ECOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY OF TROPICAL REEF SYSTEMS: ESTABLISHING SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN THE EXUMA CAYS, BAHAMAS Aimee M. Lowe The Nature Conservancy (U.S.A.) Kathleen Sullivan Sealey The Nature Conservancy (U.S.A.) Abstract: The Bahamas is a physically unique In order to gain accurate data on visitation pat- country quite unlike any other in the Caribbean; terns in the Exuma Cays and formulate recom- the archipelago is made up of hundreds of islands mendations for regional tourism monitoring and stretching over 1000 kilometers, with over 30 management, a visitor survey was conducted in inhabited islands. The country is subdivided into Nassau, New Providence and throughout the island groups, but the most populated island and Exuma island chain. Two methods were utilized location of the capital, Nassau, is in New Provi- to conduct the survey: 1) in-person interviews dence. The Bahamas represents one of the most and 2) mail-out questionnaires. A total of 124 popular tourist destination in the wider Carib- in-person and 560 mail-out questionnaires were bean and entertains two tourism markets: 1) completed over a one year period. cruise ship and resort (overnight) tourism fo- cused on the cities of Nassau and Freeport, and The survey questionnaire was divided into three 2) out-island tourism that focuses on yachting, sections in order to 1) characterize who visits the beach-going or fishing on the more remote is- Exumas, 2) understand why they come, and 3) lands. The Exuma Cays are located southeast of define what they are seeking. The data collected Nassau in the central Bahamas and are adver- was then used to determine the impacts of tour- tised as the “Sailing Capital of The Bahamas”. ism on the Park. For example, it was found that Cruising yachts can pass through the Exumas over half of Exuma tourists are first time visi- en route to the wider Caribbean. This archipel- tors. Park management is faced with the task of ago of low-lying islands is one of the most pris- educating these visitors as to the fishing restric- tine and beautiful areas in the Bahamian island tions and other regulations such as anchoring chain. The region offers numerous protected har- and garbage disposal. This requires time and bors and anchorages as well as one of the first staff support from a marine park that lacks spe- marine fisheries reserves, the Exuma Cays Land cific plans and adequate financial backing. It is and Sea Park. The very success of the Park as a now important for the Park to create a clear “no-take” zone has attracted an increasing num- management plan, a strategy for financing park ber of visiting yachtsmen to the Exumas. This activities in the future and new regulations to yearly increase in visitor numbers has stimu- preserve the natural resources upon which both lated local businesses to provide services and fishing stocks and visitation are dependent. build infrastructure according to expediency rather than a concern for long-term environ- Keywords: parks and protected areas, recrea- mental impacts. Now that symptoms of ecologi- tion, ecotourism, conservation, environ-mental cal degradation and tourism impacts are becom- impacts, management planning ing visible within the developed areas of The Bahamas, there is a tremendous need to direct Exuma tourism to that which will sustain rather Introduction than destroy the environment, the very product marketed and sought. The prominence of tourism as the world’s largest industry constitutes both a challenge and an opportunity, as it can either destroy 184 Lowe and Sullivan Sealey precious ecosystems and natural resources geology of tropical island systems also or contribute to their conservation and eco- poses a problem for proper solid waste nomic growth. Tourism facilities and ser- management and fresh water supplies. The vices consume large quantities of land, wa- Bahamian archipelago, for instance, is made ter and energy as well as produce significant up of a relatively young carbonate bank sys- volumes of waste and effluent. The envi- tem dominated by lithogenic and biogenic ronmental impacts of tourism, especially production of calcium carbonate sediments. mass tourism, are no longer local, but also Because limestone dissolves in rainwater directly contribute to global marine pollu- and leaves very little residue, the soils tion, climate change, ozone depletion, and throughout The Bahamas are extremely thin loss of biodiversity. and patchy (Sealey, 1990). The inability of the thin soil to hold water and the highly In tropical island systems such as the Carib- porous nature of the underlying limestone bean, tourism is essentially a coastal indus- bedrock result in a lack of surface fresh wa- try. The majority of tourism facilities are ter and a limited amount of ground water. sited within 800 meters of the high-water mark, in a zone that can be both unstable and vulnerable to geological and oceano- Sustainable