Talking about a revolution: ecotourism's utopian plan for peace and harmony in nature still has long way to go.

The original idea was to change the world.

Ecotourism, like the environmental movement or the later tech revolution, was hatched in a vacuum of idealism. It was meant to revolutionize an industry that was little more than the friendly face of colonialism in the developing world and transform it into a force that could raise up traditionally oppressed indigenous populations and turn them into the masters of their native regions.

Ideally, it would allow a retreat into pristine nature that members of the jaded, developed world direly needed to maintain their sanity and spiritual equilibrium. But like the new economy jive, ecotourism has become a questionable concept that may never achieve what it first hoped to offer. Mexico is the case in point.

While Mexico hosts some of the most diverse and spectacular natural wonders of the world, ecotourism is still in its infancy and faces many hurdles before it will become a real force for environmental conservation or a strong alternative to the dominant sectors of the industry.

TROUBLE ON TAKEOFF

The government has yet to develop a long-term strategy to support the new concept in tourism. Most international and even domestic travelers don't recognize the opportunities that exist in Mexico. Additionally, the inexperience of tour companies, inaccessibility of many regions and often hostility of indigenous inhabitants toward uninvited outsiders pose further stumbling blocks for the slowly growing enterprise. Another problem facing the industry is a confusion about what it really is. Ecotourism isn't so much an industry as a movement. Pioneers in the field started up small tour companies to carry travelers to remote destinations and immerse themselves in the wonders of unspoiled nature and idyllic traditional cultures. Their core philosophy is that tourism should have minimal to zero negative impact on the environment, raise consciousness of the beauty and fragility of ecosystems and benefit the local--usually isolated, poor and indigenous--communities.

However, ecotourism has also become lumped together with adventure tourism. River rafting, kayaking, mountain climbing, scuba diving and other such adventure sports involve close contact with nature, but companies specializing in such sports may not embrace the same ideology as more sensitive ecotourism companies. Despite this apparent incongruity, many ecotourism companies offer adventure sport options in their selection of tours in order to attract more business.

FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEASIDE

Given that Mexico holds some of the most spectacular and diverse ecosystems in the world, it has all the makings to be a leader in the trade.

From the Sea of Cortez off Baja California, with its annual migrations of whales and sea turtles, to the famous monarch butterfly sanctuary in Michoacan, to the impressive jungles of the Mundo Maya in the south, there is no shortage of unique and breathtaking natural and cultural treasures in Mexico.

But while other countries like Costa Rica and Australia have made their tourism industries synonymous with ecotourism, Mexico is still identified with such internationally known mega-beach resorts as Cancun and Puerto Vallarta, according to Hector Ceballos Lascurain, an architect and ecotourism consultant, who is credited with first coining the term "ecotourism" and laying out its philosophy in the early 1980s.

Ceballos, who lives and works in Mexico City, points out Mexico sits next to the largest potential market of affluent nature lovers in the world, the United States, but it has yet to successfully brand itself as a prime ecotourism destination to its northern neighbor.

PROMOTE THE BIRDS ALREADY

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department, there are 60 million bird watchers in the United States, making it the most popular outdoor activity. An estimated 24 million of these bird watchers travel every year in the name of their hobby. As Mexico hosts over 1,100 different species of birds--one-tenth of the world total--Ceballos says Mexican companies have been short sighted in not going aggressively after the market.

There is no reliable data on the number of ecotourists who journey to Mexico each year, but a study by the Tourism Secretariat (Sectur) claims foreign tourists spent US$51.2 million on ecotourism and adventure tourism activities during 2000, the most recent year of available data. That represents only 0.62% of the US$8.2 billion dollars foreign tourists spent in Mexico that same year. Tour operators know there is a vast market of international tourism to be tapped, but Mexican companies have yet to raise their international profile.

"More and more tourists are asking for ecotourism tours, and the bigger travel agencies have taken notice," said Karel Beets, owner of the Puerto Vallarta-based Ecotours de Mexico. "There is a market out there. But many Mexican companies are new and not well positioned."

SELLING NATURE

Sectur and the Environment Secretariat (Semarnat) held a joint press conference last year, trumpeting a new age of cooperation between the agencies to promote ecotourism and protect Mexico's natural treasures. But tour operators say precious little has been done to help them so far.

"They produced some posters and brochures with beautiful photos in them, but that was it. There is still no organization to back up the companies and promote them," said Marlene Ehrenberg, an independent guide who has been offering nature-based tours for over thirty years in Mexico. "Few people in the Tourism Secretariat really understand what ecotourism is about."

Ehrenberg, one of the founders of the country's Ecotourism and Adventure Tourism Association (Amtave), suggests that the government needs one office that links Sectur and Semarnat, as well as more personnel that are specialists in the wide range of activities that constitute ecotourism. Moreover, order needs to be imposed in the largely lawless outback of Mexico, where popular regions are becoming overrun with tourists and unscrupulous tour companies.

While more order is needed, tight budget constraints will likely prevent Mexico from seriously revamping its conservation or ecotourism programs. Currently, of 127 protected nature reserves in the nation, only 21. have well-established maintenance programs by rangers.

