U.S. Forest Service, Cornell University partner to develop El Yunque
The parties launched the regional sustainable tourism destination management program for the rainforest.
The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, have signed a five-year collaboration agreement under which Cornell will provide technical assistance to develop El Yunque National Forest and its surrounding region as a sustainable tourism destination in the aftermath of recent hurricanes.
The collaboration with Cornell’s Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Program (STAMP) at the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise will facilitate assessments and support sustainable tourism destination management strategies in collaboration with local institutions and forest partners.
The partnership also seeks to strengthen professional education in sustainable tourism and post-disaster destination management for local Puerto Rican professionals in fields like tourism, business, local government, and regional planning.
“Twelve years of community engagement have shown us that our communities want to benefit from tourism without harming the environment or their social well-being. We have plans to expand opportunities in the El Yunque region but we are mindful of avoiding unintended consequences that could worsen the current overtourism,” said forest Supervisor Keenan Adams.
“This program will allow us to begin destination management in the El Yunque region with a focus on the communities,” Adams added.
Tourism in northeastern Puerto Rico is on the rise, with more than one million visitors to El Yunque annually. This agreement will assist the rainforest’s leadership, partner organizations and local stakeholders in creating a long-term regional plan to expand sustainable tourism and recreation in the area.
“Cornell’s Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Program (STAMP) was designed to support local communities as they plan for sustainable tourism growth by enhancing regional planning, measuring social and environmental impacts, building public-private partnerships, and incubating tourism entrepreneurship,” said Megan Epler-Wood, managing director of STAMP.
“We’re excited to launch this first-of-its-kind multiyear effort in Puerto Rico so that we can provide ongoing and holistic technical support so that locals can drive tourism planning and development,” Epler-Wood said.
As part of the project, a multidisciplinary group from the island’s tourism, hospitality, government, nonprofit sectors and communities surrounding El Yunque will plan sustainable tourism and destination management in the region. Cornell will assist with training, technical support, sustainable tourism frameworks and implementation grants.
Among the areas to benefit will be PR-186, which runs through Río Grande and Canóvanas, and features assets such as the Espíritu Santo River Observation Point and historic sites such as Casa Cubuy and El Verde Ranger House.
The work will be guided by the sustainable tourism destination management framework developed by STAMP, based on their research on the “Invisible Burden of Tourism.”
The study highlights the need to account for tourism’s hidden costs to protect and sustain critical assets, ecosystems and communities.
