Damage to the reef by tourists include problems of divers actually stepping on it, taking away pieces, and anchors breaking the coral. Buoys have been placed to avoid part of the problem. (Photo by Wendy Griffin.)

February 21, 2000 -- As North Coast fishing declines due to overfishing, more and more people turn to Bay Islands tourism as a way of living. The Honduran government also hopes the development of Bay Islands tourism will provide substantial income that can be used on the mainland. 

Part of the issue of how not to damage the reef as the result of too much tourism is being dealt with through management plans for the Sandy Bay-West End (Roatan) and Turtle Harbor (Utila) protected areas. These plans have been designed by the Bay Islands Conservation Association (BICA) with funding from the Fundacion Vida and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

It has been estimated that the reef in the West Bay-Sandy Bay area of Roatan has a carrying potential of 6,000 people per year. Because of cruise boat tourism, about 400 people per week come to snorkel and dive in the West Bay part of the park. This is over three times the carrying capacity of the reef. Local residents fear the reef is being trampled to death, and with rates of under 20 percent live coral, scientific studies seem to confirm their fears.

Diving has also affected the reef by dive boats dropping anchors on top of the coral. Both the Utila and Roatan chapters of BICA have installed buoys, so dive boats can tie up to these instead of dropping anchor on the coral.

Although Bay Islands tourism was strongly affected by the drop in tourists after Hurricane Mitch, most people believe tourism has a good future here. The keys to making tourism sustainable include ensuring that there is enough drinking water, ensuring the health of the reef, marine life, plants and the people.

One effort to improve the Bay Islands as a tourist destination using an Israeli bacteria to kill malaria-carrying mosquitos was cancelled, and the Roatan mayor has gone back to spraying heavily with chemicals. The Native Bay Islanders Professional and Laborers' Association (NABIPLA) is working to restart the non-chemical program, which still allows for mosquito larvae production that is an important food source for local fish.

The most controversial issue on the islands is how to ensure that only a sustainable number of people immigrate to the islands. Since Hurricane Mitch, dozens of new migrants from Spanish-speaking Honduras are arriving in the Islands in search of work, particularly from the Aguan Valley that was trashed by Mitch. Bay Islands authorities are investigating if legal means exist to control immigration by mainlanders.

When these immigrants first move to the Islands, they kill local wildlife, because they do not have enough income to meet all their food needs. Some come only with a mattress, living outdoors and relieving themselves wherever, affecting water quality. If they can not easily find a job, people feel they turn to selling drugs or theft.

Spanish speakers are now the majority on the Bay Islands. Bay Islanders feel their culture even more endangered than the reef. NABIPLA has developed projects to start a cultural village and to help ensure the cultivation of culturally important food plants such as arrowroot, cocoyams, coco plums, but the divisions between Garifunas and Islanders, and between Garifunas and the rest of the Confederation of Autochthonous Peoples of Honduras (CONPAH) affect their ability to find funding for cultural programs. Fortunately, NABIPLA has received its own "personaria juridica," so that it can manage its own funding.

Hondurans are excited by tourism developments like cruise ships in Roatan and movie stars coming to build resorts. But how do they balance this with the needs of local people for a decent standard of living and the possibility of leaving their land and culture to their children? There is international funding available to address these questions, but there is a feeling that some of the really important questions are not yet being adequately addressed.