he Olango Birds and Seascape Tour Project started in March 1998 and went through six stages of development with the community and other stakeholders prior to commercial operation.

Stage 1. CRMP assesses the feasibility, appropriateness and acceptability of ecotourism venture development on Olango.

A rapid survey of Olango's resources was made to determine product options for enterprise development, including ecotourism products that met the following criteria:

1. low environmental impact
2. marketability
3. community benefit

Ecotour operation was listed and pursued among the feasible options for the following reasons:

1. Nearby Cebu had a developed tourism market.
2. The migratory birds, seascape and coastal villages of Olango are unique and accessible attractions that remained untapped.
3. Environmental management and community interest represented a potential competitive edge when developed.

Consultations were conducted with the key sectors, leaders and communities on the island to determine their development needs, goals and willingness to participate in ecotourism enterprise development. This was done hand in hand with CRMP efforts to bring together local stakeholders in government, communities and private sector to plan and implement integrated management of the Olango coastal zone.

The village of Suba was identified as potential host community for the ecotourism livelihood project because of its scenic and strategic location vis-à-vis the Olango Island Wildlife Sanctuary. The community is located at the backdoor of the protected wetlands; their cooperation was therefore important to secure the sanctuary from unauthorized access to and illegal harvest of marine resources.

About 100 families comprised this fishing community, and many of them were forced by circumstance to engage in cyanide fishing to supply the tropical aquarium fish trade. The women stay at home and make shell craft, but their income share was very minimal and their livelihood threatened by an over-saturated shell-craft market and dwindling supply of shells. Earning an average family income of USD37 a month, the people of Suba expressed their need for assistance in finding alternative livelihoods to alleviate their poverty situation. The village had no electricity, potable water, toilet facilities, livelihood opportunities or health services.

Both men and women of Suba have been actively involved in CRMP's earlier efforts in participatory coastal resource assessment, coastal clean-ups, and information campaigns on Olango. They stressed that economic concerns posed a tremendous obstacle to the Olango communities' effort to shift to more sustainable and non-destructive fishing practices and other alternatives. It was time for CRMP to show, through the ecotour project, that such a shift is possible.

Stage 2. CRMP assists the community to develop an ecotour product and tests potential markets.

In early March 1998, the enterprise development specialist of CRMP conducted meetings and workshops with community members who were interested in joining the project to orient them on the nature of and potential benefits, constraints and problems related to tourism and ecotourism development.

Weekly experiential workshop sessions were organized by the enterprise specialist to achieve the following:

1. Relate tourism concepts to the participants' own "travel" experiences;
2. Identify, map and assess potential tourism resources in the village of Suba and the wildlife sanctuary;
3. Understand what an ecotourist would look for and need;
4. Draw an initial itinerary that would showcase the uniqueness of the local environment and way of living;
5. Package services that they could offer to enhance visitor experience and differentiate their product from others.

The final workshop focused on vision-, goal- and parameter-setting by the community. They expressed their desire to improve the well-being of their families and preserve the integrity of their environment. They aspired to be capable and effective in relating with tourists. And they did not want drugs, alcohol, and prostitution to be introduced in their village.

Product development was fast-tracked when CRMP learned about the holding of the Annual PATA Chapters Congress at Shangrila Mactan Resort in Cebu on March 25-27, 1998. The project saw the perfect occasion to test the market viability of the Olango destination and community interaction with international guests who were experts in the tourism industry. Their feedback would be valuable in determining future efforts for the project. With assistance from the Philippine Department of Tourism, the project organizers secured permission from PATA Congress organizers for CRMP to invite selected PATA delegates to the first familiarization tour under the Olango Birds and Seascape Tour project on March 28.

The PATA guests gave their tour experience an A rating and shared valuable suggestions to improve the tour. The events that unfolded that day made history -- for the small village of Suba, for the Olango Island Wildlife Sanctuary, for Cebu Province and for the Philippines. An authentic community ecotourism product was born in the country.

It is worth noting that no infrastructure was built, and that the product was developed on an "as is, where is" basis, meaning nothing was physically altered or added in the community and the wildlife sanctuary.

Stage 3. Linkages are established with public institutions and tour companies for marketing, policy, program and promotional support.

From April to December 1998, the project began a series of consolidating activities to strengthen the foundation of community business development on the ecotour product. The focus of efforts during the period were:

1. Getting legally mandated institutions (national government agencies and local government units) to provide policy, promotional and program support to the project;
2. Establishing marketing linkages with national tour companies that were based in Cebu.

To get the support of the government agencies and the tour operators, CRMP organized familiarization tours for them to experience the enormous potential of the project in promoting sustainable tourism business in Cebu and addressing environmental and poverty issues in the province.

The tour experience never failed to win the mind, touch the heart, and capture the support of the visiting institutions. It was the honesty of the experience with simple but hopeful village folks in a spiritually inspiring natural environment that drew their commitments. It was also the freshness of the approach -- variety, surprise, physical and emotional exhilaration, professional and community services, rich information and child-like wonder and fun -- that made them refer to the Olango Birds and Seascape Tour as a very different product, a heretofore hidden jewel of Cebu.

Stage 4. Community capability and resolve in tour operations and business development are strengthened.

The community members learned to perform and adjusted comfortably to their individual roles in the tour operation as test and familiarization tours were run from September to December 1998, mostly for groups who wanted to learn from the emerging ecotourism model.