Tourism: The graphic phenomena. As a result, very little Bahamas’ Position disturbance is required to destabilize such environments and lead to significant eco- The Bahamas is ahead of many countries in logical degradation both above and below the wider Caribbean in its planning for sus- the water. Unmanaged tourism growth can tainable development. The Ministry of Tour- destroy pristine terrestrial and marine re- ism has taken a leadership role and estab- sources, contaminate water supplies, place lished a Sustainable Tourism/ Eco-tourism stress on waste treatment and disposal sys- unit which has been given the mandate to tems, and render areas unprotected from drive the sustainable tourism effort for the storms and ocean surges, thereby disrupting industry. The Ministry of Tourism has also the unique features of islands that appeal to commissioned a comprehensive Sustainable tourists. Tourism Policy and Guidelines for the Out Islands of The Bahamas, the first of its kind At the same time the threats and poor status in the region. of tropical marine resources are being docu- mented, there is a call for integrated coastal These policies have been initiated out of a zone management from island nations and recognition that the natural resources of The environmental organizations. Integrated Bahamas are facing severe threats. Because coastal zone management aims to develop of the archipelagic nature of the islands, de- plans for sustainable use of coastal velopment and the environment are both resources. The concepts of “sustainable de- inter-related and interdependent; coastlines velopment” and “sustainable resource use” are fragile, and enforcement is extremely embrace the notion that one can develop a difficult. Over the past two decades, the way to use resources in ways that do not tourism market of The Bahamas has under- restrict the options of future generations to gone a dramatic period of expansion and use the same resources. change. Traditionally a destination that at- tracted a selected visitor base seeking seren- Developing sustainable tourism in the trop- ity, the country was ill-prepared for the ics is especially difficult due to the fragile changing markets of the 1980’s. This boom nature of island systems. Tourist numbers was spurred by a tremendous expansion in have increased faster than the infrastructure mass tourism vehicles, especially the cruise and technology have been put in place to industry and the all-inclusive resort phe- treat pollutants, maintain energy supplies nomenon. and provide adequate transportation. The Lowe and Sullivan Sealey 185 Today, The Bahamas leads the Caribbean hamian government first planted the seeds region in both number of tourists and tour- of an ambitious program of promoting is- ism revenues. In 1995, The Bahamas re- land visitation, it did not truly flourish until ceived 3,238,255 visitors, and visitor expen- the end of World War II. Before the 1900’s, diture accounted for a total of USD$1.346 less than 500 tourists visited Nassau each billion (Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, 1995). winter. In 1914, the Bahamian government Visitor nights totaled 9,031,455. Tourism created a Development Board to increase provides approximately 50% of The Baha- tourism to the islands, but the outbreak of mas GDP and employs directly or indirectly World War I and the prohibition era that 40% of the work force (50,000 persons). Be- followed greatly slowed the growth of the cause of the island geography of the coun- Bahamian tourism industry. try, The Bahamas can protect and promote two tourism markets: the mass tourism Following the Second World War, Baha- market for resorts and cruise ships such as mian tourism began to increase tremen- has been developed in Nassau, and the eco- dously. This was primarily due to the im- tourism market in the Out Islands (Sullivan provement in air service, as a growing Sealey, 1999). The “two market” phenomena number of daily flights into Nassau brought in The Bahamas requires two types of infra- waves of visitors from both Florida and structure planning and development. Pro- Cuba. The Bahamas’ old world charm, tecting the out-island experience and high cheap goods, warm waters and comfortable environmental quality of the more remote climate were no less important when it came island groups has been a priority for the to attracting tourists to the islands. By the Ministry of Tourism as well as local com- mid-1960’s, Nassau was receiving 7,500 visi- munities. tors a day and the Out Islands up to 4,000 (Pavlidis, 1997). The motivation for this new Coastal degradation in a relatively small tourism movement came from the promo- area, such as New Providence, can provide tional advertising undertaken by the Devel- “lessons learned” for the rest of the country, opment Board, which was to become The and particularly the Exumas Cays. To pro- Bahamas Ministry of Tourism in January of vide better planning and management for 1964.