Successful workshop on sustainable development Facilitated by department of International Education of NHTV Internationale Hogeschool, in Breda, november 18. Introduction Despite having moved the date (the earlier date was 14 October but could not take place because of strikes on railways). More than 100 students assisted this workshop. After a general introduction by Madeleine Vreeburg, Vincent Platenkamp gave some theoretical insights in the components playing a role in the “international classroom”, composed when students from different cultural backgrounds come together and perform their research or study activities. In his opinion, these cross cultural encounters can be seen as a strong agent for creating common understanding and learning between the participating students. After the introductory lecture, four separate workshops were held. Workshop Water Management The workshop assisted by some 23 students, started analyzing water pollution as a major problem in the world, especially in developing countries. How to reduce pollution and improve quality of water and how to reasonably management the water in a sustainable way were seen as important questions to face. The workshop was hold against this background. Two presentations about the water management in different areas were held. Mijke Lievens from HAS Den Bosch did her research project in Honduras. The objective was to test water quality in the main rivers of Honduras and come up with a plan for improving water quality and management. The second research was presented by Pieter-Johannes Steenbergen and Frank Huenen from Technical University of Delft (TUD), who had analyzed hydro-energy possibilities in the Philippines, focusing on „Self-Governance and Sustainability of a Micro-Hydro power system‟. An introduction was given about the governance of the Barangay power association and the performance of the Micro-Hydro power system. After the presentations, a heated debate about the research experiences developed. The language was considered to be the main problem faced when researching in foreign counties. You are only doing the research in that area; you are not an expert but only a student, you can not guarantee or promise anything, the expectations however are high. It is hard to communicate with local residents if you do not understand the local culture. Finally, as a conclusion, a good preparation, well organized schedule and culture understanding are important factors for a successful research project.
Workshop “Tourism” The Tourism workshop attracted 25 students. Purpose was to discuss the statement “sustainable tourism starts with making money!” As an introduction two case studies were presented, which both concerned community based on tourism. The first case study, presented by Adrienne Deelder, showed a research example of community involvement in a reserve in Ghana. Adrienne explained that the purpose of her research had been to find out how to improve community involvement and how to attract more visitors to the reserve. Through focus group interviews, interviews with NGO‟s, tourists, managers, and households the outcome of the research resulted in the following recommendations: improving transport (making the reserve more accessible for tourists), more efficient obtaining of electricity (use of a solar system), selling local products and food to tourists since they would appreciate that and a greater supply of activities (at that moment the only activity for tourists was hiking). In addition, a special education program for both locals and tourists was found to be necessary since both population and tourist numbers were increasing. Hugo de Jong presented the second case study, showing a thesis research from the Salta Provence, Argentina. He explained that, in 2001, the country found itself in an economic crisis and a liable political situation. The village covered by his research, called „Coronal Moldes‟, suffering high unemployment and high birth rates. Tourism, and then especially cultural and adventure tourism, is seen as an instrument to help the village get over the crisis. Through the help from inhabitants, experts and the mayor the research group was able to define a list of present issues: the locals‟ high suspicion towards politics, the presence of a feudal system, a low self-confidence of the population, hostility towards international investors, lack of confidence from potential investors due to the election period and the fact that there was a great absence of NGO‟s. Recommendations by the research group on how to deal with those issues were for example: developing a bottom-up approach, get the community involved, and have NGO‟s to institutionalise tourism development. After a short coffee break the second part of the workshop, the discussion, encouraged by Nico Visser and Jos van der Sterren, led to participants expressing their opinions. One of the first comments was: “in Ghana people seem to be too focused on money, making it impossible for tourism to be sustainable. In Argentina however, people have cultural pride, an important ingredient for sustainability. Tourism there is very possible.” A comment on this statement was: “Ghana is not focused on money, but improvement. Tourism development could be that improvement”, followed by an ironic reaction from Adrienne: “…well yes, tourism development is present in Ghana, only, the tourists not yet…” During the discussion the participants were encouraged to discuss about sustainability, local development and tour operators‟ influences. An international participant commented that in Ethiopia it is the case that local tour operators have more access to locals and therefore can get done more. “In Namibia,” another student mentioned, “a combination of community based
