Dispatches from the Field & Project Summaries
Project Summary: Rainforest Alliance, Nicaragua
June 4, 2010
The Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Tourism Program seeks to transform the global tourism industry into one that benefits the planet and local communities, by providing training, technical assistance, and marketing support for sustainable tourism and hospitality businesses. Although sustainable tourism is often associated with rural or wilderness areas, Rainforest Alliance sees the concept as much broader in scope.
“We really see sustainable tourism as a set of principles that are applicable no matter what type of tourism you do. It’s not a niche market but a way of doing business,” said Ronald Sanabria, Vice President of Sustainable Tourism. “Sometimes it gets confused with ecotourism or nature tourism, but we have seen great examples of urban settings where sustainable tourism is being practiced.”
One such urban setting is the historic colonial city of Granada, Nicaragua, where Rainforest Alliance is working with five tourism businesses: four hotels – the Hotel Patio del Malinche, La Gran Francia, Hotel Plaza Colón, and La Casona de los Estrada – and a tour operator, Oro Travel. Granada is one of Nicaragua’s top tourism destinations, but the country’s youthfulness in the tourism arena means that the city has not yet been transformed by large international hotel chains and other generic tourism enterprises. As a result, the city is in a good position to develop its tourism industry in a sustainable manner.
Rainforest Alliance recently released the results of a study that illustrates the benefits of sustainable tourism in Granada. Employees of the five businesses in the Rainforest Alliance program receive salaries that are 40 percent higher than the Nicaraguan minimum wage. The vast majority – 96 percent – of employees are local, and these local employees take home the lion’s share (90 percent) of the wages. A large proportion (40 percent) of the employees are women, who earn a higher percentage of the wages than men. In addition, the five sustainable tourism businesses work with predominantly local employees and suppliers and are involved in local conservation and community projects. Unlike many Nicaraguan enterprises, they are all legally incorporated, meaning that they contribute to the running of the country through taxes and licenses.
All have adopted a range of sustainability-related measures including recycling and energy conservation. For example, at Hotel Patio del Malinche, all of the 15 guestrooms have recycling bins, and signs throughout the hotel urge guests to reduce water and energy usage by reusing towels and linens, turning off faucets properly, and shutting off lights and air conditioning when leaving a room. Rather than purchasing disposable water bottles, guests can refill bottles or ask for glasses of water at the hotel bar. In addition to hiring local staff and using Granadan suppliers, the hotel’s owners, Ramón Cirera and Lidia Teixidor, are involved with local community groups and finance scholarships for local students.
Like the Patio del Malinche, La Gran Francia promotes recycling and water and energy conservation through in-room signage. A restored colonial mansion that has been included in Granada’s historic registry, the hotel has 21 rooms and two restaurants located just off the main square of Granada. The almost entirely Granadan staff participates in a weekly street cleaning effort and works to educate the community about protecting the city’s natural resources and colonial heritage. La Gran Francia also recently made a large donation to support free reconstructive surgery for children born with cleft palates and other facial deformities. In addition to being the right thing to do, says General Manager Grisele Camille, sustainability is simply good business.
The largest of the hotels working with Rainforest Alliance, the Hotel Plaza Colón is another historic colonial mansion with 27 guestrooms located on the west side of the Parque Central, Granada’s main square. The hotel’s sustainability and corporate social responsibility efforts include a wide range of community initiatives, including working with a local school on projects such as facilities improvement, environmental education, recycling, cleaning days, and field trips. Another initiative addresses the issue of horse manure from the many horse-drawn carriages that ply the colonial streets and line up around the square directly across from the hotel. Currently the manure is simply allowed to pile up in the streets, but Hotel Plaza Colón plans to collect the manure and sell it to local farmers as compost. This will both clean up the streets and provide a valuable service to the agricultural community.
Another Plaza Colón project, designed by General Manager María Isabel Cantón, seeks to address one of Granada’s major social problems: the number of children who drop out of school and live on the streets, begging and sniffing glue. Since giving money to street children only feeds the problem, the hotel is offering an alternative for guests who want to help. Instead of giving money to street kids, tourists can purchase a “Plaza Colón Backpack” filled with a year’s worth of school supplies, which will be donated to a local school and awarded to good students, providing an incentive and financial assistance to children who stay in school.
The final hotel in the Rainforest Alliance program, La Casona de los Estrada, is owned and managed by Pascal Picot, who also owns Oro Travel. With just six rooms, La Casona de los Estrada is the smallest of the hotels working with Rainforest Alliance and retains the feeling of a private home. In addition to promoting water and energy conservation, Picot has sought to create a broader environmental consciousness among his employees which they can then transmit to their guests. In both his businesses Picot makes a point of employing local people and using Granadan suppliers. He believes tour operators have an important role in sustainable tourism since they “are in a position to choose and prioritize suppliers that are operating according to best practices.” On the community development side, Oro Travel is involved in various educational projects with the Esperanza School in Las Isletas de Granada, the more than 350 islands located just offshore in Lake Nicaragua. The company is also working with the Nicaraguan National Chamber of Tourism on a variety of conservation projects, including efforts to get Las Isletas established as a natural reserve and protect them from the growing threat of overdevelopment.
