ARE
WE LOSING PARADISE?
by
Antonio C. Antonio
July
1, 2014
I’ve been fairly blessed to have visited Boracay Island thrice in the last two decades. But, sadly, I’ve also witnessed how it has
morphed from a place we could practically call “paradise on earth” to an island
where an environmental disaster is just waiting to happen… if it has not
started to happen yet.
Travel
and Leisure, an international travel magazine proclaimed Boracay Island as the
best island in the world in 2012. It is
arguably the most popular tourist destination in the Philippines. The island sits like a crown on the northernmost
tip of the Island of Panay and the Province of Aklan. Boracay is a dog-bone shaped island…
approximately seven kilometers long and has a total land area of 10.32 square
kilometers.
Sixty
years ago, Boracay Island was barely inhabited… with only less than a hundred
families, mostly of the Ati Tribe, living there. Most of the island was covered by a natural
forest. Right now, almost 40% of the
island has been cleared to make way for tourism development-related
infrastructure… not to mention the additional housing for additional residents.
The
abnormal increase in Boracay’s population and unregulated commercialization
brought about three basic environmental problems: a) Solid and liquid waste disposal; b) Land
use conversion; and, c) Loss of biodiversity.
Boracay Island is a finite resource in terms of land area. How on earth did someone even think of laying
out a golf course on an island that is a little over 10 square kilometers? Is there really even a minute sense in
clear-cutting a forest area so that foreign tourists can enjoy the beach and
play golf at the same time?
The
level of business and opportunity Boracay Island offers cannot be debated. Surely, it’s a big dollar earner… revenues
from tourism both local and foreign are at an all-time high. But is this sustainable? The beauty of the island is the key to its continued
economic success. But beauty cannot be
“Beloish” or “Calayanish”… beauty should be natural. (My sincere apologies to Dr. Vicky Belo and
Dr. Manny Calayan for coining these colloquial words. Na-advertise naman din po kayo kahit paano.) Too
much “make-overs” to nature and the environment in terms of infrastructure
development is a perfect formula for environmental disasters.
The
last time I visited Boracay Island was December 2013. In this visit, I had a lengthy chat with
Bryan S. Madera… a colleague in a group called “The UPlanders”. He summarized the fate of the island with
this statement: “I’m saddened by what is
going on here. It’s an environmental
disaster waiting to happen. I really cannot understand how Boracay, because of
her beauty, will die because she is beautiful… her beauty will be the reason
for her death.”
Just
my little thoughts…
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