Ecotourism, Local Economy, and Ecological Strategies in Planning Nature Reserves in Panama - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 283

15 Ecotourism,Local

Economy,and
EcologicalStrategies
inPlanningNature
ReservesinPanama *

CONTENTS
Introduction............................................................................................................ 297
Alternative Futures Models in Land Use Planning ................................................ 298
Case Study: Coiba, Panama ................................................................................... 298
Public Policy in Environmental Planning .............................................................. 303
Acknowledgment ................................................................................................... 303
References..............................................................................................................304

INTRODUCTION
As early as the 1970s, the pre-Saddam government in Iraq was exploring ways in
which to develop a tourism industry associated with the southern marshlands. For
example, photographs by Nik Wheeler in Gavin Young's Return to the Marshes (1977)
show Iraqi tourists comfortably sitting at tables in front of guest houses designed to
resemble the reed-constructed mudhifs of marsh dwellers. And Assam Alwash, field
director of the Eden Again nongovernmental organization (NGO) involved in restor-
ing the marshes and a former Iraqi who was relocated to southern California as a
child, has frequently stated his dream of being able to bring his American friends
to the restored marshes for vacations that would involve kayaking from village to
village. It is certainly not an exaggeration, if one has read the engaging and seduc-
tive prose of the British adventurers who penetrated this remote area in the middle
of the last century (Maxwell 1966; Thesiger 1964; Young 1977), to believe that the
southern Iraqi marshes could very well become one of the world's premier ecotour-
ism and adventure tourism destinations. However, in other areas where these more
sustainable forms of tourism exist, there are still problems associated with the more

* Adapted by Robert L. France from Karish, K., and R. Faris. 2004. Ecotourism development mod-
els in the planning of nature reserves. Paper presented at the Mesopotamian Marshes and Modern
Development: Practical Approaches for Sustaining Restored Ecological and Cultural Landscapes con-
ference, Cambridge, MA, October.

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