Bohol: Preserving the charm

Beautiful pictures and rave stories in the media and tourism awards from the industry and government, in enviable plenty, can make Bohol slip back to humdrum for a few summers. But wait, the island province is all the more revved up to keep luring visitors to its shores.

Recently, four stakeholder sectors – local government, NGO, tourism business, and academe – got together while visitors flocked to this new "wow" destination in Central Visayas, to discuss how gains in the province’s sunrise industry could be sustained. Mainly, there was a need to increase competitiveness against early destination leaders – Cebu, Boracay and Palawan – while preventing the possible destruction to natural resources of aggressive development.

For three-and-a-half days in the secluded Bohol Bee Farms in Dauis, one of the municipalities comprising the popular Panglao island, the vanguards participated in a workshop dubbed "Sustainable Ecotourism in Bohol: Working Together with Environmental Perspective." This was organized by the Bohol Tourism Office with support from the German Development Service (DED)/In WEnt. The course was designed and handled by the Miriam College Environmental Studies Institute on the initiative of Commways, a PR agency, both based in Manila.

For starters, the multi-sector representatives were asked to assess the current state of the Bohol environment. What are its blessings? In what state are they now? What are the issues and concerns in the province’s tourism? What need to be done?

Bohol’s environment is relatively in good shape, the participants expressed, although they identified a number of degraded and threatened features. They discussed concerns about degradation of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems resulting from invasive and careless human activities and little understanding of the environment.

Predictably, the breathtaking Chocolate Hills, the rare tarsier, the powdery beaches in Panglao, the rich coral reefs and aquatic life in the Bohol Marine Triangle, the green rivers primarily Loboc, were singled out for special protection. The group also cited the need to preserve or restore the many Hispanic churches and the overall richness of the province’s heritage.

The Miriam environment educators, led by Dr. Angelina Galang, executive director of the Environmental Studies Institute, laid down environmental principles that form the basics of understanding the workings of nature and provide the philosophical basis on how human beings can look at environmental issues. These revolve around respect for Nature, interconnectedness of everything, importance of biodiversity, changes in nature, the causes of pollution, the finiteness of earth’s resources, and man’s role as nature’s stewards.

Using the learnings, teams of participants then investigated selected sites for their environment quality, solid waste management practices, community involvement, and other issues preliminary to action planning for sustainable tourism. Places of study included the Loboc River which is popularly packaged for boat cruises; Alona Beach, the Boracay-like beach strip in Panglao; the bee farm which showcases organic farming and dining; and urban facilities such as a market and a mall.

The spirited workshop ended with a declaration of commitment to sustainable tourism (mass tourism and ecotourism) which calls for cooperation among the various stakeholders and grounding on environmental principles. Key initial action agreed on is the creation of a multi-sectoral federation to be called Bohol Sustainable Tourism Practitioners (BSTP).

Bohol Tourism Officer Baby Balio assured group of her office’s initiative in convening the federation and drafting its operational guidelines and standards.

On the whole, Bohol’s tourism vanguards are going the extra mile to keep the ecological integrity of the province’s various attractions, improve tourism benefits to the communities where these are located, and raise tourism standards to world-class. Next summer is a good time to see results.