Ecotourism represents a holistic travel philosophy that encompasses minimal impact on the environment and natural resources, while enhancing awareness and knowledge of the local culture. It aims to protect rare and fragile ecosystems by encouraging responsible travel and mindful activities in local environments. The foundations of ecotourism are sustainability, a proactive approach to conservation, and sustainable development, which offer both environmental and socio-economic benefits to the community. Ecotourism is considered an ideal tool for promoting sustainable development and is particularly well-suited for developing countries.
Ecotourism is crucial for national economic development, local development, and the empowerment of marginalized groups, rural women, and indigenous peoples. It supports the two assumptions that nature and culture can attract tourists as an alternative to conventional infrastructure-based tourism, as well as alternative forms of outdoor and adventure tourism. The Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center (NAPWC) in Quezon City, Philippines, serves as a case study to highlight these roles of ecotourism. Masungi Georeserve plays an important role in conserving landscapes in the Philippines, and ecotourism could positively affect the conservation status of Tagaytay Ridge. To support this, a study seeks to determine the interests and concerns of stakeholders involved in current ecotourism projects surrounding Masungi Georeserve.
This study utilizes Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM) to examine the interests, concerns, and deep-rooted variables that heavily influence the outcomes of ecotourism projects and policies. Eleven variables were identified and analyzed: accessibility, pocket tourism, environmental impact, tourism reliance as a livelihood, environmental education, government reliance, local culture preservation, unfair policies, low estimation of skills, tourism case studies, and intimidation of power imbalance. Data was collected through a series of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) in various stakeholder groups and was analyzed using ISM. Supported by current literature, the analysis reveals the interconnectedness of the identified variables and suggests necessary actions to ensure that ecotourism projects serve their intended purpose.
Definition and Principles
Ecotourism entered the public consciousness in the late 1980s. It denotes an approach to sustainability that seeks to reconcile development (i.e., tourism) with the protection of natural environments and the fair treatment of local communities. At the outset, it is important to clarify what is understood by the term ecotourism and to outline its basic principles. While the use of the concept outside this strict definition is acknowledged, broader interpretations typically go hand in hand with bad practices or greenwashing.
Ecotourism promotes a “visitation to relatively undisturbed natural areas, intended as a low-impact and often small-scale alternative to standard commercial tourism.” The ecotourism label may legitimately be used only if it applies to the entire tourism offering that includes tourist activity, transport, accommodation, and any information and education on biodiversity it may provide. Transgression occurs when part of the tourism offer is not ecologically sustainable, when nature conservation is not the priority of the total tourism offering, or when gross (social) injustice is found in the way the host communities participate in or benefit from the ecotourism project.
Not (mass) tourism – this has become the first and last safeguard in many wetland areas. Medium- and large-scale resorts are often not ecotourism but mass tourism, sticking to the earlier explanation. The middle ground between ecotourism and mass tourism is often mistaken for ecotourism where only one or two areas under consideration actually fit the definition (for example, an ecotourism lodge in a national park). Unplanned growth of such projects can turn picturesque coasts and forest areas into concrete jungles, marinas, and potholes. Islands may become overrun with tourists, their ecosystems disrupted by beach-driving jet skis, water sports, smoking barbecues and illegal fishing and coral harvesting, leading to ecological and socio-economic collapse. Destruction of mangroves, seagrass beds, and corals may lead to coastline erosion and abandonment of fishing villages, forcing local inhabitants to migrate to large cities in search of a livelihood.
Importance of Ecotourism
Ecotourism is an innovative approach that aims to address the growing issue of environmental degradation associated with traditional tourism. It provides exciting opportunities for development, particularly in less economically developed areas that are endowed with natural attractions. Geotourism is a form of sustainable tourism, which focuses on the geological attributes of a specific region (i.e. “place-based tourism”). In recent years, the Philippines has gained popularity as a top tourist destination in Southeast Asia’s travel industry. However, to boost ecotourism opportunities, destinations must expand beyond sun, sand, and surf to include nature- and culture-based attractions such as local flora and fauna, unique rock formations, caves, local festivals, and heritage structures.
