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14 new golf courses for parched Cyprus

In the face of strong opposition to what has been described as “one of the biggest scandals seen in Cyprus”, the government is adamant that the rapid expansion from 3 to 17 golf courses will not jeopardise the island’s water and energy supplies because each golf course will have its own water desalination plant powered by renewable energy sources.

UK Golf course / Photo by Stephen Robertson

Water is already scarce in Cyprus

The government froze plans for the 14 new golf courses last summer, when rainfall on Cyprus dropped to just a fifth of average levels, forcing the island to rely on tankers carrying water from Greece. Water to households is still being rationed, with the mains supply running for only three half-days a week. According to Costas Papastavros, an agriculture and natural resources ministry official who has openly slammed the project, the golf courses will suck up approximately 30 million cubic metres (cmc) of water annually, compared to the population’s drinking water needs of 85cmc.

Opponents to the developments also anticipate that each golf course will be surrounded by luxurious villas and other tourist facilities in order for the developers to recoup construction costs quickly, placing a further strain on the country’s water supply.

Despite much local resistance, however, the government has now allowed the projects to go ahead in a bid to stave off the negative impacts of the global financial crisis. It hopes that the additional golf courses will attract visitors from new tourism markets and extend the tourism season beyond the traditional summer period.

Desalination too energy hungry to be green

Cyprus’s Water Development Department (WDD) has observed that “the prolonged drought of the last decade of the 20th century had drastically reduced the water reserves of the surface and underground reservoirs”. In an attempt to reduce the country’s dependency on rainfall, Cyprus opened its first desalination plant in 1997 and now has two in operation.

In light of such considerable water shortages, the government has required that each new golf course has its own desalination plant, which should be powered by renewable energy sources in order to ensure that the water and energy and balance on the island is not adversely affected. Residents and environmentalists have, however, raised concerns about noise and air pollution from the plants, as well as the demands they will place on electricity. Environmentalists are not convinced that such an expansion will not require fuel-fired energy generation. The Federation of Environment and Ecological Organisations in Cyprus has pointed out that renewable energy technologies are not yet advanced enough to keep up with such growth in demand.

What is happening in Cyprus reflects a similar situation in countries all over the world where, in order to meet growing water demands, governments are building energy-intensive desalination plants. However, it is the local people who bear the costs, both through higher service charges and connection fees, and through damage to the coastal environment that the building of such plants entails.

Water as human right

The United Nations asserted water as human right in 2002, clarifying the obligation for governments to extend access to sufficient, affordable, accessible and safe water supplies as their resources allow. The need for action is further emphasised by the UN designation of 2005 – 2015 as the Water for Life decade.

However, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), around 880 million people do not have access to a decent source of drinking water and 2.5 billion people do not have access to proper sanitation. With water supplies under growing strain due to intensive use and climate change, the number of people living under severe water stress is expected to rise to 3.9 billion by 2030. As water becomes increasingly scarce due to climate change and desertification, conflicts over water supply between tourism demands and other livelihood needs are set to intensify.

The right to water has also been recognised as crucial to achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals. Despite growing pressure from international experts and campaigning organisations, the World Water Forum, which gathers ministers across from the globe, has so far failed to recognise water as a fundamental human right, merely acknowledging it as a “basic need”. Improving water resource management is a key program area for the World Water Council and was discussed at the 2009 World Water Forum. However, apart from a brief mention about tourism placing unsustainable demands on water resources, no specific ‘action’ has been identified to address and remedy the negative impacts of tourism on local water use and availability.

The tourism industry as a whole has failed to adequately engage with the issue of its disproportionate water consumption on the lives and livelihoods of communities in destination countries. It is frequently the case that whilst tourists can enjoy several showers a day, swimming pools, golf courses and lush landscaped gardens, neighbouring communities face severe water shortages, often exacerbating already extreme conditions of hardship and poverty.

Further information:

• Read more about tourism and water issues at Tourism Concern
• Past Tourism Concern Campaigns: Tourism and Golf

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Stop The Construction Of Mega-Resorts

Hilton Rarotonga under construction / Photo by Stephen Chapman

The global trend in developing luxury, large-scale resorts is leading to widespread alienation and displacement of people from their land, and is wreaking havoc on fragile ecosystems. Poor communities in developing countries, which depend heavily upon their natural resources for their livelihoods are the hardest hit.

