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Home , Bora Bora, Easter Island, Hiva Oa

by FRANCESCO DI CASTRI

The limits and the splendor of sophisticated definition, local inhabitants badly affects tourism, whether there is a sustainable development. and managers can easily and rapidly realize real economic return and welfare for local In spite of being so widely used, sustainable whether the four legs of the chair that populations from outside operations, where development is a rather debatable term and support sustainability – the economic, the the new expanding activities attract too many concept when applied in operational terms to large environmental, the social and the cultural migrants from other and cultures, areas and regions with badly defined boundaries, ones – are unequally developed, undermined and whether the societal system value is and to the interactions among too many economic and to what extent (di Castri 1995). collapsing. sectors (di Castri 2002 a). There are so many Economically, whether the flow of tourists Culturally, whether the local definitions and even opposite interpretations of is decreasing in quantity (both total number remains vigorous and represents really the this concept that – paradoxically – “it is now a of tourists and permanence in nights) or first mother tongue, and it is not learned term that inherently eludes definitions”. deteriorating in quality and return, whether later as a kind of foreign language. No local Nevertheless, nowhere else this concept can tourism concentration is becoming too culture is possible if it is not rooted in its be better applied for real operational activities seasonal, where other economic sectors own language. If this is not the case, even the and proper management than in small islands in the island (local agriculture, fisheries, mental representation and interpretation of and as regards tourism. If a solid theory and handicraft) are not backing and supporting facts and events are distorted. Neither quality practice on sustainable development would enough tourism activities. nor sustainable tourism is viable, if they are really emerge in the future – and this should Environmentally, whether coastal and not inserted in a genuine culture. Cultural be a must for continuing using this term – most erosion, degradation of coral reefs, pride, diversity and identity, to the extent that likely they will originate from research and , availability of freshwater, management carried out in these areas (di Castri use of energy (with special emphasis on Francesco di Castri is Director of et al. 2002 a, di Castri and Balaji 2002). renewable energy), transport, waste manage- Research at the National Center ment, land use (including urban planning), of Scientific Research of Inputs and outputs, of people (residents, (CNRS) in Montpellier, and leader new migrants, tourists), of capital and goods, invasions of alien species are taking too of the SCOPE/ICSU (International of resources and even of invasive species can serious adverse proportions. Council for Science) project on Environment in a Global Information be easily measured, detected and observed Socially, whether the gap between the rich Society (EGIS), in Paris. He has been Assistant in small islands. and the poor in the island increases, thus Director General of UNESCO, Paris, President of usually leading to increased criminality that the international research program DIVERSITAS Even in the absence of an accurate and on biodiversity, and is member of the Academies of Sciences of Italy and Russia. He has authored or co- Figure 1 Back in the horizon the emerging mountains of facing its “small sister” and its lagoon. authored some 40 books and more than 500 scientific Maupiti has adopted patterns of tourism development much more sustainable than those of Bora Bora. articles. E-mail: [email protected]

48 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ISLAND AFFAIRS 49 they do not lead to the rejection of the others produced catastrophic consequences on the phases by di Castri (2002 c). Tourism is – by and to a kind of naive, false and exclusive tourism of some small islands that were far – the economic sector that has been more genetic racism, provide local residents with considered to be wisely and sustainably reactive to this societal transition. the self-respect and self-recognition, and oriented. All the organization of tourism, the Let’s consider and enumerate, for instance, with the absence of preconceived prejudices marketing system in different parts of the the main causes that were leading to lack or sense of inferiority and dependence, that world, the cruiser