Ecotourism has numerous short-term and long-term benefits that make it a viable and attractive form of tourism development. The most important benefit of ecotourism is its role in protecting biodiversity. The government, conservation groups, NGOs, and local communities can create sustainable ecotourism initiatives to protect sensitive ecosystems while providing alternative sources of income to offset livelihood loss. Ecotourism can directly contribute to the sustainable management of natural resources by funding conservation efforts and fostering an attitude of stewardship among stakeholders. Ultimately, ecotourism can foster an appreciation for wildlife and other natural resources, thereby encouraging its protection.
In addition, ecotourism can benefit local communities by providing them with economically viable alternatives to destructive activities such as poaching, logging, over-harvesting, or pollution. Local participation in ecotourism projects can ensure that local communities gain economically and socially. Investment in ecotourism often includes community infrastructure development (i.e., roads, water supply, etc.) that can benefit both tourism and non-tourism sectors. Also, non-tourism related employment opportunities could be offered, including a variety of jobs, such as handicraft production and transportation services.
Masungi Georeserve: A Case Study
Masungi Georeserve is a conservation and hiking destination located in the eastern part of Rodriguez, Rizal, a boundary to the southeast of Metro Manila, Philippines. The protected area of 250 hectares consists of an unusual karst landscape with lush vegetation, steep cliffs, and limestone formations. Masungi Georeserve is often referred to as a “georeserve” due to its unique geological features, meaning it has a special purpose of conservation and restoration of nature.
Masungi Georeserve is home to more than 350 fauna and flora species, some of which are critically endangered and endemic to the Philippines, such as the Philippine Eagle and Waling-Waling orchids. Masungi Georeserve is also a headwater for many rivers, streams, and waterfalls and is essential for flood mitigation and protecting nearby communities from landslides and flooding. Under the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act (E-NIPAS) of 2018, the area of Masungi Georeserve has been declared a protected area as a geologically important area and land form.
Masungi Georeserve was originally commissioned by the government to be reclaimed for informal settlements and government housing under a national government program. As preparation for the reclamation commenced, the erstwhile Sumagui forest was denuded, and aggravated by illegal quarrying, logging, and poaching, several endemic, rare, and endangered wildlife and flora lost their habitat. Due to the extensive forest loss, the land squatter invasion became rampant. Damaged by years of neglect and unsustainable use, the area was reduced to a barren dirt and wild grassland.
As part of continuing rehabilitation efforts, basic slope stabilization measures such as re-grassing and tree planting were undertaken. In the period from 1999-2008, the site experienced gradual natural recovery through the protection provided by the early rehabilitation efforts. Originally commissioned by Masungi, Landco responded to numerous requests for urgent attention to the police and civil authorities regarding forest squatters moving into the area. Series of public hearings, extensive dialogues, and negotiation led to an agreement to form an NGO-CBO partnership for sustainable development. The establishment of the Masungi Georeserve Foundation and Community Organization in 2012 with the support of the local government and other partners finalizes an institutional framework for good governance.
The Masungi Georeserve’s vision is to restore and protect the forests on the karst mountain of Masungi and to share its beauty, significance, and stories to the communities, the Philippines, and the world. It essentially envisions the area as becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site, an IUCN Category II Protected Area, a national park by law, a biodiversity hotspot, and a stable pristine forest in the future.
To achieve that vision, some plans have been outlined such as building, rehabilitating, and creating reserves, corridors, and buffers; conserving, protecting, and restoring prime and critical biodiversity areas; establishing a robust biodiversity monitoring program; developing a plan to transition settlements within the estate towards eco-farming; and acquiring needed support from local, regional, and global authorities while building awareness within the international communities are among the eco-social plans. It also aims to share the experience through undertaking research to document and analyze lessons learned and activities; developing outreach materials and conducting knowledge-sharing sessions; and engaging in policy advocacy.
Location and Description
Masungi Georeserve is a unique 250-million-year-old limestone formation situated in the Silangin Range in the eastern part of the Philippines in Barangay Pinagsangahan in Rizal Province, approximately 30 km east of Manila. It is particularly important for its limestone karst landscape, which is home to five endemic genera of plants. It has the highest woody plant richness and diversity in the entire province of Rizal.