Huge tracts of public and privately owned land are being ‘grabbed’ and sold off to real estate developers by governments keen to expand tourism in pursuit of economic growth. In reality, little of the profit from internationally managed resorts stays in the local economy. The trickle down of tourism revenue to those who have lost their homes and livelihoods is minimal, particularly in the face of rising living costs associated with an influx of tourists and owners of expensive second homes. Cheap migrant labour is often drafted in from abroad to work on the developments, while opportunities for employment in the exclusive five-star resorts are limited to the most menial, poorly paid roles.

“The development of mega-resorts and all the social and environmental problems that go with them is an issue facing communities from Scotland to Bulgaria, from Spain to the Bahamas, India to Thailand. Tourism has to be developed in a more sustainable, transparent and democratic way. That means listening to the needs of local people and the environment, and demands an abandonment of the ‘economic growth at all costs’ attitude that is seeing communities dispossessed of their homes and their means of earning a living the world over.”

- Tricia Barnett, Director of Tourism Concern

Environmental damage, outsourced jobs & poor treatment of workers

Despite fierce public opposition, the development of the sprawling Bimini Bay Resort on the tiny island of North Bimini in the Bahamas has caused irreparable damage to the marine ecosystem, which local people depend upon for their livelihoods. A scandal is now raging in Mexico, where migrant workers brought in to work on the resort’s construction claim that they were underpaid, poorly treated and had their passports confiscated to prevent them from leaving.

On the West Indian island of Grenada, the government has sold off state land for a luxury development spanning 400 acres and including 170 private villas, a private island, a golf course and marina. The resort will also incorporate part of the Mount Hartman National Park, despite it being a protected area and the last remaining habitat of the rare Grenada dove. Local people are angry about the lack of public consultation and say that no compensation has been paid to the rightful owners of the land.

Lack of concern for local populations

The appropriation of agricultural land and marine areas for tourism in developing countries is also a causing alarm amongst local people. Here, entrenched poverty means that many face hunger on a daily basis. Efforts to alleviate this are being undermined by the conversion of agricultural land and loss of access to the sea to facilitate the construction of resorts, second homes and golf courses.

Strain on natural resources

Climate change is placing a further, unprecedented strain on natural resources, particularly fresh water for drinking and agriculture.

“The needs and rights of local communities are being pitched directly against those of mega-resorts, with the resorts winning out almost every time. Golf courses, landscaped gardens, swimming pools and showers all consume vast quantities of water, much more than the local communities, who often have to walk a considerable distance to fetch water that is barely drinkable”

- Tricia Barnett

Governments and developers regularly espouse ‘responsible tourism’ policies, covering issues such as sustainability, community participation and damage to the environment. However, all too often this amounts to little more than a marketing tool to win popular support and attract tourists.

An alternative vision of the future of global tourism

Tourism Concern has joined with campaigning groups from all over the world to call for a moratorium on the construction of mega-resorts and in support of the ‘Declaration of Belém’. Issued at the World Social Forum in Belém do Pará, Brazil, the Declaration presents an alternative vision of the future of global tourism, and urges for more just and sustainable practices on the part of industry and governments.

Further Information:

• Mega Resort Threatens Local Communities In Honduras
• Concerns Over New Four Seasons Resort In Grenada
• Abandonned Hotel In Paradise

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Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project

Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project

The code Tourism Concern produced for tour operators highlighting minimum standards for Porters’ working conditions continues to have a positive impact on the lives of many porters today. Tricia Barnett visited one of our partner organisations in Tanzania and brings you an update on the successes and challenges that face the trekking porters of Mount Kilimanjaro.

The Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP) is working tirelessly to improve conditions for trekking porters. Based on Tourism Concern’s code of conduct, KPAP’s Guidelines for Proper Porter Treatment is central to their work. This includes many of the guidelines we introduced for minimum standards for porters, including adequate clothing and equipment, transparent tipping procedures, loads not exceeding 25kg, and wages set at Tsh 6000 (£3.20) to Tsh 8000 (£4.30) a day in agreement with the Kilimanjaro National Park and the Tanzania Association of Tour Operators.

But KPAP have told us there is there is still a long way to go. They have surveyed over 2000 porters on their working conditions. The survey revealed that only 20% of local companies climbing Kilimanjaro pay the mandatory wage and neither government institutions nor the private sector are willing to enforce the distribution of the minimum wage.

