Tourism, Land Grabs and Displacement A Study with Particular Focus on the Global South Andreas Neef Auckland, February 2019 Disclaimer: The views expressed in this study are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Tourism Watch. Photo on Cover: Coastal construction work for a tourist resort in Phang Nga Province, southern Thailand (Source: Author) ii Table of Contents Table of Contents iii List of Tables, Figures, Photos and Boxes vi List of Abbreviations ix Acknowledgements xiii Preface xiii Executive Summary xiv Chapter 1. Introduction 1 1.1 The Context: Global Rush for Land and Tourism-Related Land Grabs 1 1.2 Tourism-Related Land and Resource Grabbing within the Global Land Grab Debate 2 1.3 Global Scope and Local Contexts for Tourism-Related Land Grabs 4 1.4 Study Design, Case Selection and Analytical Framework 5 1.5 Structure of the Study 7 Chapter 2. Tourism-Related Land Grabs: Actors, Drivers, Discourses, Mechanisms, Practices and Impacts 9 2.1 Actors and Drivers 9 2.2 Discourses and Mechanisms 11 2.3 Practices and Impacts of Tourism-Related Land Grabs 13 Chapter 3. State-Led Tourism Development and Tourism Zoning 18 3.1 Tourism Zone Development in the Philippines 18 3.2 The Special Economic Zone of Social Market Economy in Oecusse, Timor Leste 23 3.3 State-Driven Tourism Development and Livelihood Displacement among Garifuna Communities, Honduras 25 3.4 Concessional Tourism Development: A Chinese Mega-Project in Koh Kong Province, Cambodia 27 Chapter 4. Resort Development, Residential Tourism and Resource Grabbing 31 4.1 Resort Tourism and Resource Grabbing in the Indonesian Archipelago 31 4.2 Tourism Enclaves and Proliferation of Land Leases in the Southwest Pacific – The Case of Vanuatu 38 4.3 Residential Tourism and Transnational Land Investment in Central America and the Southern Indian Ocean 42 Chapter 5. Tourism Expansion and Land Grabbing in Post-Disaster Contexts 47 5.1 Disaster Capitalism in Tourist Destinations 47 iii 5.2 Post-Tsunami Dispossession of Indigenous Seafaring People in Phang Nga and Phuket, Southern Thailand 48 5.3 Corporate Land Grabs on Sicogon Island in the Wake of Typhoon Haiyan (Philippines) 53 Chapter 6. Tourism in Conflict Zones and Post-Conflict Contexts 56 6.1 Military-Controlled Tourism Industry in Post-Conflict Sri Lanka 56 6.2 Military Securitisation of Domestic Tourism in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh 58 6.3 Touristification and Displacement amidst the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 60 Chapter 7. Wildlife Tourism, Conservation and Green Grabbing 64 7.1 Protected Areas and Displacement of Indigenous and Forest-Dependent Peoples: A Brief Historic Perspective 64 7.2 Tourism-Driven Evictions from State and Privately Managed Protected areas in Eastern and Southern Africa 66 7.3 Tiger Tourism in India: Precarious Livelihoods at the Human-Wildlife Interface 71 Chapter 8. Heritage Tourism: Beautification, Gentrification, Eviction 74 8.1 Impacts of Cultural Heritage Tourism on Land Rights and Livelihoods in Mainland China and Guatemala 74 8.2 Heritage Preservation, Land Grabbing and Resettlement in the Angkor Archaeological Park, Cambodia 77 8.3 Gentrification in Urban Heritage Sites: Global Overview and Examples from South America 80 Chapter 9. The Displacement Effects of Sporting Mega-Events and Large-Scale Tourism Infrastructure Development 83 9.1 Sporting Mega-Events: The Darker Side of the Global Spectacle 83 9.2 Large-Scale Tourism Infrastructure Development: Airport Constructions in India and Laos 87 Chapter 10. Assessment of Existing Instruments and Guidelines for Land Rights Governance and Protection from Dispossession and Displacement: Potential Applications in the Field of Tourism 93 10.1 Tourism-Related Land Grabs and International Human Rights Law 93 10.2 The ILO’s Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention 95 10.3 The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 96 10.4 The FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines and their Implications for Tourism-Related Land Grabs 98 10.5 The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and their Relevance to Land Acquisitions by the Tourism Industry 99 10.6 Environmental and Social Safeguards of International Financial Institutions and their Relevance for Tourism-Induced Displacement and Resettlement 101 iv 10.7 Equator Principles: Holding the Corporate Financial Sector Accountable to Tourism-Related Land Rights Infringements? 