In June 1996, the Masungi Georeserve was declared by then President Fidel V. Ramos as a protected area through the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act through Proclamation 296 and Proclamation 1081. The area was designated as a national park under the covenants of the UNESCO on Man and Biosphere Programme. It was given strict protection through the establishment of a new protective administrative and buffer zone of at least 40 kilometers around the area.
The Masungi Georeserve must provide environmental and resource protection in collaboration with the concerned national and local governmental agencies, relevant non-governmental organizations, the local population, and trans-Sangley Point landowners, and interested parties. In this context, it must be administered and protected in such a way as to enhance the forests, atmosphere, water resource, and land resource, reproductive biotopes of flora and fauna, and other natural and cultural resources of special interest.
Masungi Georeserve, located in Rizal Province, is a privately owned area that has become famous for its limestone ridge and conservation programs. A former deforested area, the Georeserve has 123 hectares of karst landscape with a biodiversity of flora and fauna. Despite its economic potential for quarrying, Masungi is currently used as an ecotourism area. The site has five endemic genera of plants, with the highest woody plant richness and diversity in the entire province of Rizal. Some of Masungi’s rare plants include Nepenthes piningii, Ardisia insularis, Hypericum floribundum, Opisthotelea masungi, and Pandanus grayana.
Conservation Efforts
Masungi Georeserve was founded with a mission to conserve a unique karst landscape in Rizal Province near Metro Manila. Its protection was formalized through a 1996 agreement with the Philippine government, creating a 24-year lease with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Masungi has since legally pursued crimes that have ravaged the landscape, including illegal quarrying and poaching.
The Masungi Georeserve Foundation, created in 2001, actively rallies local communities, volunteers, and young people to plant trees through the “Project: Planting for the People” program. Since 2010, the grant-making initiative has supported various government units, schools, and NGOs, resulting in a successful collaboration that has planted over 375,000 trees. Masungi is a key partner in the Critical Binucayan Watershed Project, a multi-stakeholder effort led by the provincial government of Rizal.
Masungi serves on the Board and Technical Committee of the Bunlong River Watershed Management Council, overseeing the sustainable management of a 10,000-hectare watershed. Since 2015, various reforestation projects have planted over 200,000 trees through the Kay Wais and Hossana programs. Community members are likewise trained in agroforestry and alternative livelihoods, such as eco-tourism.
Visitor Experience
Visitors coming from various places, within and outside the Philippines, enjoy outdoor activities with family, friends, and colleagues at Masungi Georeserve. They have friendly and approachable guides. Masungi Georeserve offers eco-trekking packages and morning trails that include lunch. Visitors are greeted with an archway made of a fallen tree and a map board that shows activities and trail times. There’s a half-day eco-trail where visitors can learn about the conservation efforts of the reserve. It showcases the unique flora and fauna of the area, ensuring visitors are aware of how to properly appreciate it. Eco-trail guides are chosen to navigate the reserve and encourage teamwork for a more enjoyable adventure. The eco-trail consists of several secured paths, visitor hubs, viewing decks, and interactive activities, all focusing on the protection of the area by simply immersing themselves in it. Guides engage in storytelling and facts as visitors explore the trails. Eco-trails are taken along the “Masungi” rocks or limestone formations, where midday sun rays, accompanied by clouds, increase the chill and refresh the hike. The sun views are worth it during the excursion. Visitors get a chance to walk through a web trail secured by cables. The reserve is home to unique flora like a giant cycad tree, butterfly ferns, and a strangler fig. All of these efforts make the reservation an ideal destination for nature appreciation.
Impact of Masungi Georeserve on Local Communities
The Masungi Georeserve project has had far-reaching impacts, particularly on local communities. Incorporating geotourism into preferred ecotourism activities, Masungi Georeserve mustered the support of a local barangay to have an area dedicated to its award-winning geotourism program. Recognition of the importance of maintaining environmental integrity where local communities reside and deriving employment and income from community prerogatives led to the promotion of the Masungi Georeserve.
Various organizations undertook initiatives to prevent ongoing degradation, settlement, and illegal excavation developments. Among these initiatives was a proposal for a social enterprise community-based ecotourism development program in the Masungi Georeserve area in Baras, Rizal. After getting Municipal Council Ordinance No. 10 in 2005 recognizing traditional security of local resource ownership, Masungi Georeserve underscored the MRRPro- insisting on transferred management over areas to remain untouched by mining. Similar transfers of control have been implemented in Nueva Vizcaya Province between pro-mining and pro-environment.