“Some porters have to pay a bribe of $5-15 to the guide in order to be hired for a climb. Some only eat one meal per day and are still forced to carry more than the 25kg in weight.”

- Karen Valenti, Programme Manager of KPAP

To further improve conditions, KPAP has initiated a partnership programme, which brings together local trekking organisations who adhere to the Proper Porter Treatment guidelines and overseas companies concerned about porters’ working conditions. KPAP disseminates information about these responsible operators to the general public, specifically targeting climbers and overseas tour operators climbing Kilimanjaro.

“Monitoring of the local companies is essential to ensuring that the actual practices on the mountain reflect what is professed by the company. This includes porter interviews, observation during climbs and surveying the climbers. Only then can we and the trekkers be confident that porters are working under adequate conditions.”

- Karen Valenti, Programme Manager of KPAP

Further information

• Read Tourism Concern’s list of tour operators with ethical policies
• Read Tourism Concern’s ‘Trekking Wrongs: Porter’s Rights campaign’

Mega Resort Threatens Local Communities In Honduras

The Micos Golf and Beach Resort is funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), it’s already forced out one community in Tela Bay and is now threatening others in the Barra Vieja area. International human rights groups have called for Honduran officials and the IDB to suspend the project until all outstanding land, environmental and territorial issues have been addressed with the Garifuna communities. They have urged for compensation to be paid to the Garifuna for the distress and loss and damage of property and land already suffered.

Despite a fifteen year-struggle to defend the rights of the Garifuna in Honduras, 36 communities are now under severe threat because of the project. The first phase of the multimillion dollar development includes luxury hotels, a golf course and shopping centres built on Garifuna land. The resort will also extend into the Jeanette Kawas National Ecological Reserve. However, the IDB is insisting that it is an ecologically sustainable project.

The Garifuna are being squeezed out

The Garifuna are being increasingly squeezed out as the resort is developed. Communities in Miami in the West of Tela Bay have already been forced out by tourism developments. Now a four-lane tourist road linking Barra Vieja to the Miami resorts is threatening the communities there. Local people and campaigning groups have stood up to the bulldozers and road graders in the past, but are now too afraid of potential negative repercussions from powerful interests.

Barra Vieja and Miami are one of the five Garifuna communities that settled in Tela Bay back in 1798. The three remaining communities in San Juan, Tornabe and Triunfo de la Cruz are also being pressured to sell their land and threatened by interests allegedly linked to the Micos project and the IDB.

“While Garifuna communities do not oppose tourism in itself, they want to be able to make use of their own land to develop a truly sustainable project”

- Teresa Reyes from Triunfo de la Cruz community

Heavy-handed tactics

Powerful business interests involved in major tourist projects have used heavy-handed tactics, from land invasion to intimidation and violence, in order to secure possession of land to sell on for considerable profit. The growth of tourism has also seen a dramatic rise in threats to Garifuna leaders who seek to protect the rights of their community. Promociones y Turismo (PROMOTUR), a wealthy and politically well-connected real estate company, has long been engaged in a land dispute with the local Garifuna community of San Juan. Garifuna activists and their supporters believe PROMOTUR is behind much of the intimidation and threats aimed at community leaders.

There have been increasing concerns over the security of Garifuna community members and leaders who have suffered acts of intimidation, including harassment and threats at gunpoint to sign over community land. Amnesty International has issued several urgent appeals in this regard. Most recently, one community leader was reportedly abducted, beaten and threatened with death by ten men, thought to be private security guards working for a local real estate company.

The Garifuna achieved legal recognition in the courts for their communally-held land in 1992. Their struggle, however, started only two years later when powerful interests moved in to the area. Legislation favouring privatisation has rendered the collectively-held land titles of the Garifuna obsolete and allowed them to be broken up into individual deeds, making it easier for developers to target individual landowners. In Miami, most residents eventually sold their plots, opening the way for investors. Many believed that the land would be stolen anyway if they did not sell.

“All this privatisation is illegal, and if it continues – we are going to die as a people…To lose our land is to lose everything. We are in a struggle for our life and we will do what it takes to defend ourselves”.

- Garifuna community leader, Alfredo Lopez.

Garifuna communities, with the help of OFRANEH, have taken their case to the inter-American commission of human rights and have a string of petitions before the inter-American court on human rights.