102 Chapter 11. Conclusions and Recommendations 103 11.1 Concluding Remarks 103 11.2 Recommendations for Different Stakeholder Groups 104 Bibliography 108 v List of Tables, Figures, Photos and Boxes List of Tables Table 1.1. Practices of dispossession in tourism 7 Table 2.1. Practices of dispossession in tourism – Eviction 14 Table 2.2. Practices of dispossession in tourism – Enclosure 15 Table 2.3. Practices of dispossession in tourism – Extraction 16 Table 2.4. Practices of dispossession in tourism - Erasure 17 List of Figures Figure 3.1. Futuristic vision for Pante Makassar as a modern Oecusse city 24 Figure 3.2. Korean engineers’ vision of Oecusse as a holiday paradise 24 Figure 4.1. The dreamed-up vision of the Benoa Bay Reclamation Project with its many artificial islands 33 Figure 5.1. Map of the case study locations in Thailand 49 Figure 5.2. Map of the disputed sites in Baan Rawai 51 List of Photos Photo 3.1. Pico de Loro Cove at Hamilo Coast 19 Photo 3.2. Abandoned coastal settlement after involuntary relocation 28 Photo 3.3. One of the houses that was knocked down by the company’s security guards 28 Photo 3.4. One of many abandoned houses in the resettlement site 29 Photo 3.5. Road condition in the relocation site during the monsoon season 29 Photo 3.6. Partial view of the 18-hole golf course 29 Photo 3.7. View of the decaying casino 29 Photo 4.1. Bali’s iconic rice terraces, protected under UNESCO’s World Heritage programme 32 Photo 4.2. Large tourist resort next to rice fields in Ubud, Central Bali 32 Photo 4.3. One of the iconic Komodo dragons in Komodo National Park 34 Photo 4.4. Small islands in Komodo National Park 34 Photo 4.5. Fence constructed by a hotel to block public access to the beach in Bo’a village 36 Photo 4.6. Seaweed cultivation by women in Rote Ndao 37 vi Photo 4.7. Woman carrying seaweed for drying on the beach in Nemberala village 37 Photo 4.8. Beach resort in the Pango district of Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila 38 Photo 4.9. Cruise ship in Port Vila Harbour 38 Photo 4.10. Fenced-off expat property development in Southern Efate 40 Photo 4.11. Rules of exception on an island under foreign lease 40 Photo 5.1. Moken spirit pole (lobong) on Koh Surin 50 Photo 5.2. Moken villagers on Koh Surin selling souvenirs to tourists 50 Photo 5.3. The shrine of Baan Rawai villagers 52 Photo 5.4. Boulders placed by company workers to block villagers’ access to their ceremonial area 52 Photo 6.1. Map of Old City of Jerusalem (produced in 2016) 63 Photo 6.2. Map of Old City of Jerusalem (revised edition) 63 Photo 7.1. A group of giraffes in a Tanzanian wildlife reserve 66 Photo 7.2. A Maasai takes his livestock to a water hole 66 Photo 8.1. Historic monuments at the Bayon Temple in Angkor Archaeological Park (AAP) 77 Photo 8.2. Shops and street vendors in a village inside the core zone of the AAP 77 Photo 8.3. Community members guarding their rice fields against dispossession by APSARA 78 Photo 8.4. Police on patrol around the village facing dispossession of their rice fields 78 Photo 8.5 Lake-side pagoda in Run Ta-Ek Eco-Village 79 Photo 8.6 A tourist bungalow in Run Ta-Ek Eco-Village 79 Photo 8.7 Panoramic view of the City of Cuzco in the Southern Andes region of Peru 81 Photo 8.8 The gentrified centre of the City of Cuzco as a ‘safe tourist space’ 81 List of Boxes Box 1.1. Definition of Land Grabbing by the Tirana Declaration (2011) 3 Box 3.1. Pro-Poor and Indigenous Land Policy Programmes in the Philippines 20 Box 3.2. Garifuna Communities on the North Coast of Honduras: A Brief Ethno- 26 Legal History Box 4.1. The Controversial Benoa Bay Reclamation Project 33 Box 4.2. Conflict between Tourist Investor and Local Community around Public Beach Access in Labuan Bajo 35 Box 4.3. Customary Land Tenure System in Vanuatu: Strengthening Indigenous Ownership or Enabling Land Control by Foreigners? 39 Box 4.4. Land Tenure and the Undermining of Coastal Regulations in Costa Rica 43 vii Box 4.5. The Integrated Resort Scheme (IRS) in Mauritius 45 Box 5.1. Disaster Capitalism 47 Box 5.2. Indigenous communities of the Andaman Coast, southern Thailand, in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami 49 Box 6.1. Restrictions and Challenges Facing Palestinian Residents in East Jerusalem 61 Box 7.1. Should We Kill Wild Animals to Save Them? The Controversy around Trophy Hunting 68 Box 7.2. The Creation of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park 69 Box 7.3. India’s Wildlife Conservation and Resettlement Laws and Policies: A Brief Overview 72 Box 8.1. Rights of residents to their own land in Zones 1 and 2 of Angkor Archaeological Park 78 Box 8.2. Gentrification 80 Box 9.1. Greenfield Development and Land Acquisition by the State in India 88 Box 9.2. The Asian Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China as Funding Institutions for Tourism Infrastructure Development 91 Box 10.1. Key Human Rights Principles and Issues in Tourism 93 Box 10.2.