Locals in the Co Clare beauty spot are hoping an initiative will succeed in making tourism more sustainable without compromising the landscape, writes Brian O'Connell
A recent report published by the Heritage Council claims that 85 per cent of Irish people are increasingly concerned about the measures in place to protect the State's heritage. Many believe the Government should be doing more to strike an acceptable balance between conservation and development. The concern is not unique to Ireland.
Throughout the world, from the Seychelles to Machu Picchu, economic activity is impacting on areas of rare natural beauty and placing their continued preservation under threat.
Generally speaking, tourism has evolved into a complex phenomenon, drawing in political, cultural, social and economic strands. Despite this, local populations are often the last to benefit from tourism, especially in areas of special conservation.
Consider the following: you own land in or live next to an area of natural beauty. The economic returns from farming or traditional industries are insufficient to keep your children on the land. Yet you feel a sense of duty. Call it tradition. Every day coach tours pass by your door, dropping off tourists for photo opportunities before zipping off to the next local landmark. At the end of their day, the tourists return to a local hotel, adjacent to the nearest urban centre. So the question arises - who benefits? In other words, are there ways to make tourism more sustainable without compromising the local landscape?
Locals in the Burren certainly hope so, and this is one of the key issues facing the newly-formed Environmental Protection of the Burren Through Visitor Management project. Set up in October 2006, the three-year project (which has funding to the tune of €1.4 million) is currently engaged in a consultation process with local stakeholders in an effort to draw up a visitor management and environmental protection plan for the Burren area. It's no easy task. With the Mullaghmore experience still leaving an air of suspicion between locals and Government agencies in the Burren, the project will have to tread carefully if it is to succeed in putting forward a viable and inclusive way forward for the region and its residents.
FOR BURREN FARMER Patrick McCormack, unless the initiative succeeds in retaining more tourist revenue in the Burren for the benefit of the local population, then it is destined to fail. "Unless locals benefit out of this, then it's not much good," he says. "We have seen problems with the Cliffs of Moher and, of course, Mullaghmore. The big thing I see that needs to be addressed is who is going to maintain the landscape. As it is now, there is no relationship between hoteliers, travel agents or the airport in maintaining this unique and rare landscape of ours." McCormack says that many Burren farmers are no longer living off the land, with the next generation particularly disenfranchised. This is having an effect on the maintenance of the flora and fauna, walkways, and stonewalls that make the area so unique.
"In order to retain local people here it's important they get a piece of the cake. The main reason people come here is because of the landscape. Farming is over as a full-time business around here. The main resources here are the people and the land and very little is being done to protect either. On one level the initiative has its work cut out. It's all about the money at the end of the day."
AT A RECENT public meeting attended by more than 30 locals, strong views were expressed on both sides. Talk of "branding the Burren" irked some of those present, who first argued that a coherent and sustainable economic plan needs to be implemented before any branding should take place. The branding plans have been shelved for now, but, in relation to tourist development, McCormack outlines the ideal scenario.
"I'll give you an example of how I think tourism should be developed here," he says. "There has been talk of widening the coast road recently, to cater for the increase in coach tours. I don't think this should happen. Why not bring people to the Burren, and at a certain point say 'now you have to get off your coach and get on to a minibus to view the inner core of the area'. Johnny down the road, who has a few acres, might invest in a minibus, and it would benefit him to do a few tours a week. He is also local and very knowledgeable. That's the type of thing that will benefit the locals here, not a €30 million wall of glass looking out at the Cliffs of Moher. I don't see how that is going to keep people in this area."
Clearly, strong opinions exist, and Carol Gleeson, project manager of Environmental Protection of the Burren Through Visitor Management, seems to have learnt the lesson of past disputes. She has set her stall out to involve and consult the local population as much as possible. Currently, much of the project work centres on market research: who visits the Burren? Why? And for how long? The plan is to produce a visitor economic study in the coming months.
With tourist numbers for the midwest reaching pre-9/11 levels once more, Gleeson believes the time is right to look afresh at the Burren region. "The increasing tourist numbers raise concerns from an environmental perspective," says Gleeson, "from issues such as cars parking on grass lands to protection of the dune system and the issue of traffic congestion and increased rubbish. So it became obvious something needed to be done. One of our primary objectives is to protect and manage, as the project title suggests. We aim to do this by providing information on the environment to visitors and locals. We'll also be looking at traffic management systems and more local transport, as well as signage and how coach tours operate," she says.
ON THE CONTENTIOUS issue of branding, Gleeson rows in behind some of the local feeling. "I think what we need to do is to understand where we are going with this before we begin looking at branding. For us to be sustainable, local involvement has to be part and parcel of this project, and shape and drive it, otherwise it won't be sustainable."
Apart from the visitor management project, there are other positive signs that the Burren is moving towards a more sustainable future. The Burren Life project, launched last year, is the first major farming-for-conservation project in Ireland. It is also one of the first projects of its type where a strong partnership has been built up between the IFA, Teagasc and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, with funding support from the EU Commission (Life Nature Fund). The overall aims of the project are to develop a new model for sustainable agriculture in the Burren. Dr Brendan Dunford, Project manager of Burren Life, welcomes the visitor-management initiative and sees it within the broader context of more local involvement in the area.
"The relationship between farming and conservation is an important one," he says. "Farming protects the heritage, yet that alone cannot sustain the population. Quite simply, tourism needs to make a greater contribution to farming and to local communities than it has done." Yet, for all the difficulties that exist, Dunford is cautiously optimistic about the potential for the visitor-management initiative to make a real and sustainable contribution to the economical and environmental future of the Burren.
"I welcome a new approach to tourism in the Burren," he says. "This project is in its early days and it has a lot of work to do, but I have great confidence in the project team. If they are given the chance and support then they have a real chance. The time is right for a new approach to this unique and special landscape."