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A Mega-Trail for Ecotourism |
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By Gustavo González*
Chile
is building an 8,000-kilometer route for hiking, bicycle and horseback
tours -- and environmental projects. It is slated for completion
in 2010.
SANTIAGO - Twelve environmental projects will
promote ecotourism along the ''Sendero de Chile'', the Chilean Trail,
which at 8,000 kilometers (almost 5,000 miles) will be one of the
longest pathways in the world for hiking or tours on bicycle or
horseback.
The route is to run from Visviri, on the northern Chilean border
with Peru and Bolivia, to Cape Horn, the southern tip of South America,
and will cross 40 watershed systems.
Three thousand km of the trail will pass through areas of meadows
and scrubland, another 1,400 km will be through forests, and 1,200
km through desolate regions of deserts, valleys of volcanic lava
or Patagonian steppes. The route will even include the distant Easter
Island, out in the Pacific, which will have an eight-km stretch
of trail.
The trail is to be completed in 2010, which is also the bicentennial
of Chile's independence. But already some parts of the trail are
ready for use and the initial environmental projects along the route
have been launched.
On Apr. 7 the first of 12 sustainable development initiatives was
inaugurated in the town of Requinoa, some 100 km south of Santiago.
The efforts are being promoted by the United Nations Development
Program (UNDP) and Chile's National Environment Commission (CONAMA).
The project, known as ''On the path of ecotourism and sustainability'',
is a major contribution, according to Irene Philippi, UNDP resident
representative in Chile. ''It will finance activities that will
give greater value to the Chilean Trail, bring revenues into its
communities and protect the environment.''
CONAMA and UNDP signed an agreement in late 2004 to provide financial
backing for the 12 projects, for a total investment of 310,000 dollars.
The two institutions bring together contributions of 190,000 dollars
with resources coming from the Global Environment Facility and its
Small Grants Program. The remaining 120,000 dollars are contributions
from the groups executing the projects and the entities associated
with them, mostly community and civil society groups.
In the context of support for construction of the Chilean Trail
there was also a competition for financing projects throughout the
country of up to 15,500 dollars, with contributions from UNDP and
CONAMA, regardless of resources already obtained by the local organizations
themselves.
According to CONAMA director Paulina Saball, the UNDP competition
is a space for cooperation on environmental issues relevant to Chile,
as part of the government's policy agenda in that area, which seeks
to encourage ''the contribution of community organizations, public
and private, in environmental education.''
The lead agency for the Requinoa project is the Guides and Scouts
Association of Rancagua, capital of Chile's central Sixth Region.
The initiative includes training for ecotourism guides (from both
the scouting movement and from ten local secondary schools), five
educational panels, construction of a shelter, two campsites, and
two additional interpretive trails about local flora and fauna.
There are plans to publish a manual and to film an educational video
in an effort to attract visitors, which will include cooperation
with tourism agencies and local communities.
''Scouting, since its origins, has been inspired on knowledge about
nature and protecting it. The initiative to create the Chilean Trail
should be complemented with projects like that of Requinoa, with
its focus on education and environmental sustainability,'' Paola
Campos, a guide for a Santiago scouting group, told Tierramérica.
One of the projects of the Chilean Trail to benefit from small subsidies
is tourism development in Colchane, on the high plains border with
Bolivia, around 2,000 km north of Santiago. That effort is entrusted
to the Aymara Suni Marka Indigenous Association.
Also to receive financing is a project of the Atacama desert town
of San Francisco de Chiu-Chiu, to promote rural tourism in Inca-Coya,
in the Second Region, located 1,400 km north of the capital. Both
this and the Colchane projects are slated for completion in 2006.
The resident council of the small rural town of San Félix, in Chile's
Third Region, 800 km north of Santiago, will also build trails alongside
the Chilean Trail as part of a locally-based project known as Los
Españoles Tourism Route.
* Gustavo González is an IPS correspondent.
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