"No amount of budget increase will cover all that needs to be done," said Lilia Rueda, the director of Sectur's ecotourisrn projects.

VISION IN SIAN KA'AN 

While critics of the government abound, others are more optimistic about President Fox's administration and its commitment to this nascent tourism sector. Rueda said the government has begun an integrated project with other agencies in the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve--1.3 million acres of protected shore land and coral reefs along the Caribbean coast in Quintana Roo. There, they hope to provide the model for future projects that will incorporate government action and local community involvement.

The architect Ceballos was commissioned to design for Sian Ka'an what will be the country's first ecolodge in a protected natural area. His plan for a 20-cabin environmental friendly complex will soon go up for bidding. Once constructed, it will provide both local jobs and a source of income for the government.

"It is high time for Semarnat to start projects like this," said Ceballos. "Right now, protected areas are just an expense for the government. They need to create more programs that will bring in some returns."

Another positive step the government has taken is its partial funding of the only promotional fair for ecotourism in Central America. In June, the World Trade Center in Mexico City will host the Fifth Annual ExpoAventura trade fair to promote ecotourism companies. The fair has become an important event to allow smaller companies to learn from their larger or more experienced colleagues.

Many Mexican companies lack the professionalism to attract international clients, according to Fernanda Aldana, convention organizer Tradex's manager for the fair. Whether it be a dearth of properly trained guides with foreign language skills or the lack of marketing savvy, many small Mexican companies are not successfully reaching out to the international markets.

"The most successful companies are those that sell a complete product," Aldana said. "They pick you up at the airport and take care of you from that moment. This is the only way to sell this kind of service to the international market."

LOCALS RULE

While the philosophy of ecotourism has called for the integration of local communities into the trade, the practice of such aims has often fallen short in practice, recently with violent results.

Locals with ties to the Zapatista rebels recently closed off the internationally respected Rancho Esmeralda ecotourism lodge in rural Chiapas. They threatened the American owners (former Peace Corps volunteers from Idaho), allegedly assaulted a staff member and blockaded entrances to the ranch in an effort to take over the land. Also in Chiapas, local guide Ernesto Lopez and several French and Canadian tourists were detained and threatened by locals during a kayak trip down the Jatate River.

"It was the first time anything like that had happened to me," Lopez said. "There has always been resentment toward outsiders, but the bitterness is growing."

So far the local government has done nothing to protect the owners of Rancho Esmeralda.

"If the government lets this go on, it will only embolden other groups to try similar invasions," said Lopez. "With that type of insecurity, who will invest down here?"

Isolated for centuries, the indigenous populations that live among many of the country's most attractive natural treasures are wary of intrusions by strangers. Additionally, the dire poverty of these communities and the lack of economic opportunity has led to the over-exploitation of their ecosystems through slash-and-burn farming and uncontrolled logging of forests.

To stop such degradation will require a whole new type of outreach by both the government and private companies so that local communities welcome and invite conservation efforts and ecotourism, according to veteran guide Ehrenberg.

"We are facing very deep problems. My vision of the future as connected to our institutions is that of a disaster," she said. "But on the other hand, I am also still an optimist. This is a noble enterprise that could restore dignity to many communities, allowing them to no longer be slaves and educating them to take care of nature."

Michael O'Boyle is a Mexico City-based freelance writer.

RELATED ARTICLE: Bully for Butterflies: 'Save the Monarchs' Becomes Rallying Cry 

One of the nation's most distinctive tourist attractions is facing the prospect of being irreparably damaged. Deforestation has placed monarch butterfly sanctuaries in jeopardy, and U.S. businesses, the Mexican government and environmental activists have rallied to the cause of the migrating insect.

Measures have been taken by the government to conserve the one-of-a-kind habitat, but the monarch forests continue to be logged illegally, according to Homero Aridjis, founder of the Group of 100, the environmental foundation composed of 100 renowned artists and intellectuals.

"I do not know why authorities have not put a stop to this illegal logging, which is going on under everyone's noses," said Aridjis, an internationally celebrated poet and novelist.

The mountains of central Mexico provide an ideal--and some say irreplaceable--climate for the fragile butterflies to survive the winter. The monarchs' mountain destination is the most endangered forest in Mexico, where deforestation for more agricultural land and lumber has direly affected the sanctuary.

In 2000, a decree was issued in an effort to protect the monarch sanctuaries by compensating logging communities for lost revenue. In addition, the Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund (MBCF) has been raising money to finance the purchase of logging permits inside the reserve, compensating permit-holders with US$18 per cubic meter of timber not harvested. The MBCF was kick-started with US$5 million grant from the U.S.-based Packard Foundation and an additional US$1 million from the Mexican government.

Every winter, tourists from around the world flock to the quiet state of Michoacan and portions of the State of Mexico to witness the butterfly invasion. The monarchs, which stay in Mexico from November to mid-March, concentrate themselves in high-altitude forests, at 10 million butterflies per hectare. The fascinating spectacle of tens of thousands of butterflies clinging to trees--and in some cases bending branches with their sheer collective weight--has become a mecca of sorts for nature lovers.

Mark Gudmastad is an intern with Business Mexico.