Alternative ecotourism based on popular, heavy sports activities have also sprung up on Sierra Madre Range- Mt. Pulag which would become catastrophic to biodiversity if continued. Local communities have dendro/nuevas on borderline uplands like emerging markets for allowable landscape modification developments. Contextualizing Masungi Georeserve mapping 20/45 natural-point based economic landsystems found areas hidden under thickets (with zones containing surface lithologic bio-physio-socio structures) in the upper half of Masungi Georeserve viability within uplands and bio-diverse, eco-sensitive coverage inside Laguna de bay watershed.
Community negotiation of work and repayment cycles based on practices of past generations would fit viability protection of Masungi Georeserve. Eyes on local communities growing potential in bringing competitive recreations of slow-paced, near-nature, eco-cultural experience in Masungi Georeserve. With increasing (10% each year) development pressure on burgeoning real-terrain economic programs, Masungi Georeserve has a fiscal windowed 20 years to establish community-bounded protections over GDP-proof, enjoyable, one of kind economic spaces.
Management-supported voluntary conservation of guamax-implemented safety nets of economic zones would turn-up risker up landholdings drastically hoarded by land-grabbers. Existing land-use practices would derive inclusive distribution of protective incomes traced to boundary spatially-intact actions of environmental integrity and ample supply of sustainability goods to positioned mutual benefit downstream. Inputs of knowledge bottlenecks sustaining high costs of economic activities would also be sourced symbiotically establishing the forefront-of-impact growth spaces for Manila metros eco-sensitive planning need.
As external networks dry-up cash-slips community-knowledge annual revolving funds would make eventual-synergy down the speed of settlements and culvert eventualization of allowing excessive-modernizations.
Economic Benefits
The successful initiatives to restore a degraded limestone forest in the Philippines reveal economic benefits for the local communities participating in the eco-trekking program at Masungi Georeserve. Aside from the increase in park visitation that brings in P458 to 989 for local communities with around 20 to 60 total visitors per day, distribution of benefits depends upon the distance of the community. Benefits received by communities farther away, as those under deeper poverty, can be acknowledged by Brunt and Courtney’s (1999) concept of geographic inequity in benefits distribution.
The high charges imposed on eco-trekking are affordable in the face of high demand, revealing a clear benefit with park visitation intensifying. A recent visitor survey in May 2017 indicated resounding support for park entry fees of P700 per individual. Benefits exceed the opportunity cost of travel, currently P165 per round trip, thus displaying the economic support to Masungi’s creation as a protected area. To further rectify the unequal distribution of benefits in geographic terms, local economic development programs targeting farther away wards could be considered. Presently, these communities with about 2450 residents lack employment.
The majority (65%) of jobs thus far generated with Masungi’s eco-tourism program being in secondary income-generating activities, have been added to the employment of community members in food vending, transport, and trade. Livelihoods for these secondary income-generating activities, however, remain relatively insecure, as they depend on the number of park visitors, thus transforming them into a function of Masungi’s own employment. Masungi Georeserve thus far is aiming to set up microenterprises as a strategy of employment and diversification to lessen this risk. To assess the feasibility of this further social impact indicator for future environmental-economic projects, various criteria can be taken into account. The servicing industry requires skills that are best learned through practice rather than education.
Social Benefits
The Masungi Georeserve also promotes social benefits, as it endorses education, skill development, health and wellness programs, and community engagement. With its goal to protect and maintain the natural beauty of the land, the initiatives implemented by Masungi aim to advocate for nature conservation and irrefutably lead to programs and projects in communities around the park. In turn, these projects and programs are tailored to provide education to locals on environmental and industry practices to preserve gemstones throughout development, agriculture, planting and reforestation initiatives. Such activities assist in protecting, promoting, and rehabilitating nature, in turn implementing proper ecosystem management.
Aside from educational programs, Masungi also conducts various skill development workshops and training programs with everything from suman making and weaving, to bio cooking, pruning, and landscaping. Here, members of the community are invited to share their skills and provide employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. This leads to projects built around various health and wellness programs within local communities, ranging from various sports activities and exercise coaching to hiking and plantito training programs, all designed to reduce the community’s vulnerability within socio-economic crises.