tourism viability, and the of tourism or to unsustainable tourism in are the sine qua non for sustainable tourism. very raison d’être of too large resorts, had small islands, before this period. Admittedly, Among all economic sectors, tourism is the to be drastically reviewed (di Castri 2002 b). the case applies more to distant, remote or one that can only survive if it strictly applies A new paradigm for tourism sustainability underdeveloped and islands, such the principles of the trust economy. in small islands has accordingly emerged. as , , , Cap Vert, Given the paramount and growing impor- Tourism, to be sustainable, has to be early Maldives, Seychelles, part of Macaronesia, part tance of the cultural component of develop- reactive and adaptive to change. of the Baltic Islands, than to more advanced ment, it is somewhat strange that so little Second, when some segments of sustain- and fashionable Mediterranean and attention has been given so far to culture ability become to decline, such as too many islands or to the Canary Islands. as the key element for sustainability, even tourists not respectful toward the environ- Main causes and constraints were as in large international fora as the one in ment, criminality and tourist harassment, follows: Johannesburg last . excessive urbanization, cultural degradation 1. Isolation and fragmentation, thus under- All the above conditions can be easily and trivial uniformity, lack of trust and mining the possibility of appropriate detected even in the absence of the so-called control on quality and prices, tourism tends marketing and benchmarking, as well as indicators of sustainable development. In to initiate a progressively self-destroying that of organizing complex and diversified my own research and development on small cycle that is very difficult to be reverted. itineraries covering more than an island. islands, they have proved to be of little use. The number of tourists and the period of 2. Very often, too low population The most misleading indicator is probably permanence decrease, the level and the size in a given island for maintaining the that of carrying capacity (di Castri 2000). cultural interest of tourists are lowering, dynamic culture evolution, including its Comparisons among islands from Polynesia, prices are progressively collapsing, and own language, that is needed to keep and the Caribbean and the Mediterranean show discontinuation or bankrupt of several tourism valorize the local identity when newly that there are no linear relations between operations become unavoidable. opening to tourism. population size of residents and of tourists, 3. The impossibility for local inhabitants local natural resources, surface size and Tourism sustainability in the to initiate small tourism entrepreneurial sustainability. As an extreme example, the global information society. activities by themselves, not going through frequency of tourist visits, when considering It is often not sufficiently realized how much large tourism operators, to advertise and the size of the island, is some 150 times human society and its more or less sustainable marketing directly their tourism products, higher in Porquerolles and 240 times higher activities have changed during the last 15 to receive direct booking and to accept in Port-Cros (two French islands in the or so, during the transition from the payment by credit cards. Mediterranean ) than in industrial to the information, knowledge- 4. The impossibility to provide islanders (politically , geographically Polynesia). based society. This transition and the previous with appropriate education in their own Yet, the terrestrial and marine environment ones have been extensively illustrated in their language; even less, to ensure continuous of these two Mediterranean islands are well conserved, compared with Easter Island, where tourism and the environment are facing very serious problems of sustainability, embracing almost every aspect of island management. Sustainability does not depend just on inherent natural and demographic features, but – above all – on human know- how and cultural adaptation, distribution and diversification of space use, and the existence of appropriate service and infrastructure. Two last characteristics on tourism sustain- ability are explained below. Tourism is the most sensitive factor to outside, out-of- control events. For instant, the attack of 11 Figure 2 Francesco di Castri and his Polynesian assistant Sping Teupoohuitua at the top of the Teurafaatiu mountain of Maupiti, the most sustainable island of the entire Society (Autonomous Territory of September 2001 has almost immediately ).