Further reading:

• human rights first: Garífuna Community Leader in Honduras Threatened with Death
• Upside Down World: The Last Rebels Of The Caribbean: Garifuna Fighting For Their Lives In Honduras

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UK Tour Operators Linked To Burma’s Military Regime

Use of hotels and resorts includes tourism establishments blacklisted under European Community (EC) trade sanctions because they are owned or directed by members of the regime and regime associates. It also includes tourism establishments which are managed by the regime in partnership with foreign companies under joint venture schemes.

“It is the responsibility of tour operators to ensure that they abide by the European legislation and do not provide financial benefits to the military dictatorship, which continues to perpetrate appalling human rights abuses against its own people. Given lack of transparency in Burma and the complex overlap between state- and private-owned enterprises, the best way to do this is simply to stop trading with Burma”.

- Tricia Barnett, Director of Tourism Concern, says:

Information regarding blacklisted individuals and their respective tourism enterprises is freely available in the public domain. Ironically, the majority of UK operators frequenting these hotels and resorts state that they avoid using businesses with links to the state authorities. “Tour operators should not provide misleading information to the general public about their ethical credentials. They need to do their homework about which hotels and resorts are known to be profiting the regime”, says Barnett.

European legislation

The European legislation set out in Council Regulation 194/2008 is directly applicable in the UK. However, a loophole in UK law, caused by the Government’s failure to update the Statutory Instrument which makes it an offence to breach the Regulation, means that any violation by a tour operator can currently go unpunished. The Treasury has confirmed to Tourism Concern that they are in the process of updating the Statutory Instrument, but would not say when it would be implemented.

A breach of the EC Regulation occurs where a tour operator knowingly provides either ‘direct’ or ‘indirect’ financial benefits to the regime or regime associates, as listed under the EC trade ban. The Treasury has confirmed that payments to blacklisted tourism businesses could be regarded as ‘indirectly’ for the benefit of their blacklisted owners and directors in certain circumstances. This includes, for example, where the owner or director receives a salary, a loan, or some other diversion of funds from the tourism enterprise in question. “Although it’s impossible to know whether these high-powered individuals are deriving any such ‘indirect’ funds from their luxury resorts and hotels, common sense tells us that they’re only going to be involved in the tourism business if they’re making good money from it”, states Barnett.

Tourism Concern’s briefing, ‘How UK tour operators are supporting Burma’s military regime through tourism‘, also identifies additional hotels and resorts that are reportedly owned by blacklisted individuals, but which are yet to be specified under the European trade ban. Hotels and resorts managed under joint venture schemes with the Burmese state authorities are not currently included in the ban.

Tourism Concern is calling on the EC to update the existing Council Regulation to include all tourism enterprises owned by blacklisted individuals. It is also calling on the UK Government to close the current loophole in the law and provide adequate guidance to UK tour operators to ensure that they do not risk breaching the EC Regulation.

Notes on Burma:

• The development of tourism in Burma is directly linked to mass human rights abuses. ‘Visit Myanmar’ year in 1996 was a deliberate strategy by the military regime to generate foreign currency through international tourism. Over a million people were forcibly displaced from their homes with little or no compensation to make way for tourism developments. Forced labour, including child labour, was used to build tourism infrastructure in order to increase Burma’s appeal to foreign investors and tourists. In 1998, the United Nations International Labour Organisation accused the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) of a ‘crime against humanity’ for its systematic use of forced labour.

• Targeted trade sanctions against the military regime in Burma were first introduced by the European Union in 2000 as part of international efforts to press for meaningful democratic reforms within the country. The most recent of these, Council Regulation (EC) 194/2008 (amended in Regulation 385/2008) was introduced in February 2008 following the violent crackdown of peaceful demonstrators in Burma in September 2007.

• Twenty-three tour operators registered in and/or operating from of the UK currently run trips to Burma. Although the majority of tourists visiting Burma are from Asia, the American and European markets reportedly represent up to 70 percent of tourism profits. The regime’s figures for 2005 showed Europe as constituting over 27 percent of the market share. France and Germany topped the list, followed by the UK.

• The regime continues to view tourism as a lucrative economic sector for expansion and development, particularly in terms of generating foreign direct investment and currency exchange. Taxes and income accrued from foreign investment and the development of infrastructure, as well as visa fees, airport duties and currency exchange – all unavoidable outlays for international tourists, provide vital financial support to the regime.

