Evaluación del Paisaje y Propuesta de Conservación de la Playa “El Doradillo”

 

Introducción

Situated over the Golfo Nuevo, 15 kilometers to the north of Puerto Madryn, El Doradillo beach prolongs form Punta Arco to Cerro Prismatico. This beach is not very common: it has the enormous attractive of being one of the scarcest places in the world where it congregate and can be appreciated, near the coast, the Southern Franca Whale (Eubalaena australis), during breeding and reproduction periods, between May and November.

Figure 1: Geographic ubication of El Doradillo

The wonderful scenic beauty and the privilege of appreciating these huge mammals from the coast, make that every year thousands of national and foreign tourists arrive to the beach, mainly in two seasons: summer with sun and beach attraction, and winter with whales.

All these facts made El Doradillo zone one of the places with a great number of visitants and consequently an important source of local resources. According to the Tourism Ministry of Chubut Province, the visitors to the Peninsula de Valdez Reserve were 175.630 in 2003 (see Graphic 1).  Beside there are not precise data about El Doradillo visitants, an important percentage of the visitors to the Peninsula Valdez visit or want to visit El Doradillo zone because of its attractions.

 

The Problematic

 

The same beauty of the landscape characteristics of the beach and its outskirts, adding the fact of the whales, provoke immovable pressures that potentially threatened to affect the area. In a short term view, the idea could give a place for the development of a tourist resort to give comfort to the visitants and generate incomes to the zone. Therefore, with a long term view, this kind of development may be risky for the maintenance of the zone and its particularities, and as a consequence depreciate its natural attractive.

In addition, we underline that in the same coast, existed a series of sand pits that devalue the natural conditions, and caused a severe scenic impact that modify deeply its value.

Considering that both situations have influence on tourism for those places with a unique landscape beauty, we proposed an Economic Landscape Valuation. The challenge was basically to know if the conservation of the area will bring more benefits to the community than the potential immovable projects and the exploitation activities.

Project Objectives

The objective of the Economic Landscape Valuation consisted in:

 

Results

 

Preference for maintaining El Doradillo as a “natural active”

The answer for maintaining El Doradillo as a natural active was 86, 2% of the surveys: 15, 5% against, and 70, 7% totally against. Only 2, 4% was unconcerned about any option, and 11, 1% in agreement or totally agreed. (See Graphic 1)

These numbers shows that El Doradillo is been considered as vary valuable natural active for all visitants. All visitant categories preferred the beach in a pristine way, with a minimum of infrastructure (See Graphic 2).

How much visitants are ready to pay to maintain the beach in natural conditions

Considering that great part of the visitants answer to the alternative of maintaining the beach in natural conditions, they were asked how much they were ready to pay to get into the area, daily and per visitor. 60, 7% if interviewed visitants were ready to pay a fee for the entrance, 39, 3% do not.

Of these people, 14, 2% were ready to pay 1 or 2 pesos each, 24, 4% were ready to pay from 2 to 5 pesos, and 18, 4% from 5 to 10 pesos (See Graphic 3).

As a part of the study of the possible payment, they were also asked if they were still available to pay if their own demands are included (basic services, related to the settlement of sanitary services, potable water, and others). In this situation, the visitants that were ready to pay increase its percentage, 46, 5 % were ready to pay from 1 to 5 dollars per visitor.

Return to El Doradillo in natural conditions or with development

To know the visitors preferences respect to the future of El Doradillo, they were also asked if they will return with tourism development. The negative answers represent 35, 5%, and those not much convinced to return 31%. When they were consulted about the return in case that El Doradillo maintains its natural conditions, 89, 5% answer that they will be “very available” to return, and 8, 7% will be ready to do it. (See Graphic 5)

Preference for the administration of the entrance funds.

In the hypothetic case of an entrance fee or an annual amount for the maintenance of the area, we try to find out which will be the preference for the administration of the funds and the area. The same question was applied suggesting different options: a non-governmental organization (NGO), Municipality, the Province, in a mixed way, the preference of no paying and others. The answer support mainly the idea of an NGO in charge of the administration of the funds, being the most common answer, and in a second place the Municipality option, and a mixed way on the third place.

Declaration as a Protected Landscape

The Economic Valuation allows asserting that, according the local public opinion and the preferences of the visitants, local as national and foreign tourists, do exists political, economic, social and ecological viability for the creation of a Protected Area for the zone. It has been concluded that the most convenient option was preserving El Doradillo in the condition of natural active.

It follows that, after working two years, the Deliberating Council of Puerto Madryn resolved the creation of the El Doradillo protected area, being sanctioned in 2001 the Ordinance 4.263 that declare El Doradillo as a Terrestrial and Marine Protected Landscape. This ordinance has the objective of maintaining the actual landscape conditions, allowing the rural activities, and to set a limit to the development that do not fit to the landscape, forbidding charts or posters and cables. In addition, the statute considers having a management plan in 180 days, which has not been implemented yet.

El Doradillo, still threatened

It is lamentable that almost 4 years later the ordinance 4.263 was sanctioned; El Doradillo is still suffering the pit exploitation. The mentioned statute does not allow activities that may cause an irreversible or temporary damage to the environment, the quality of air, soil, water, flora and fauna, or the landscape. The ordinances that create the area forbid the pit activity that for years has destroyed the coast areas, where whales can be seen from the beach.

The conflict is connected to the interest of the extraction for important settlements of local enterprises. After some decades of a process of destruction of beaches, the concessions are expired and it is not valid to argue that there are no other places for the extraction of these materials. This kind of activities does not represent only an erroneous policy that forget considering the social, natural end economic value, but a privilege for some groups at the cost of all society. It is not about an isolate beach, it is about a unique place in the world.

Every sand truck that leaves El Doradillo represents a new impact, which has a permanent mark on beaches and devalues a patrimony that constitutes a supply of genuine resources to all citizens. A visit to the place shows the devaluation that the place has suffered, and the consequences of an activity that benefits few people.

Evidently this transgresses constitutional rights of all inhabitants: to enjoy a healthy environment, to a sustainable development, and the obligation to recompose the environment damage. There are unfulfilled the authorities obligations of protecting the rights mentioned and to preserve integrity and natural and cultural diversity.

It is necessary to implement immediate decisions against these activities, for being illegal since the concessions expired, and for destroying the essential resources of the city. At the same time, the companies that worked on the pits should start the dismantle of the constructions that may give place to people settlements and fixing all damages produced in the area, to avoid the fact that their incomes were only at the cost of the valuable natural capital of the community of Puerto Madryn.

Spanish Version