50 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ISLAND AFFAIRS capacity-building on tourism matters. care through telematics, and database on 5. When there was tourism, this was then biodiversity. confined almost exclusively to large If small islands are – for reasons already international tourism operators, with often- discussed earlier - the best indicators of inappropriate resorts or large tourism global change and adaptation (or lack of camps. Economic return to local popula- adaptation) to change, this situation applies tion was low and based on dependence. – to different degrees – to all countries Contacts between tourists and residents and regions of the world. The transition were insufficient, inappropriate and biased. toward the global information society does They did not lead to interactions among not recognize boundaries. Nevertheless, cultures, mutual understanding and shar- globalization and international trade were ing aspirations and interests, that is the only a minor concern during the UN Rio very raison d’être of tourism – from a Summit in 1992 when the concept of sustain- cultural and social viewpoint – in a world able development was first approved (but so culturally fractured as it is the present discussions on it, with only some minor dif- one. ferences, went back up to the UN Stockholm Figure 3a The of Mataiva (Tuamotu Archipelago) At present, none of these five past con- with its unique reticulated net of coral reefs inside the Conference in 1972). Ten years after Rio, straints is still applicable. With the establish- lagoon, thus delimitating some 70 basins of turquoise last year (2002) in Johannesburg, sustainable water. Mataiva has the potential of developing the ment of the information society and the most sustainable tourism of the overall archipelago, to development has been mostly discussed new generation of information technology, the extent that mining exploitation and extraction of out of context of the ongoing information the most isolated and small islands sharing phosphates in the lagoon is prevented, including through society. Most discussions in Johannesburg international public pressure, given the uniqueness and similar culture and aspirations can be easily worldwide significance of its lagoon. have led to a feeling of strange alienation connected for cultural, educational and from the realities of the present world. Figure 3b The excellent, healthy status of the coral reefs economic purposes. An impressive cultural in the lagoon of Mataiva. Again, it is desirable that research and Renaissance of local and art development in small islands, more focused expressions is taking place, with special particularly at a small scale and with the in space and more reactive to today realities, emphasis on Polynesia (Tahitian, Marqui- involvement of local populations. can help improving operational knowledge sian, Rapanui languages), and local identi- Particularly relevant is the alphabetization and practice on sustainable development ties are strengthened. Continuous e-learning for development. Alphabetization (mostly in general. provides unprecedented possibilities for through e-learning) consists of making education, capacity-building and training. people aware of the two new languages There is a blooming of tourism micro- that dominate the present world: the digital enterprises, often at a family level, often language and digital information provided accompanied and backed by agriculture, by the new generation of computers and fisheries and pearl culture. With an attractive information technology as a product of web site for advertisement, in order to cultural evolution, and the genetic language provide information and receive booking for and genetic information provided by biodi- accommodation, and with a small number of versity and biotechnology as a product of simple but appropriate housing, it is possible biological evolution. Being illiterate in to initiate small-scale tourism activities in these two languages, most development islands where this was considered impos- opportunities are lost, not even envisaged sible to be achieved, even only a few years or perceived by people (di Castri 2003 b). ago (di Castri 2003 a). Possibility for local, distant populations Even during the tourism crisis after 11 to master such languages is surprisingly September 2001, small tourism operators and rapid and easy. family micro-enterprises resisted better, and di Castri et al. (2002 b) discuss and provided a greater diversification of activities, review the main applications of information than large operators and resorts. technology to tourism sustainability in Concepts and practices as those of digital islands, going from better management and Figure 4 Hiva Oa (Marquises Islands). The emblematic islands, e-learning and Grid Technologies, marketing, innovation in organizational pat- of Takaii, under a giant breadfruit tree (Artocarpus). VIAD (Virtual Institute for Alphabetization , enhancement of biological and cultural Archaeological site of Lipona (Oipona), near Paumau. for Development) are becoming familiar – diversity, application of high performance Takaii, sculpted on keetu, a red volcanic , is the tallest tiki of Polynesia (2.67 m), not considering the at present - for tourism viable development, tools, capacity-building, better health of Easter Island.