• According to the Burmese regime’s own figures, Burma earned US$182 million from tourism in 2007, up from US$164 million in 2006. It is unclear how much of this goes to the state authorities, but a former tourism minister put the figure at 12%. In fact, the real figure could be considerably higher, due to, for example, revenue accrued through additional taxes, corruption, and other economic links that the regime and its associates may have with the tourism industry.

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PAN Parks Sustainable Tourism Project Expanding

PAN Parks / Image from www.panparks.org

Protected Area Network Parks (PAN Parks) – an initiative set up in 1997 under the auspices of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and developed in partnership with Dutch leisure company Molecaten – is to expand its project combining nature conservation and responsible travel with the opening of three new parks.

The new additions, which are expected within the next three years, will meet PAN Parks core criteria designed to protect natural parks from mass development by promoting tourism as a tool for nature conservation and engaging local communities.

“If nature wants to survive today, it has to be profitable”

- Vlado Vancura, PAN Parks Conservation Manager

In line with PAN Parks certification requirements, the three parks will have to offer a core area of at least 100 km2 which can be classified as true wilderness. They will also need to comply with PAN Parks core principles covering environmental, social, economic and cultural aspects. PAN Parks notably focuses on the positive effects of community-based tourism by offering local residents alternative income opportunities, such as the possibility to set up small-scale tourism enterprises or to become professional tour operators.

The PAN Parks initiative aims to improve long-term conservation and tourism management of national parks that were previously undervalued due to their location in remote and/or poorer areas. While the first three parks received certification in 2002, the network currently includes eleven European protected wilderness areas spreading over nine countries including Bulgaria, Finland, Georgia, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and Russia.

In particular, PAN Parks intends to preserve the parks from unmanaged building development and mass tourism, which have become a serious threat in Eastern Europe where some formerly state-run parks changed hands to local communities or private ownership.

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Concerns Over New Four Seasons Resort In Grenada

Image: Mount Hartman Development website

Sandra Ferguson is convenor of Citizens in Defence of Grenada’s Lands & Heritage, a small pressure group of concerned individuals which formed in 2008. Their aim is to raise awareness and facilitate public debate on issues of development and environment. Its particular focus during the last year has been on a number of mega-tourism projects and other initiatives which threaten the rights of local people as well as Grenada’s built and natural heritage.

The Hog Island-Mount Hartman Development Project in Grenada is being undertaken by Cinnamon 88 and will eventually be managed by the Four Seasons hotel group. The development covers the mainland Mt. Hartman Estate, a National Park, and nearby Hog Island (also identified as a protected area). This 70-acre island has been owned by a local family for four generations.

According to Cinnamon 88, the development is “a 400 acre southerly coastal tropical woodland development incorporating 55 private island residences, 115 beach front marina and golf course villas, 18-hole golf course, spa, tennis academy and a 124-room Caribbean style hotel”. It will be the biggest Four Seasons resort in the world.

There are many controversial issues surrounding this proposed development. Among them are:

1. “there has been significant destruction of the Grenada dove habitat and mangroves to make way for a bridge joining Mt. Hartman to Hog Island.”

   Violation of Grenada’s National Parks and Protected Areas – Mt. Hartman is a National Park and home to Grenada’s endemic and critically endangered species, the Grenada dove. In April 2007 the previous government amended the National Park and Protected Areas Act to allow Cinnamon 88 to develop land within the dove sanctuary. This elicited much protest nationally and internationally. In early 2008, the former of Minister of Environment announced that that government had arrived at a ‘win-win’ situation for the developers and the Grenada dove. However, the details of this arrangement have still not been disclosed to the public. Meanwhile, there has been significant destruction of the Grenada dove habitat and mangroves to make way for a bridge joining Mt. Hartman to Hog Island. Hog Island is also part of the National Park and Protected Areas system. It is a national landmark whose features are supposed to be preserved.

2. Impact on the marine environment and local livelihoods – The area under development borders a Marine Protected Area (MPA), which contains some of the most pristine and significant mangrove stands left on the island. The mangroves are the nursery grounds for approximately 70 percent of the fish species that are fished in Grenada. Are more mangroves going to be cut down in order to create beaches and if so, what will the impact of this be on the livelihoods of local fishermen?
3. “In regard to Hog Island, there was no consultation or dialogue with the family in respect of acquiring the land. “

   Lack of transparency – The previous government failed to engage in any public consultations or public disclosures in respect to this project, despite the fact that it involves selling off considerable state assets.  In regard to Hog Island, there was no consultation or dialogue with the family in respect of acquiring the land. The issue of compensation by the government to the owners of the island remains unresolved. Cinnamon 88 began land clearing in 2007, in the middle of the controversy around the Grenada Dove. But it is still not clear whether Cinnamon 88 has ever obtained planning permission. An environmental study conducted for the developers was rejected by the World Bank and international bird experts.

