couldn't find any garbage, so he planted fake litter for the shoot.

`We cannot keep selling, or prostituting, ourselves in that way'
Byron Boekhoudt, Aruban biologist

Perez says dive operators have also helped by cleaning up garbage whenever they are on a dive, and by educating tourists that they cannot touch the corals. The Reef Care Project has the Aruba Watersports Association onboard, and it has created 21 specially designated ocean docking sites for ships to moor.

Aruba has also begun protecting corals with artificial reefing, by sinking treated ships, buses and airplanes, which have become tourist attractions that divert traffic away from the delicate coral reefs themselves. They also attract sponges and spawn new marine life.

Coastal Zone Management also includes initiatives on land, such as a $17.8 million project to create a new park and bike paths stretching 22 kilometres from the airport to the high-rise hotel area around Eagle Beach.

"There is movement but very slow movement," says Shanty Gould, a Greenpeace activist and member of Aruba's main non-governmental environmental agency, Stima.

"If we were an underdeveloped country that is just starting to get tourism, then it might be acceptable, but considering how much tourism we have, I think we should be ashamed."
Gould says the government has been too lax in enforcing environmental standards on the island's oil refinery, which she calls an eyesore on one of the most beautiful parts of the island.
Meanwhile, she says the government continues to allow the hotel industry to expand. Five hotels are enlarging this year and two new hotels are being built downtown.

Local conservationists blame hotel growth for reducing nesting habitats for endangered sea turtles.

"When they hatch at night, all sea turtles go toward the brightest spot, which is normally the sea," explains Edith van der Wal of the Turtugaruba Foundation. "But where you have a lot of tourism, you have lots of artificial lights ... so they go the wrong direction. We found many hatchlings dead before they could reach the sea."

Van der Wall is one of 25 volunteers who set up barricades around sea turtle nesting sites on the beaches until the eggs hatch. Hotels call her group when they see females laying eggs. Some also call if they notice the eggs hatching.

"That's marvellous because they shut off the lights," van der Wal says. "But some hotels never can find the right switch."

She says she hopes Coastal Zone Management will give the government more power to halt or control beachfront development.

Still, not all hotels are keen to expand. Ewald Biemans owns the Bucuti Beach Resort Hotel, which targets environmental travellers. With about 100 rooms, it has made a point of staying small.

"We had the option of building 50 more rooms and we decided not to do it," Biemans says. Bucuti's use of solar power, filtered and recycled water, energy conservation technology, and a host of environmental initiatives has made it the eco-star of the island's hotels.

Biemans, who chairs the environmental committee for the Aruba Hotel and Tourism Association, says Aruba has done more in a few years than many other Caribbean destinations, but Coastal Zone Management will put Aruba way ahead of the pack.