50 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ISLAND AFFAIRS 51 The three main conditions for Figure 5 Hiva Oa, , Marquises Islands. The tomb of (called Koke by the Marquisians), dead tourism sustainability in small in Atuona in 1903, under a fragrant tree of frangipani islands. called locally “tipanier” (Plumeria), and a reproduction On theoretical, and – above all – empirical of his statue (“The Wild”). evidence, conditions of tourism sustainability in small islands can be found when the following three conditions are met, at least to a reasonable extent. based, decentralized approach, which is 1. Empowerment of the local people and the largely facilitated by new tools of the emergence of their entrepreneurial capac- information technology. ity. They are the only actors capable of 3. Diversification of tourism activities them- meeting their aspirations for development selves, and as placed in the context of with their concern for conservation of economic diversification of other sectors. their culture, their environment and their A tourism “monoculture” would be too biodiversity. Conservation of cultural and risky in the current unpredictable society, natural heritage should be considered and would not ensure per se conditions of as a dynamic and continuously adaptive sustainability. All aspects of cultural diver- and evolving process, and not a simple sity (both the tangible and the intangible Local empowerment preservation of the status quo, or of a facets, language, traditions, system values) Out of the three boxes of sustainability, hypothetical status quo ante. and of biological diversity (from genes described below, I will only give some more 2. Connectivity among all stakeholders con- to species, to ecosystems and landscapes) consideration to local empowerment, since cerned, from local populations to potential should be considered under this item. it represents the essential condition. With tourists, tourism operators and environmen- no empowerment, it would be impossible tal managers. Aspects of in situ social A more detailed characterization of condi- to reach the conditions of connectivity and cohesion and connection, as well those of tions for tourism sustainability in small islands diversification. international marketing and benchmarking – a checklist to be monitored in a comparative Indeed, empowerment of people is the key are equally important, going from the local way - is given as follows. They shape three factor. It is based on the renewed awareness to the global scale. This implies a network- blocks, with seven pillars in each one of them. and pride on the universal value of their culture and environment. Empowerment enables the local people to become actors • Access to bi-directional digital information and operators of tourism activities, so that • Capacity-building, including distance learning LOCAL • Cultural pride and memory of traditions. Cultural revival (local language, arts, folklore) the generation of economic wealth primarily EMPOWERMENT • Sense of identity, based on cultural and natural heritage benefits local societies. Together with the • Acceptation, receptivity and adaptation to innovation and change • Entrepreneurial capacity and potential of local people access to information, empowerment is Administrative conditions of autonomy • promoted by opportunities for lifelong • All elements of the community system in close interaction and cooperation among themselves distance learning and capacity-building, and • Ability of the community to establish connections with other islands, development of tourism-related skills. and opening up to the global international tourism • Enlargement of market place, channels of distribution and advertisement, This process can foster cross-cultural CONNECTIVITY marketing and benchmarking capacity exchanges approached with appropriate • Transport facilities (by air and by sea, also internal in archipelagos) sensitivity. Moreover, isolated populations • Telephone, Internet and fax communications. Use and acceptance of credit cards • Conditions of security and safety in the island sharing the same culture can be connected • Infrastructures, mostly for medical care, including tele-medecine facilities through digital communication tools, so that • Diversity of tourism uses (beach tourism, diving and snorkeling, trekking and land sports, horse riding, they can reach a critical size for diversifica- ecotourism, agrotourism, cultural and archaeological tourism) tion of tourism products and services. In • Appropriate daily and seasonal distribution of tourism activities, the main goals being those of increasing the permanence in nights, and to transform an occasional tourism in a destination tourism some situations, tourism has been shown as • Diversity of tourism accommodations, from high level comfort (but strictly avoiding large resorts not fully a catalyst in promoting the cultural revival integrated into the local cultural and ), to in-house accommodation of local inhabitants • Diversity of economic activities (tourism, agriculture, sheries, pearl culture, aquaculture, forestry, handicrafts, and identity of a given or ethnic group DIVERSIFICATION energy sources and uses, with special emphasis on renewable energy, elaboration of local products including (di Castri 2000). for exports, services) It should be underlined again and strongly • Conservation and valorization of the biological diversity, mainly carried out by the local populations themselves, going from genes to species, ecosystems and landscapes. Main impacts affecting biodiversity in small islands stressed, that conservation of biological are invasive species, , overgrazing, overshing and degradation and cultural diversity is merely a utopia or • Landscape and seascape ecology and management, including designing and building new landscapes and seascapes, if so needed. a pointless action, unless it is put into the • Diversication of cultural attractions, from the oldest traditional ones to those derived from successive cultural context of development activities involving encounters. Culture is an eminently evolving, and not xed, entity.