4. Displacement and alienation of local people – Hog Island is privately owned by a local family and was used for agriculture (particularly grazing) and recreation by the locals. A local beach bar operator is also being displaced. However, no one has officially spoken to these persons on issues of relocation and compensation

A bridge has been built connecting mainland Mt. Hartman to Hog Island. Fishermen are asking what the future holds for their traditional boat races around Hog Island and the Fisherman’s Birthday Festival activities on the island’s beaches. In Grenada, all beaches are public. Will local people still have access to the beaches on Hog Island? or will locals be deterred by the presence of security guards and dogs? as happens on nearby Calivigny island, now owned by Frenchman Georges Cohen.

Locals are expressing concern about traditional access to the beach areas on the Mt. Hartman development. Their right of way has been cut off by the erection of a gate at the entrance of the access road. There is now a feeling that locals are becoming strangers in their own country.

“I have been operating on this island for the last 20 years. I developed from scratch the ambiance that now exists on this island. Why am I not given an opportunity to partner in any development which will take place on this island? Why do I have to be displaced?”

- Roger Strachan, Roger’s Bar, Hog Island

Roger Strachan is a native of Woburn and operates the famous Roger’s Bar on Hog Island. He started it 20 years ago with a cooler of drinks selling to the picnickers and ‘yachties’ who came to the island.  Eventually he set up a little structure on the beach, which came to be known as Roger’s Bar. There are special events and live bands at the weekends – an opportunity for locals and visitors to mix, while generating significant economic activity in the Woburn area.

Ironically, on the same site where Roger has his bar, the Mt. Hartman project website shows a poolside bar which will be named Roger’s Bar. Yet the man who created the original is being displaced and is viewed as an obstacle in the way of “progress and development”.

“Hog Island is our heritage. Our island should not be sold and developed. It should remain in its natural state and be accessible as a recreation spot so that my grandchildren can enjoy what I enjoyed”.

Adrian Charles – local resident and great grandson of the original owner of Hog Island

Further reading

• Guardian: Will tourism wreck Grenada’s environment while rescuing its economy?

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India Fails In Tsunami Rehabilitation Efforts

Elephant swims off the coast of the Andaman Islands, India / Photo by Kimberley Mair

The tribunal, organized by a coalition of local groups and people’s movements, examined the performance of the Indian government in relation to housing, land and livelihoods. The jury, chaired by Justice Suresh, former judge of the Mumbai High Court, asserted that the Central government, as well as the state governments of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and the union territories of Pondicherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, have failed in their legal and moral responsibility to provide adequate rehabilitation, and have violated both their national and international legal commitments.

“In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, four years on from the tsunami, only 250 of the planned 10,000 permanent houses have been allotted, leaving families to live in grossly inadequate ‘intermediate’ tin shelters.”

Based on 26 testimonies from tsunami survivors from the affected states, the jury stated that the absence of monitoring mechanisms as well as non-compliance with judicial orders and recommendations from the government’s own auditing body, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), have led to “a serious and debilitating delay leading to violations of the human rights of adequate housing, land, work, food, education, and security. The jury noted the slow pace of rehabilitation and the severe delays in providing permanent housing and restoring livelihoods of tsunami survivors with alarm. For example, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, four years on from the tsunami, only 250 of the planned 10,000 permanent houses have been allotted, leaving families to live in grossly inadequate ‘intermediate’ tin shelters.

Jury members further criticized the Indian government for its inadequate and discriminatory housing policy; the forced relocation of communities to distant sites; the absence of basic services, including water and healthcare in resettlement sites; the lack of consultation with affected communities in the rehabilitation process; the denial of women’s rights to housing, livelihood, security and privacy; persistent discrimination against dalits (‘untouchables’) and tribals; the diversion of tsunami funds for tourism and infrastructural developments and lack of transparency and accountability; the forced eviction of coastal communities under the guise of ensuring their “safety”; the increased commercialization and privatisation of the coast and coastal resources; and the absence of effective monitoring and grievance redressal mechanisms.

