Bonaire and sustainable tourism

[GiliBonaire]

Hi all,

currently I'm conducting a research on sustainable tourism in Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. As extra information I would like to hear your opinion on sustainable tourism on/to/of Bonaire. Feel free to post experiences (either positive or negative) and discuss with each other.

Thanks a lot !

Kris
a student from the Netherlands

 

[keithdiver]

Hi all,

currently I'm conducting a research on sustainable tourism in Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. As extra information I would like to hear your opinion on sustainable tourism on/to/of Bonaire. Feel free to post experiences (either positive or negative) and discuss with each other.

Thanks a lot !

Kris
a student from the Netherlands

Greta place, friendly, awesome diving, no complaints. Gone 3years in a row, going back with a group of 20+ in summer of 2011:cool2:

 

[driftwood]

Hi Kris,

The biggest local issue that Bonaire has to face is the treatment and disposal of waste water. Right now it seems that the island is handling the current loading of pollutants fairly well with minimal impact on the reefs. Bonairetalk has a lot more info on this than you will find on Scubaboard.

Bonaire can never be a poster child for sustainable tourism. Flying to the island has a huge impact. Virtually all the food has to be shipped in. All the potable water has to go through an expensive desalinization process and outside of very limited solar and wind power, all the energy requirements have to be imported. The construction industry has similar issues since there is little in the way of local building materials.

 

[WaterWolf]

Another thing to consider is the cruise ships that now visit Bonaire regularly. This cannot be good for the island. That's too many people for such a small island. With big tourism comes more waste.

 

[dvrliz1]

Driftwood,

Bonaire is in the process of switching over to our new power plant, which consists 13 new windmills. The windmills will provide over 70% of our power on the island, and the remainder will rely on bio fuels. Finalization of the turnover is to be complete in May 2010.

Kris, you also need to contact Tourism Corporation of Bonaire as there are other plans "in the works" regarding "sustainable tourism".

Liz

 

[GiliBonaire]

I all ready contact TCB, stinapa and various diveresorts. This is just an extra source of information, i've spoken to tourist while staying on the Island. Since internet is an easy and fast way to get some more information I posted this here and a forum in The Netherlands. Thanks for the tip anyway!

 

[GratefulDiver69]

The one and only time I went to Bonaire I witnessed the worst display of diving skills I've ever seen. A diver in a group next to us was literally crawling and dragging himself over the coral. Don't they check to make sure a diver is qualified? Also, I had heard a lot about the problems with petty crime and was extremely careful with our stuff. Nevertheless, somebody stole the spare tire from underneath my rental truck in the middle of the night. That doesn't make me want to go back.

 

[jd950]

From a tourism standpoint, Bonaire has the sea, including more specifically its reefs and sea life. As long as Bonaire continues to permit almost unrestricted fishing within its "marine park," the sustainability of tourism is questionable. For years there has been a noticeable lack of barracuda, grouper, snapper, hogfish, octopi, sharks and numerous other species. The result? Locals increasingly target parrot fish, angel fish, and other fish that are not traditional food fish (and gripe about scuba divers chasing away the fish!). Couple that with its well-documented sewage treatment/waste water issues, sand mining and increasing reliance on cruise ships for tourism dollars and the future is bleak.

Sorry about that, but that is how I feel. Bonaire could turn it around, but will they? Hopefully, yes. Likely, no.