52 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ISLAND AFFAIRS local populations. They can become actors of 5. Job creation, to increase employment When a person from a local population is conservation only to the extent that they opportunities through partnership with in a position to receive this information, the are – above all – actors of their own develop- business and professional associations, first reaction is one of surprise. It is neither ment, and realize by themselves and in the and design an online database of job the usual State propaganda nor the usual practice of their daily life how linked and opportunities and applicants. centralized management guidelines, rarely interdependent are these two processes. 6. To facilitate and encourage entrepreneur- applicable to specific situations with the This is the so-called “contextualization” of ships. immense variety of islands. The person realizes the environment within clear development 7. To establish partnerships so that different then that he/she has “a possibility of choice”, objectives, the only way to get realistic people and organizations can work and this is the very definition of freedom and progresses in biodiversity conservation. together, in the most informal, free and democracy. The person furthermore realizes This ineludible relation between develop- flexible way, to address common interests that he/she can complement and modify ment and environment applies everywhere, and concerns. that information on the basis of local experi- even in developed countries. No conservation Out of the so dramatic situation of poverty ence and aspirations for development. This of UNESCO sites of the World Cultural and in the world, out – above all - of all dema- information is transmitted to a number of Natural Heritage, national parks, biosphere goguery, hypocrisy and inaction linked with friends or associates, responses are almost reserves is possible, out of the prestige this drama, I don’t know myself – empirically immediately received, and this is at the origin given by what is much too often a simple and conceptually - of any other action able of the first informal network. international label with few management to break the vicious circle of poverty, in the It should be realized that most societies repercussions, unless it is clearly contextual- present world, out of the access to information from small islands, including the poorest ized and applied within a development and the empowerment of local populations. ones, and in general all isolated and poor goal. The tourism sector is usually the most How does local empowerment emerge and peoples of the world, consistently aspire to appropriate one. strengthen itself? Is it a long process to be break free from their isolation through new The seven main objectives of local established? During the last 12 years or so, I communication devices, in order to establish empowerment are as follows (di Castri et have never observed the emergence of such closer and continuing contacts with people al 2002 b): a stimulating process of awakening to a new sharing the same culture and development 1. Fostering community networks, to help future – l’éveil - and of revival to a new life – goals, and with the rest of the world. Moreo- communities make use of information and a life made of hopes and achieved aspirations ver, their ability to quickly learn and actively communication technologies to improve – in the absence of the access to the new type handle and manage the new techniques is their living conditions, to identify resources of bi-directional information (the Internet remarkable, as is their intuitive understand of to address social problems with the and e-mail). logic behind the functioning of a computer, community, and promote the interaction It should be stressed that access to informa- or e-mail communication and surfing. The between low-income groups with similar tion – in present society – does not mean only process of local empowerment can often be problems and needs, even if they stand at or mainly the capacity and ability to receive astonishingly rapid, but it should certainly be great distance. it. It is rather the capacity to elaborate and an evolving process of continuous refinement 2. Training community facilitators and pro- process it and – above all – to transmit it and achievement. moters on how to manage the technique freely, with no censure, with no limitation, in and its potential for tourism development. the own mother tongue, to the person 3. Dissemination of information in the public he/she likes, usually a neighbor or domain. somebody of the same culture 4. Creation of basic job skills, to include living at great distance. This computer use and application, business feeling of freedom, of force management, marketing and benchmark- of communication, is the first ing, e-commerce. trigger toward empowerment.

Figure 6 Easter Island, one of the islands of the world where condition of tourism sustainability are among the lowest, because of totally inappropriate “bizarre” land management. Dramatic erosion processes in the oldest of Poike, a site of extraordinary historical and archaeological interest (the moai are unusually sculpted on ). Erosion has been provoked earlier by most intense overgrazing by sheep, and now by cattle and horses.