Community meetings were held after every tour to introduce improvements, affirm good work, thresh out differences and solve problems. These activities helped them to understand new, complex ideas, learn new skills and internalize the nature of what they were embarking on. As their understanding grew, a question was repeatedly thrown to them: "Knowing what ecotourism is all about and what it exacts from you, do you still want to continue? Is this what you want to do in the long term?" After deep thought, their answer would always be YES.

The understanding and mastery that came with repetitive experiences melted community inhibitions and unleashed a surprising creative energy that led to spontaneous community improvisations in cultural interpretation, hospitality and entertainment. The community captivated their audience with their newfound spontaneity, confidence and genuine warmth. The affirmation from the guests enhanced these even more.

Stage 5. It's time to lead -- the community takes on administration of tour operations and formalizes collective ownership of the ecotour business.

Year 1999 was a year of tremendous leaps for the Suba community and the Olango Birds and Seascape Tour project.

The project started introductory commercial runs without any promotional campaign, but word-of-mouth endorsements by highly satisfied clients kept the community busy and earning, with an average run of three tours a month. Clients came from traditional and new tourism markets in the Philippines.

The project's strategy was to test the product with as many desirable market segments as possible as there was no developed ecotourism market in the country and focusing on a specific market segment would prematurely lock out other markets with greater potential. As it turned out, the tour was acceptable to a wide range of foreign and domestic markets already existing in the Philippines. In fact, the tour became highly differentiated as a tourism product in Cebu because it provided a very accessible alternative to city and resort destinations. The study tour market emerged as a strong and broad market, covering students, development organizations, professionals and programs, government institutions, and research groups.

While actively operating tours, the community gradually assumed management of their enterprise, with CRMP assisting them in installing and implementing operating and financial systems. Booking functions, however, will remain with CRMP's office until communication facilities are installed on the island.

CRMP helped organize the community members involved in the tour operation to function collectively and lead themselves. The men, who are mainly involved in paddling guests and guiding at the sanctuary, formed the Paddlers' Group. They set and implemented guidelines for accrediting, orienting, assigning and monitoring paddlers for each tour. Their current membership count is 25.

The Women's Group provides the venue for the women (40 of them) to discuss and agree on the direction and rules for participating in the ecotour. Their roles cover a wide field -- purchasing, cooking, physical arrangement, hospitality, cookery and shell craft demonstration, bookkeeping, payroll, etc. The tour management structure involves three departments: administration and finance, housekeeping, tour guiding and paddling. The marketing department will be set up this year (2000).

The Suba, Olango Ecotourism Cooperative (SOEC) was organized in June 1998 after the community attended a pre-membership seminar for cooperatives. A membership of individuals from 55 families (belonging to the Paddlers' and Women's Group) elected their board of officers, applied for registration with the Cooperative Development Authority and opened a bank account from tour profits that accrued to the community.

CRMP helped define and install operating and financial systems for the cooperative. On-the-job training proved to be effective in teaching community members with very low numerical literacy (achieving no higher than elementary education). The community is now able to prepare their own tour income statements and run the entire tour on their own upon notification of the date, time of arrival, and number of visitors.

Except for the naturalist interpreter who is hired by the cooperative on a per tour basis, all services in the tour are performed by community members.

Stage 6. CRMP initiates marketing support, environmental management systems and preparations for role phase-out.

Three important things need to be accomplished to ensure the viability of the community ecotourism enterprise beyond the life of CRMP (2002). These are:

1. Marketing. Mechanisms are being developed to privatize booking services for the community outside the island, pool tourism industry resources to manage marketing, organize promotion of the tour, and build community capability to understand and participate in marketing their products.
2. Environmental management. The tour project development framework gives primary emphasis on coastal resource management as a motive and tool for sustainability of the ecotourism endeavor. Thus, the design and conduct of the itinerary is based on low-impact visitation, experiential environmental learning, high incentives for and contributions to biodiversity conservation. At the community level, best practices in waste management and visitor guiding at the sanctuary by paddlers have been defined, agreed upon, and enforced.

   With assistance from CRMP, the community has presented proposal to the management of the Olango Island Wildlife Sanctuary to deputize the cooperative to assist in protection, rehabilitation, and research activities at the sanctuary. The proposal includes an offer to contribute 5% of their gross annual income for protected area management, in addition to the entrance fees paid.

   CRMP sees the long-term sustainability of the conservation efforts of the ecotourism venture to be dependent on the integration of the ecotourism activities of the community into a comprehensive management plan for the sanctuary, strict enforcement of environmental laws outside the sanctuary boundaries, and development plan for adjacent coastal communities that is harmonized to achieve coastal management. CRMP has initiated linkages with the sanctuary authorities to assist in developing a protected area management plan and visitor management program. CRMP has drafted and submitted visitor management guidelines that the sanctuary's management body has adopted as a key reference for visitor management program formulation.

3. Phase-out. CRMP intends to phase out from its active role in the ecotourism project by the end of 2000, to allow the community and local institutions to manage their activities fully on their own. The project will then assume a monitoring role to focus on the strategic requirements to support sustainability and share lessons with other areas.

Related stories:

Ecotourism Development: A Strategy for Sustaining Coastal Resources

A Quick Tour: Ecotour Product Development

Resource Management and Community Involvement In Ecotourism

OTHER BEHIND THE SCENES STORIES:

Ecotourism for the People, by the People, of the People
What's unique about the project

So Far, So Good: Venture Performance and Benefits