The efforts of these sustainable tourism businesses are not going unnoticed. Ardith Ekdahl and Elliott Whitby, Canadians staying at the Hotel Patio del Malinche, were impressed with the hotel’s recycling and energy conservation efforts. “We’ve been recommending a different hotel, but this hotel will get recommended now,” Ekdahl commented.
With such strong success in Granada, Rainforest Alliance continues to work to help other businesses in Nicaragua and beyond recognize the benefits of sustainable tourism and integrate the principles into their own operations.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 12 – Rainforest Alliance, Nicaragua
March 29, 2010
Our second day in Granada began with a boat tour with Oro Travel, a tour company owned by Pascal Picot, who also owns a small hotel called La Casona de los Estrada. A Frenchman who has lived in Central America for two decades, Pascal is working with Rainforest Alliance to enhance the sustainability of both of his operations.
Pascal picked us up at our hotel and brought us to the launch area on the shores of Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America, for a trip among the Isletas de Granada, a collection of more than 350 islands that is a refuge for many resident and migratory bird species. It’s also under threat of development – it seemed as though almost every islet that wasn’t already inhabited had a Land For Sale sign on it. Still, it was a lovely trip, and the development doesn’t yet seem to be having extreme impacts on wildlife. We saw ospreys, kingfishers, egrets, and numerous other bird species as we motored along the waterways surrounding the islands.
Seeking a quiet spot with good light and
an appealing backdrop, we set up for our interview with Pascal at the end of a dock next to a bar on one of the islands. Apart from the owners, the bar was completely deserted when we arrived, but it didn’t stay that way. As we attempted to film the interview, one interruption after another broke the peace. If it wasn’t a boatload of tourists arriving for a drink it was a baby crying or a chainsaw buzzing. Only with many takes and a good deal of patience did we finally manage to get what we needed.
“We can’t forget that tourism has countless indirect effects that can’t be measured,” Pascal told us, noting that tourism impacts everyone from agricultural producers to beer brewers to tax collectors. “The role of the local tour operator is very important. We are in a position to choose and prioritize suppliers that are operating according to best practices.” In addition to selecting local suppliers that operate sustainably, Oro Travel is working with the Nicaraguan National Chamber of Tourism on a variety of conservation projects, including efforts to control construction in the Isletas and establish the area as a natural reserve. Oro Travel is also involved in various educational projects with the Esperanza School in Las Isletas.
After the interview we headed back to Granada to visit Pascal’s hotel, La Casona de los Estrada, the smallest of the properties we visited, with just six rooms. The building is a former private home that preserves a colonial character and many original features. Pascal has sought to create an environmental consciousness among his employees which they can then transmit to their guests. Efforts include reducing water and energy usage through small actions that make a difference. Pascal also noted that the Casona’s employees are all Nicaraguan (half of them women), and the suppliers, whenever possible, are from Granada.
That afternoon we wrapped up some final filming in Granada, and then it was time to set off for our next project, AsoFenix, which delivers alternative energy solutions to rural communities. Seth Hays, an American working with AsoFenix, picked us up in Granada and drove us back to Managua, where we dined on pupusas (El Salvadoran stuffed tortillas) before settling in for the night in the dorm room at the AsoFenix office.
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 11, part 2 – Rainforest Alliance, Nicaragua
March 26, 2010
On our first day in Granada, Ryan joined a group of Dutch tourists to film their city tour with Oro Travel, while the rest of us set off to interview people at the various hotels that are working with Rainforest Alliance. Since we were staying at the Patio del Malinche, we started there. Set around two small courtyards, the charming 15-room hotel is run by a Spanish couple, Ramón Cirera and Lidia Teixidor, who abandoned their jobs in the insurance industry back home six years ago and came to Nicaragua seeking a change of pace.
Ramón told us that he sees sustainability as a question of respect – not only for the environment but for the country of Nicaragua as a whole. “I believe sustainability in a hotel is intangible,” he said. “Clients notice when a hotel is consistent and tries to do things well. Clients notice that it’s a hotel with soul.” Signs throughout the Patio del Malinche urge guests to reduce water and energy usage, and recycling bins are placed in all guestrooms. The hotel uses local suppliers for virtually all its needs, and employs 14 local residents who have been with the hotel since its opening. This sense of community is an important part of the Patio del Malinche’s appeal. “One of the great satisfactions of this project has been believing that we are part of something that is beginning,” Ramón told us. “In Spain we felt as though we were in a wheel that kept spinning but with no results. Here we are part of something that is being born, something that is useful in the future of Nicaragua.” Lidia is also involved in supporting local artisans by coordinating a local printmaking workshop program and providing a space at the hotel for a women’s handicrafts cooperative to sell its wares.
