Mid of February, the Forum Kerala, a collective of civil society movements, people's groups and individuals urged Kerala Government to withdraw its move to introduce Special Tourism Zones within the state. The group also asked Kerala Government to appoint a commission, where representatives of civil society organisations and people's groups should be part, to assess the environmental, social and economic damages caused by the tourism industry within the state before initiating new projects, plans and marketing srategies. The forum also demanded that the tourism industry should give compensation to the affected people in the tourist destinations for its damages. The statement issued by the forum also strongly criticised Kerala ourism's move to se "Responsible Tourism" for its marketing. ECOT is supporting this campaign in solidarity with the Peoples of Kerala. Focus of the upcoming March/April CONTOURS magazine, will be on STZ/SEZ development with India,and Peru as urging examples.

Claudia Romiti

Excerpted from Romiti, C (2005) “Kerala A Travelers’ Delight” [EQUATIONS;
Globalverkstan ]

The negative economic impacts that the project would have had on the local people can be understood in terms of the loss of livelihood opportunities through displacement. Development of the resorts and other facilities would involve displacing entire villages whose populations were involved either in cultivation (of paddy and tobacco) or fishing. This would lead to direct unemployment of 10,000 fishermen and farmers but would also severely impact the livelihoods of other who are dependent on these industries like fish merchants, ice planters and casual laborers, thus violating the fundamental right of the citizens conferred by,Constitution of India.

Two day workshop on "Tourism Policies and Encroachments" concluded in Thiruvananthapuram,(July 1-2 July 2007) organised by civil society groups in Kerala demanded state government for a appointing people's commission to evaluate the tourism development in the state. The workshop also called upon to central government to scrap its attempt to implement Coastal Zone Management Plan to undermine the Coastal Zone Regulation notification.

The Theeradesa Mahilavedi (Coastal Women's Forum) has called for civil society support to their opposition to the World Tourism Day celebrations, present pattern of tourism development in the state and, its politics in the context of the World Tourism Organization's tourism day message that "Tourism opens doors for women" and tourism's negative impacts on women, local communities, environment and culture.

The constructions of the tourism project at Ozhinhavalappu in Kanhangad Municipality, Kasaragod District by the Chopra group is completely in the turtle nesting site which repel the turtles away from their paradise. Each and every one of you should appeal to the concerned to spare the breading site of the turtles.

Given the stated criteria that the award committee is supposed to rely on, local communities in tourism destinations would be bewildered to find Kerala being selected as one of the finalists for the destination award. The State Tourism Department has done very little to ensure maximum benefits to the local communities or minimum negative impacts to the natural environment.

The Kerala Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan recently announced that the creation of Special Tourism Zones (STZ) would be considered if private parties having large tracts of land approach the State Government. He also declared that government would change the rules relating to acquisition of land for tourism projects in the State.The government’s plan to announce STZs in Kerala has to be challenged because it will augment the pressure over the natural and other resources such as land, water, forests and will lead to environmental destruction, revenue losses and lack of real economic development of the state, breakdown of governance systems especially of the Panchayats with the creation of enclaves and lack of equal and non-exploitative employment opportunities for local communities in STZs.

To
Sri. V.S. Achuthanandan
Honourable Chief Minister of Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram.

Sub: Appeal against the approval of Special Tourism Zones within the state.

Dear Sir,

We express our serious concern regarding the proposal for the new Special Tourism Zones on the lines of Special Economic Zones within the state. We are writing this letter to you in the context of Honourable Kerala Tourism Minister’s statement on Special Tourism Zone during the inauguration of the recent workshop on Responsible Tourism organised by Kerala Tourism. Minister announced that the creation of STZs would be considered if private parties having large tracts of land approach the State Government. He also declared that government would change the rules relating to acquisition of land for tourism projects in the State.