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Kuna aim to develop a new kind of tourism, on their own terms

by the Conservation Media Center

Panama’s Kuna indigenous nation has a long tradition of political organization and self-rule on the San Blas Islands and Caribbean coast opposite them, now called the Kuna Yala Comarca. Their autonomy extends to their own vision of a business that is growing globally - nature and cultural tourism. Many Kuna are determined to develop tourism in such a way that it won't alter their customs or their environment. The Foundation for the Promotion of Indigenous Knowledge, a Kuna nonprofit group, is trying to help interested comarca communities plan and manage this potentially profitable enterprise.

Kuna Yala includes a band of rainforest that extends for 125 miles along the Caribbean coast nearly to the border of Colombia and encompasses the San Blas Islands, some 365 tiny isles with white-sand beaches lapped by crystalline waters. For travelers interested in tropical nature, the seaside, and indigenous cultures, Kuna Yala is an ideal destination. The Kuna population of about 40,000 lives on some 40 of the islands, plus 12 mainland villages along the coast. Most make their livings from farming and fishing, but they also have decades' experiences with tourism, not all of it good. Since the 1960s, travelers have taken the 30-minute flight from Panama City to Porvenir, where there were a few small hotels, but nearly all were run by foreigners with Kuna employees.

By the end of the 1980s, the foreign-run businesses were gone, having received the Kuna's not-so-subtle message - sometimes delivered with violence - that they were not welcome. Even the Panamanian Tourism Institute, which in the mid-1970s tried to build a multi-million-dollar hotel complex in the comarca mainland town of Cartí, had to abandon its development plans. More recently, foreigners tried to build ecological hotels on two different uninhabited San Blas islands, but their efforts failed as well.

Today, the Kuna General Congress grants permits to build hotels in the comarca only to Kunas. According to Enrique Inatoy, director of the Foundation for the Promotion of Indigenous Knowledge, 12 small hotels exist, with just four or five bedrooms each. Since the Kuna have no access to bank loans or support from the government, growth is slow. Where tourism has grown in Kuna Yala, he feels the results often have been less than desirable. Yachts and cruise boats dock at Porvenir, and visitors crowd beaches to buy crafts from the Kuna, particularly the women, who still dress in the traditional mola blouses and wear gold nose rings and bracelets of beads around their arms and legs.

Vibrant molas are world famous. But according to Inatoy, "Creating molas is an art that began with designs that reflected the Kuna's conception of the world, of nature, and of our spiritual life. Now that tourism has transformed it into a commercial trade, the art is losing its spiritual value and quality. Designs of the molas are changing according to the interests of the tourists and at the same time, women are losing their knowledge of the old designs and their meanings." He also worries about the young people, who no longer are interested in farming but "only wait for the tourists in order to sell some crafts or animals they trap in the forest, in order to earn a few dollars."

Claudia Quinteros is technical assistant of donations for the Agency for International Development-supported project called Regional Environmental Program for Central America/Protected Areas System (PROARCA/CAPAS), which has provided grants to the foundation. She agrees that tourism in Porvenir isn't really contributing much to the Kuna, since cruise ship passengers don't buy anything more than inexpensive crafts. "There is so much competition that women sell their molas to tourists for just $3, which is placing no value on the effort and time invested in their creation," she says. "It's scandalous."

With donations from PROARCA/CAPAS, the Foundation for the Promotion of Indigenous Knowledge has begun to develop tourism according to the Kuna vision. Inatoy explains that during the project's first phase, they did an analysis to identify the comarca's ecotourism and cultural tourism resources and completed a marketing study. They also held workshops for 10 comarca communities near the border with Colombia that currently do not receive visits from tourists. "We wanted to awaken their interest in how they could use their natural and cultural resources as tourist attractions," he says.

The project's second phase has involved designing a strategic ecotourism plan, pilot plans for the three interested communities, and solid-waste management plans. Three young Kuna also received training in how to be ecotourism guides. Inatoy explains that the strategic plan "will be administered, operated, promoted, and marketed by the Kuna, and our organization can do consulting work with any interested communities."

Inatoy is quite clear about how cultural tourism in the comarca should not be developed. "Indigenous communities can not be part of a tourism attraction, like an object for sightseeing," he says. While the Kuna culture can be shared with visitors, he warns that the Kuna version of history is different from what is presented to tourists by the Panamanian government. The country promotes different historic and archeological sites, but most with a decidedly colonial bent. As Inatoy puts it: "If I'm going to bring tourists to indigenous communities, I have to speak about my own history - where the Kuna come from, their conception of the world, their dance, spirituality, their knowledge." One potential tourism attraction, he notes, is a site where the Spanish conquistador Vazco Núñez de Balboa was beheaded. "We can take visitors there and explain what the arrival of the Spanish, the colonial invasion, meant for us," he notes.

Gilberto Alemancia is a Kuna who coordinates community workshops for the Panamanian Institute of Tourism (IPAT) and is familiar with the foundation's efforts. IPAT hasn't always seen eye-to-eye with the Kuna General Congress, he admits, and the institute is not involved with the foundation's project. But he believes that the foundation's efforts are good first steps toward helping communities understand the opportunities tourism presents. He adds, however, that "the communities still need to understand the whole concept of ecotourism," and for that reason, believes the foundation's project could use an ecotourism expert.

Quintero agrees, but also knows that to have an impact, expertise must come from within the community, not from an outsider. She remembers what a Kuna leader told her during a recent visit to the comarca: "He said that they don't want to lose their identity to obtain profits from tourism. They don't want communities to change and adapt to tourism, but rather tourism can adjust to them."

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©2001 The Panama News