Among its recommendations, the jury called for the following:

• The need to uphold and protect the right to adequate rehabilitation and the right to disaster prevention as human rights.
• Adequate livelihood restoration for fishing and non-fishing communities, including agricultural communities and women.
• Immediate halt to all evictions of all dalits, fish workers, tribals, and other marginalised groups living along the coast.
• Immediate implementation of Supreme Court interim orders and CAG recommendations related to the tsunami.
• Urgent provision of basic facilities (water, sanitation, electricity.
• health services, education, transport) in all resettlement sites.
• Non-discrimination in all phases of rehabilitation and reconstruction, and the need to especially protect the human rights of women, children, dalits, tribals, persons with disabilities, and older persons.
• Development of a comprehensive and community-oriented post-disaster policy, including for housing, that is based on international human rights standards.
• Withdrawal of the draft Coastal Management Zone (CMZ), and implementation of existing Coastal Regulation Zone Notification (1991).
• Need to develop effective accountability, monitoring and grievance redressal mechanisms.

The Tribunal was organized in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, on 18th and 19th December 2008 by:

• The Housing and Land Rights Network
• The Human Rights Advocacy
• Research Foundation
• The Human Rights Law Network
• Citizens for Human Rights Movement
• A coalition of community groups and people’s movements.

Other jury members included:

• Miloon Kothari – former UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing
• Dr. Mira Shiva – Coordinator, Initiative for Health Social Equity
• Gopal Guru – Professor at the Centre of Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
• Henri Tiphagne – Director, People’s Watch,
• Dr. Janki Andharia, Professor, Tata Institute of Social Science,
• Dr. Amitabh Kundu, Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

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New Presidency In The Maldives: Can Paradise Be Restored?

The Maldives / Photo by Kimberley Mair

While Barack Obama’s victory dominated the headlines, it has perhaps been lost that another new president recently took office. On 11th November 2008 Mohamed Nasheed, a long-time human rights activist, took over the reigns of power in the Maldives.  Tourism Concern is thrilled at this new presidency and wishes the new Government every success. The Maldives has immense problems to tackle including global warming, poverty, chronic unemployment and drug addiction. The Maldives boasts some 1,200 islands, making tourism the biggest foreign exchange earner for its economy. Just 250 are inhabited, with the majority of the population largely confined to the capital city, Malé, by a government wary of its people interacting with foreigners and of the negative influence this could have on the Maldives’ strict Muslim society.

Tourism Concern’s work on the Maldives dates back to 2004, when a group of Maldivian political exiles approached us seeking support. The Maldives, they told us, was not the holiday paradise so expertly marketed and sold to the public, but was a repressive, tortuous group of islands run by a single president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, for over 26 years who, through serious corruption, had become wealthy from tourism revenues whilst the population went hungry. Tourism Concern rapidly launched a campaign to support them, seeking to raise awareness of these important issues amongst the general public:

• Maldivian people live in poverty despite high revenues from tourism. 42% of the local population are living very close to the internationally recognised poverty line of US $1.50 a day and have an average income of just $4,600 a year.
• Tourism workers often face exploitative conditions. Research has found that some workers only receive one day off a month and work 12 hour shifts within the resorts. Wages are low and the situation is exacerbated by employers choosing to employ expatriates from even poorer countries in order to lower their costs. Maldivians have little or no choice but to work in these conditions if they are to make enough money to support their families. (A revised Employment Act was passed in August 2008, which was officially extended to include the rights of tourism workers in October 2008).
• The UN reports that malnutrition rates among Maldivian children are as acute as those in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 1 in 3 children under the age of 5 suffering from the condition. This is in a country which opens up at least 11 new luxury resort islands each year and where GDP (gross domestic product) per capita is the highest in South Asia.

Due to the political climate in the Maldives, local people and tourism workers have been frightened to speak out about their working conditions, as this could mean losing their job, imprisonment or worse. Clearly something needed to happen to improve working rights and living conditions for local people. Tourism has such huge potential to bring people out of poverty, but the Maldives under Gayoom put to shame any such idea.  Nasheed has been in jail 23 times, tortured and spent a long time in solitary confinement. However, his agenda now is to move on and we are assured that this will include spreading the benefits from tourism in the Maldives more equitably amongst its people.  We wish him well.