In researching this issue’s theme of waste management and carrying capacity I was regularly reminded that El Nido’s problems are not unique. The connection of global citizens visiting our town is paramount in our collaborative effort to educate both locals and visitors on the issues of climate change, consumptive lifestyle behaviors, and waste management. The struggle to effectively manage waste is one of a global scale. The
World Bank reports that,
“More than half the world’s population does not have access to regular trash collection. Unregulated or illegal dump sites serve about 4 billion people and hold over 40% of the world’s waste.”
These notes accurately reflect much of the local situation. While there are private sector efforts (see:
Our Effort to Help the Stink) they are often times unaligned in their approach with local government’s regulatory efforts.
Any economic activity that occurs within our ecosystems should always strive and be inclusive of our process of wastes associated with those activities. Often times out of sight, out of mind mentality don’t align our activities towards cost mitigation. We dig holes to bury our garbage but when the carrying capacity of that hole overflows and the pile of shit we stack is seen this is when we react. The El Nido community seems to be reactive rather than preventative even when data is presented.
The further I fall into the hole of research concerning waste management the more I realize the immense challenges El Nido faces. Individually, locals of El Nido have 2.5 times more waste per day than the average global citizen, 6 times more than the national average and in less than 10 years has tripled the amount of individual waste produced. (Read
Sustainable Tourism and Wastes).
El Nido, we need change, we need infrastructure, we need legal structures that help guide us, and we need financial sustainability from businesses and local governments. While sustainability and carrying capacity seek balances between populations, consumption and waste assimilation. This can only happen when the stakeholders of El Nido’s community become more proactive in working tighter towards alignment. We need a forum for citizen engagement, a concern for healthy and safety, and a holistic, systematic approach that’s data driven rather than politically or emotionally driven. For visitors of El Nido we ask that you be part of the conversation asking vendors, restaurants, tour operators, and hotels about some of these issues.
The difficulty with learning about the environment is your exposure to what the challenges truly are. Aside from the actual ecological issues that surround us there are barriers to solving them- cultural mentalities, inefficient governments, irresponsible business practices, and what often times simply put is a lack of genuine care. While there are continual efforts being thrown at gigantic problems its hard to know if these are simply drops in the ocean. Our hope is there are enough drops to create a flood.
A word on the cover photo
This photo was given to us by 愛妮島野孩子. This shows the representation of an island paradise as exactly that, a paradise. However behind the scene of the tourism growth is a struggle for proper infrastructure to keep pace especially with the explosion of the tourism population. In full view is one of our tourist sites, the not so “Secret” Lagoon, followed by a number of bancas (boats). An eco-sustainable tourism model in El Nido would scrutinize the carrying capacity of both the local population and the tourist population. Carrying capacity simply put refers to the largest population an ecosystem can sustain without degrading its ecosystem. Key factors in sustainability include the number of population, its consumption and its waste assimilation.
Originally published in ESTEL Magazine Issue 4, June 2018.
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