52 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ISLAND AFFAIRS 53 Local empowerment is also the best Comparisons on are becoming increasingly appealing solution to respond to globalization in an sustainability for tourism, along with the expansion of adaptive and specific way, a specificity Sustainability can better be evaluated by activities of diving and snorkeling. I single reflecting local resources and local aspira- comparison with other equivalent islands out in Mataiva (Tuamotu Archipelago) the tions. Only an appropriate, specific and than in absolute terms. Considering the most significant case of sustainability of “tailored” response, and not a generic and main land and sea forms of tropical islands, an atoll, because of the unique features of its uniform one as at the time of the previous three main types of islands are usually lagoon (Figures 3 a and 3 b), the high diversity industrial society, has a chance of being described: a) High islands surrounded by of and fish, and the empowerment of competitive and successful in a period of coral reefs, thus circumscribing a central the small local population. globalization. lagoon; b) High islands with no coral reefs; High islands with no coral reefs are often How to call and to refer to “local empower- and c) Atolls (only coral reefs and lagoon a case, among other activities, of cultural ment” in other languages out of English? with no central mountain). They represent and archaeological tourism. This applies, for An appropriate translation does not exist. three stages of the geological evolution, the instance, to (Australes Archipelago), In Spanish, the words “apoderamiento” or high volcanic islands with no coral reefs the Marquises Islands in French Polynesia “empoderamiento” are sometimes used. In being the most recent ones, and atolls the and – above all – to Easter Island (di Castri French, mostly in Quebec (Canada) where oldest ones. 1999). people are very cautious of not using British No type of island seems to be more prone A more detailed comparison between one forms, the new word of “autonomisation” has to tourism sustainability than other types. of the Marquises Island, Hiva Oa, and Easter been coined. In Italy, and to a lesser extent It is just a problem of cultural adaptation Island is very appropriate, because of a in France, empowerment is used as such, as to change of local populations and of number of similarities, as follows. a non-translatable neologism. appropriate management. 1. Hiva Oa and Easter Island are both high In Italy, the Polynesian word of mana is Those more appealing for tourism are volcanic islands with no coral reefs. sometimes used as synonymous of empower- the high islands with coral reef and lagoon, 2. Most likely, the first inhabitants of Easter ment. Mana is the spiritual, immaterial, since they include all types of landscapes Island came from the Marquises. internal power that gives the capacity to and seascapes. Figures 1 and 2 single 3. They both experienced demographic and a given man or woman of taking in hands out an outstanding case of sustainability cultural collapse, close to ethnic , his/her own destiny, and the conviction, trust, in Maupiti, an island in the Society Archi- from the middle of 1800, and a surprisingly strength and ability to master it. It is also pelago. fast recovery last century. the possibility of communicating at distance. When working in Polynesian societies, I have been since years explaining the potential Figure 7 Hiva Oa, Marquises Islands. The stele dedicated to the great poet, composer and interpreter Jacques power for them of the information technol- Brel, dead in 1977, looking at the islands of Hiva Oa and . Brel is a charismatic and mythical ogy, mostly for tourism development, and figure for two-three generations of Europeans. Gémir n’est pas de mise aux Marquises (something like, the reply has been consistently the same: “Complaining himself is meaningless when one lives in the Marquises”), the last verse written by before his dead, is sculpted in the stele. The last poem and song of Jacques Brel “Les Marquises” “This is very simple and easy to understand. is the best evoking, imaginative illustration of what is the feeling in an island, when conditions of This is just mana”. In Polynesia, the two sustainability and empowerment prevail. fundamental societal principles are those of mana and of (translated into English in a very restricted, limited and even negative meaning as Taboo). Tapu represents the norms and the traditions, “the limits”, that an individual should absolutely avoid to infringe, break or overcome, if the social cohesion of the overall community has to be preserved. It is amazing to realize how many analo- gies, linkages and connections are there between the modern terms of empowerment and connectivity, largely derived from island research and management, and the so old ones – coming from the largest insular of the world (Polynesia) – of mana and tapu.