Within the georeserve are now establishments such as bike trails with various biking locations, picnic grounds, and a water source for nearby communities. Non-intrusive auxiliary services provided to visitors such as videography, herbal tea and food, nature scavenger hunts, and even artworks, are also being promoted, alongside the planting of new types of flowers, herbs, fruits, and vegetables, with an objective to sustain the propagation of local biodiversity.
Challenges and Opportunities for Ecotourism at Masungi Georeserve
As ecotourism continues to increase in popularity, it is essential to evaluate its challenges to ensure environments remain pristine. While the Masungi Georeserve, as an ecotourism destination in the Philippines, promises to preserve biodiversity while offering educational experiences in nature, it faces significant barriers in maintaining sustainable tourism practices. Addressing a growing perception of protest requiring immediate government intervention—alongside criticism of possible exploitation and diminished biodiversity—can help advance Masungi’s reforestation efforts. Furthermore, strategizing to manage a growing influx of visitors and capitalizing on the widespread social media attention regarding the Georeserve and conservation efforts can propel Masungi into the limelight of Filipino culture. Despite many uncertainties facing this seven-hundred-hectare area, exponential opportunities exist to further the public’s appreciation of forested environments and reinstate their natural spirit.
The expansion of the Masungi Georeserve is the most prominent concern currently facing the site. Areas surrounding the fence originally constructed to protect the park from deforestation have recently been claimed by wealthy owners purportedly to facilitate the establishment of resorts. This disregard for public interest showcases a growing trend of similar land encroachments throughout the Philippines, threatening to conduct illegal land activities that would blatantly violate existing laws (National Integrated Protected Areas System Act). The corporation owning the land surrounding Masungi, SMDC, heir to the Sy family fortune, proposes to conduct mining activities in Sabina Falls, home to a breeding ground for 232 species of flora. Recently, individuals of sensitive species have been recorded in the area. Thus, the Masungi Georeserve requires immediate assistance from the government and climate activists to initiate plans to expand the Georeserve and stave off this impending disaster. Formal negotiations may not suffice, as plans to take the Georeserve to the Supreme Court end up in years of litigation filled with inefficiencies and legal loopholes. Taking inspiration from the social media-led protest of the Verde Island passage, a large-scale awareness campaign may be necessary to protect surrounding environments from the impending misconduct of wealthy families.
The Masungi Georeserve has taken the initiative to protect the limestone landscape of the Masungi wilderness. It has derived creative methods to counter land-grabbing and unsafe building developments in the national park by promoting their sanctuary to the mass populace as a treasured natural resource to be valued and conserved. Local communities have been trained and engaged as the park’s caretakers, involving them in the planning of the sanctuary’s eco-tourism product. The sanctuary has become an internationally recognized best-practice model of inclusive tourism development and as one of Asia’s premier ecotourism destinations. To achieve conservation and ecotourism development, operating within a national or local government structure aids sustainability. Collaboration with local communities in resource management, as seen in the Masungi experience, could hopefully prevent “green grab” threats in other parts of the world. Ecotourism, if properly designed and managed, can be a tool for both conservation and climate resilience, as featured in the Masungi Georeserve. Additional financing is still needed to achieve restoration goals in a timely manner, since ecotourism development has emerged as an alternative income source for the sanctuary. Party/guest fees and park entrance fees could only offset operations and maintenance costs, with excess funds invested in restoration and reforestation initiatives.
Comprehensive public and private financing strategies will enable the sanctuary to achieve its ambitious restoration goals for the full-growth forest in a timely manner. Corporate sponsorship and public and private funding pools to support conservation NGOs and civil society initiatives, particularly those with a biome-wide approach, and innovative win-win partnerships between initiation and realization and growing win-win collaboration offer possible complementary funding paths. The Masungi Georeserve experience may also inspire large private landowners to offer their land in ecotourism partnerships to ensure climate-proof forests, as seen in the Masungi experience. Sustainable tourism development will also be accompanied by land restoration and expansion of the protected area. However, it remains vital to have a greater share of the tourism income reaching the local communities as a whole, thus enhancing the overall positive impacts of sustainability.