(UW Bothell October 2017)
The same year the study
abroad program to Peru was born, tourism became the third largest industry
within Peru (El Economista, 2008). The number of tourists has been steadily
increasing since two decades ago, now Peru is predicted to attract over
3,850,000 visitors in the year 2017 alone (World Travel and Tourism Council,
2017). A huge proportion of these travelers are coming to experience the
ecological diversity of Peru. It’s ironic then that as the number of
ecotourists increase annually, so does their potentially negative environmental
impact upon the country. When a population in a city suddenly and temporarily
grows, so does the amount of waste and pollution generated as does the
resources used. One of the most famous examples may be Machu Picchu, an ancient
Inca ruin which has experienced erosion and damage to its sites directly
related to the high amount of tourists who visit it (Herrera, 2013). Peru
has since limited the daily number of people allowed to enter the site to
2,500, however locals have complained about the amount of pollution and waste
still generated by the visitors (Roach, 2002). It’s difficult for a government
to completely shut down a site like Machu Picchu when it creates such a great
revenue, and it’s even harder to regulate the influence of tourism in more
rural areas.
Perhaps this is why Peru Exploration Seminar program directors have the student’s address
part of this issue personally. This study abroad program has always placed an emphasis on the applications of sustainability and
efforts of conservation present or needed within the country. However from the
beginning the professors wanted students to expand past their
subjective views of sustainability and objectively view their own impact. From
the first year students upon arriving to Coshu Cashu biological site begin
recording details of the resources they use daily. While the categories have
ranged or grown over the years the basics included water usage time (showers,
tap water, laundry), food waste (how much of dinner you threw away), or
products used that were or weren’t biodegradable (sunscreen, bug spray, etc).
The individual data from each student is eventually shared at the end of each
trip and analyzed by the professors. The idea is not to shame the students as
the posts are anonymous, but rather encourage them to be critically aware of
their resource use.
 |
| Example of personal data on resource use taken daily |
After the second year, a
student run conservation committee was appointed from a group of volunteers to
decide the categories of resource use fields, to help others in their
recordings and inform group members and others of our findings. Forrest Miller,
one of the student volunteers from the present conservation committee wrote the
following reflection:
“Thinking of ways to
quantify resource usage that would convey a meaningful message to the user took
much more creatively and thought experiments than I expected. Our lifestyles
are so complex that even in very remote settings deciding what to include and what
to omit was challenging”.
The categories listed in
image #2 were decided as a group and were recorded throughout the trip. Some of
the categories recorded including activities I was previously unconscious of.
For example, I had never noticed how long I left the water on when I brushed my
teeth until I had to count the seconds it was on. Or the fact that I left so
much food on my plate when I decided I was done eating. Deciding on buying a
beer carried its own weight, literally and physically, recycling isn’t
predominant everywhere in Peru and so I carried the glass bottle in my backpack
all the way through the USA customs.
Perhaps the most visual
display of our own waste came from a Ziploc bag filled with plastic wrappers.
Four years into the program the idea of collecting all the student’s
non-biodegradable waste in individual Ziploc bags was enforced. Joy Shang,
another student from the 2017 program shared that it was “a bit embarrassing to
see how many packages I got from snacks”, although through the act of
collecting each wrapper we became not only aware of our waste but began
questioning the necessity of the items that produced it.
Besides conscientious
consumption through keeping track of resource use in our journals and the collecting of our trash, the program has
made strides over the years in reducing the amount of waste the students
produce. Students who shop for items in the local markets are taught to ask for
“no plastico”, placing purchases instead in their backpacks. Each student is
asked to bring for the program a tupperware container with utensils in which
many of the meals are packed. Given the knowledge that we have our own
containers, the vendors that supply food for the program have adjusted to not
pre-packaging their food. Even the biological field station at Cocha Cashu has
made strides in buying food in bulk so to lessen individually packaged items,
shipping the food in reusable boxes and offering naturally unpackaged
alternatives such as fruits.
We can’t deny as students that despite our efforts our
visit didn’t have an ecological impact. The buses and boats we traveled in
still contributed to pollute, the food we consumed took energy and gas to transport
and some of the electricity we used at the biological stations was powered by a
generator. However living completely sustainable lives is difficult at home let
alone when traveling. Our professors have worked very hard on eliminating
possibilities of waste through the connections they’ve made with our hosts and
chefs. Collecting our trash and journaling the resources we used made us aware
of the waste we produce and how much energy or water we use. Furthermore
conversations like for example discussing the impact of the foreign demand for
quinoa and the observations we made from the journaling (ex; how many wrappers
are produced from individually wrapped snacks) not only informed us of our
behavior but encouraged us to change it. When we altered some of our behaviors,
such as taking shorter showers and packaging things without plastic, the
actions were then compounded by the amount of students that enforced them.
These contributions we’ve made have helped preserve the places we were
privileged to see making us more conscientious travelers but they have also
allowed us on our return to the states to keep making them. I still turn off
the shower when I’m scrubbing down or shampooing my hair, even though I’m well
aware the hot water isn’t about to run out. And I still find myself visualizing
my Ziploc garbage bag when I see individually packaged items in the food aisle.
Because of this I truly believe that in recognizing our own bad habits and
enforcing sustainable practices we may have been able to form new ones.
Citations
Herrera,
Alexander. “Heritage Tourism, Identity and Development in Peru.” 2013, www.academia.edu/3414289/Heritage_Tourism_Identity_and_Development_in_Peru.
THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF TRAVEL & TOURISM ON PERU. World Travel
& Tourism Council, Mar. 2913, www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic-impact-research/countries-2017/peru2017.pdf.
“Peru Tourist Arrivals 1980-2017
| Data | Chart | Calendar | Forecast.” Peru Tourist Arrivals |
1980-2017 | Data | Chart | Calendar | Forecast, tradingeconomics.com/peru/tourist-arrivals.
elEconomista.es.
“Perú supedita crecimiento de turismo en 2008 al aumento de la capacidad
aérea.” ElEconomista.es, ElEconomista, 3 Feb. 2008,
www.eleconomista.es/empresas-finanzas/noticias/355907/02/08/Peru-supedita-crecimiento-de-turismo-en-2008-al-aumento-de-la-capacidad-aerea.html.
Roach,
John. “Machu Picchu Under Threat From Pressures of Tourism.”National Geographic News, 15 Apr. 2002,
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/04/0415_020415_machu.html.
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