tourism, internal investments and locally owned investments works quite well towards sustainability”. Nico Visser commented that a bottom-up approach within a community is very important: “the four ingredients of bottom-up approach are know-how, money, infrastructure and attraction. In Tanzania for example women have organized themselves: they offer homestays and produce articrafts of which they know that will attract tourists”. Concluding the discussion some final statements and accomplishments were mentioned: domestic tourism and Visiting Friends and Relatives are often forgotten markets, situations and people differ, safety and distance are a great deal in decision-making of potential tourists, tourism becomes experience (e.g. eco-volunteers), and reasons for tourism are: nature, culture, attraction. Workshop Natural Resource Management
Local resource exploitation and nature conservation: a matter of competition, coexistence or symbiosis? The first presentation was given by Trishna Kingma, doing research in Ghana on Sustainable wildlife management in Ghana. Conclusion of this research is that, at present in Ghana there is no wildlife management at the moment, there is no collaboration among the stakeholders and there are big differences in power resources. There are many different stakeholders in Ghana with each their own interests. Examples of different stakeholders are the hunters, workers in the timber industry, wild life etc. These groups have conflicting interests. (mistrust, corruption) Everyone has their own interests, tasks and goals; the objective of the research was to support managing conflicts. The method was working with focus groups. The final statement: Local resource exploitation and nature conservation can not be combined in a satisfying manner for both nature conservationists and local communities.
The second research was performed by Karlijn Cranen, on awareness towards nature conservation among local communities in the Philippines. It analyzed knowledge among local community of the Northern Sierre Madre Natural Park, Philippines. Karlijn introduced her work by stating that biodiversity is in a worldwide crisis. As a general solution, protected areas are being proposed and installed. Increasingly the local population is involved in managing these protected areas. In the Philippines, new legal arrangements include this participation but still illegal wood exploitation and hunting is taking place. People appear to make and apply their own rules, and population growth is not the same as economic growth. After the break a discussion was held on the origin of community initiatives, who is taking these? National government, local inhabitants, NGO‟s? Another issue discussed was the way how to get financing for local communities, income generating activities. Community involvement only is effective when a third party is supporting it, like an NGO.
Workshop of Cross-cultural Encounters Cross-cultural encounters can provide an excellent opportunity for personal growth by placing us in situations where our understanding of self and world, and of how we believe things "are" or "should be," is severely challenged. During this two-hour workshop, two presentations were introduced to 19 students who were interested in the subject of cross-cultural encounters. One was given by Vivian Tekelenburg (NHTV), who did research in La Niña, Argentina with her group members. The other is given by Eline Poels (UvA), who did research together with Ghanaian students on sustainable tourism opportunities in lake Bosumptwi, Ghana. Vivian introduced the detailed project to the students and explained the heat welcome the project group received is because the background in 2003, that 30,000 hectare land was lost. Western people, who were seen as experts, were always trusted by local people. And Vivian also made the assumption that “In cross-cultural encounter, the „western‟ view is always dominant.” Eline focused more on intercultural cooperation in her presentation, including cultural difference, situation, personal behavior, and so on. She shared lots of experience of working in multicultural group with the audience, and discussed that “Where did it go wrong?” It may be unawareness of cultural difference, wrong way of communication, putting (own idea of) “quality” over people, etc. It is quite natural that different views and attitudes should be particularly present in groups of multicultural composition. You have to work together in defining the rules of your collaboration. What should be done is to give your colleagues space, to improve the system of meeting, to create a sound cooperation. A heated discussion around the topic that In cross-cultural encounter, the „western‟ view is always dominant was held after the presentation. The students focused more on “experts” and “western”. They asked: what is the definition of expert? Why western view is dominant? And: what is the relation between them? Some of people thought it was the truth that western people master the advanced model and theory, so they are experts, they are dominant. But some of people considered that the expert should not only be western people, but local people with same knowledge or opinion, they also know what the best is for the local non-educational people, and they should be dominant. There was no clear result of this debate. Only one agreement was arrived, which is building a trust relationship is an important approach to work together.