Preservation, Rehabilitation, and Management of Heritage Wetlands in Mexico - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 163

FIGURE 11.4 Late-classical Mayan city of Colmalcalco.

(Parks Watch 2006). Once again, this is the old chestnut in environmental manage-
ment based on a desire to separate humans from nature in order to protect the latter.
In contrast to this, there have been fledgling attempts made at establishing an eco-
tourism industry in order to empower locals and engage them in sustaining the park
rather than exploiting it (see also chapters 5, 12, 15, and 16 for similar attempts to
work with locals in conservation efforts).
Today it is possible to hire a variety of tourist boats (Figure 11.5) and go out into
the large area of the park to see lakes, lagoons, mangrove islets, and the mixture of
freshwater and saltwater wetlands (Figure 11.6). And in contrast to the wishes of
those who would like to remove people from the park, what is particularly interesting