From the Patio del Malinche we headed a few blocks away to La Gran Francia, a hotel and restaurant located in two colonial houses on either side of the street. The original building is said to date back to 1524, shortly after the founding of Granada. In addition to restoring and maintaining the historic hotel building, La Gran Francia owners and staff work to educate the community about protecting Granada’s natural resources and colonial heritage. Water control measures are in place to avoid waste, and guests are asked to recycle and reduce unnecessary water and energy use. The hotel has also made a large donation to a program that offers free reconstructive surgery for children born with cleft palates and other facial deformities. In addition to being the right thing to do, General Manager Grisele Camille explained, sustainability is just good business. “We have to keep Granada to attract the clients to come back to us,” she said. Grisele herself originally hails from Santa Clara, Cuba, but spent 20 years working at a large international hotel chain in the Seychelles. She left that job and moved to Nicaragua because she wanted to work in a place with heart, where she and her children could reconnect with their Latin roots. “We Latin people have a different way of feeling, and I want my kids to feel it,” she said. “In Granada, you feel it. It’s a very special feeling.”
Our final hotel visit of the day was to the Hotel Plaza Colón, located on the main square of Granada. We were eager to film our interview with General Manager María Isabel Cantón on one of the enormous front balconies overlooking the square, with Granada’s distinctive mustard-yellow cathedral as a backdrop. Unfortunately, we soon realized that the constant traffic on the street below made this idea impossible, so we opted for one of the peaceful interior courtyards instead.
María Isabel told us that corporate social responsibility is very important at the Plaza Colón. The hotel is working with a local school on a variety of projects including facilities improvement, environmental education, recycling, cleaning days, and field trips. One of María Isabel’s pet projects aims to combat one of Granada’s biggest societal problems: the large number of young children who drop out of school and wind up living on the streets, begging and sniffing glue. Rather than giving money to street kids, which only feeds the problem, guests at the Plaza Colón are encouraged to purchase a “Plaza Colón backpack” filled with school supplies that will be donated to a local school, thereby creating a type of financial support and social incentive to keep kids in school.
Another initiative that the Plaza Colón is developing involves helping to clean up Granada’s streets by collecting the manure from the horses who draw the old-fashioned carriages that ply the city’s historic core. The manure will be sold to local farmers as an organic fertilizer. “Doing things sustainably is the only way to do things long-term, but in Nicaragua it’s difficult, because you really have to convince people,” María Isabel told us. Still, she added, “I think Granada is in a very good position because we don’t have the Marriott, Holiday Inn, the big chain hotels like elsewhere in Latin America. Granada right now has the opportunity to start with sustainable tourism on the right foot.”
Central America Expedition 2010: Day 11 – Rainforest Alliance, Nicaragua
March 26, 2010
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fter so many projects in rural and wilderness areas, our first Nicaragua project, in the city of Granada, made for quite a change. We had had a brief introduction to Rainforest Alliance’s Sustainable Tourism Program at the start of the expedition, when we stopped by the main office in San José for a few quick interviews before heading out of town with Ríos Tropicales. That was when we first met Jessica Webb, who had now come to Granada to facilitate our filming over the next couple of days.
The Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Tourism Program provides training, technical assistance, and marketing support for sustainable tourism and hospitality businesses as part of its broader effort to transform the global tourism industry into one that benefits the planet and local communities. In Granada, Rainforest Alliance currently works with five businesses: four hotels (Hotel Patio del Malinche, La Gran Francia, Hotel Plaza Colón, and La Casona de los Estrada) and a tour operator (Oro Travel). The businesses involved in the RA program have adopted a range of sustainability measures including recycling and energy conservation. They employ a high percentage of women, pay salaries that are significantly higher than Nicaragua’s minimum wage, and work with predominantly local employees and suppliers to ensure that the economic benefits of tourism stay within the community. In addition, all of the businesses are involved in local conservation and community projects.
During our visit to the San José office we interviewed Ronald Sanabria, Vice President of Sustainable Tourism. Over the incessant noise of parrots in the trees overhead and the constant passing of trucks on the road outside, Ronald laid out Rainforest Alliance’s vision of sustainable tourism. “We really see sustainable tourism as a set of principles that are applicable no matter what type of tourism you do. It’s not a niche market but a way of doing business, ” he said. “Sometimes it gets confused with ecotourism or nature tourism, but we have seen great examples of urban settings where sustainable tourism is being practiced.”
Now, 10 days after that interview, we were finally about to see some of those success stories for ourselves….