54 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ISLAND AFFAIRS 4. The most impressive statues (moai and Chilean territory and is managed like a large conditions of local empowerment, and those tiki) from Polynesia are in Easter Island farm of . This is in spite of of Easter Island not yet. It is hoped that and Hiva Oa. the fact that nothing, from the cultural to cultural and natural degradation in Easter 5. was largely spread out in the natural aspects, is in common between Island would not become irreversible, before both Hiva Oa and Easter Island. However, and Easter Island. In other empowerment of local people be accepted while there is a kind of cultural pride in words, and taking the leitmotiv of this article, and develops in a feasible and workable Hiva Oa for such sacred cannibalism with inhabitants of Hiva Oa enjoy since long way. so sophisticated rituals (and the history of it is one of the tourism attractions), can- nibalism is almost not mentioned in Easter Island (and – most likely – cannibalism References DI CASTRI F. 1995. The chair of sustainable develop- ism, Biodiversity and Information. Leiden: Backhuys in Easter Island had an alimentary scope ment. Nature and Resources 31: 2-7. Publishers: 257-284. rather than to represent a sacred societal DI CASTRI F. 1999. Scenarios of tourism development DI CASTRI F. 2003 a. Tourism for community develop- function). in Easter Island. INSULA, International Journal of ment and local empowerment. In: Proceedings Euro- Island Affairs 8: 27-39. MAB 2002 Meeting. Rome: UNESCO and Academy 6. Both Hiva Oa and Easter Island have of Sciences: 108-109. DI CASTRI F. 2000. Ecology in a context of economic been evangelized by the Catholic Church, globalization. BioScience 50: 321-332. DI CASTRI F. 2003 b. Globalización, Biodiversidad, Desarrollo y Gobernabilidad. In: Darse Cuenta. which is still dominant (unlikely most of DI CASTRI F. 2002 a. Le développement durable, entre Rosario, Argentina: AAPRESID: 11-53. Polynesia and the Pacific). théorie et pratique, entre rêve et réalité. Liaison Energie-Francophonie. Numéro spécial Sommet de DI CASTRI F. 2003 c. The dynamic future of Rapa Nui. 7. The ability and the extraordinary art and Johannesburg. 55-57: 38-45. Rapa Nui Journal 17: 44-48. force for sculpting on stone and wood are DI CASTRI F. 2002 b. Tourism revisited after 11 DI CASTRI F. AND BALAJI V. (Eds.). 2002. Tourism, still astonishingly widespread in both the September 2001. In: di Castri F. and Balaji V. (Eds.). Biodiversity and Information. Leiden: Backhuys Marquises and Easter Island. Tourism, Biodiversity and Information. Leiden: Publishers. Backhuys Publishers: 483-488. DI CASTRI F., MCELROY J., SHELDON P. AND BALAJI In spite of so many similarities, it would DI CASTRI F. 2002 c. The trilogy of the knowledge- V. 2002 a. Geographic regions: the Islands. Introduc- be difficult to imagine two societies that are based, post-industrial society: Information, Biodiversity tion. In: di Castri F. and Balaji V. (Eds.). Tourism, more different – at present - in their behavior, and Tourism. In: di Castri F. and Balaji V. (Eds.). Tour- Biodiversity and Information. Leiden: Backhuys ism, Biodiversity and Information. Leiden: Backhuys Publishers: 139-149. aspirations and economic wealth than those Publishers: 7-24. DI CASTRI F., SHELDON P., CONLIN M., BONIFACE P. of Hiva Oa and Easter Island, two islands DI CASTRI F. 2002 d. Diversification, connectivity and AND BALAJI V. 2002 b. Information, Communication managed in a more different way and follow- local empowerment for tourism sustainability in South and Education for Tourism Development. Introduction. In: di Castri F. and Balaji V. (Eds.). Tourism, Biodiversity and ing more distant principles, and two levels of Pacific islands – a network from French Polynesia to Easter Island. In: di Castri F. and Balaji V. (Eds.). Tour- Information. Leiden: Backhuys Publishers: 423-429. tourism sustainability more diverse, very high in Hiva Oa and very low in Easter Island. In Hiva Oa, the Marquisian language is Figure 8 Easter Island. Recent, over-embracing erosion in Poike, at different stages of advancement, including in between the grasses. Result of overgrazing by newly introduced, heavy zebu Brahma cattle. The reborn and widespread, while in Easter Island of the three main volcanoes of Easter Island are literally going to the sea. In spite of being a site of the some 77 % of children go to school having UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage (nominated in 1995), the National Park of Rapa Nui (Easter Spanish as the first language. Biological and Island) is by far – among all islands studied – the one where the degradation processes are the most advanced and the management most unwise. cultural diversity is very high in Hiva Oa (Figures 4, 5 and 7), and local inhabitants participate to its protection and valorization, while land use and land management in Easter Island is one of the worst of the world, leads to the collapse of biodiversity and to almost inconceivable phenomena of soil erosion (Figures 6 and 8). Problems are intermingled and complex (di Castri 2003 c), but – if I were asked to evoke only one cause – I would say that Hiva Oa and the Marquises enjoy the very high level of administrative autonomy and political initiative within the French Polynesia Overseas Territory (with some special condi- tions of autonomy referring to the Marquises), while Easter Island stands like an almost undifferentiated part of the continental

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