LOS ROQUES ARCHIPELAGO, Venezuela (Reuters) – A push by Venezuela to attract tourists and boost its flailing economy by building infrastructure including runways and hotels is doing environmental damage to ecologically-delicate areas, especially fragile Caribbean coral reefs already threatened by climate change, conservationists, scientists, government sources and locals say.
The government of President Nicolas Maduro, who blames U.S. sanctions for his country’s economic crisis, has called tourism the economy’s “secret weapon”.
The push has so far failed to attract foreign investors, sources say, despite a tourism ministry meeting with French businesspeople and public overtures from Maduro to investors as recently as this month.
But the infrastructure effort is already drawing criticism from biologists, activists and locals, with one conservation group alleging at least one major infrastructure project is illegal.
The runway at the main airport serving Los Roques National Park – an archipelago of 45 islands, cays and crystalline waters spread over 550,000 acres in the Caribbean and recognized by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands – was expanded to 1,300 meters this year from 800 meters, allowing larger planes to land.
The extension destroyed coral, mangroves and a nesting beach for the critically endangered Eretmochelys imbricata turtle, covering it with asphalt and rocks, “among other disturbances that will affect the natural resources of the park,” the Venezuelan Ecological Society said in a report.
Maduro, who has also promoted foreign investment in a project to construct 10 hotels on the nearly virgin La Tortuga Island, says his plans respect the environment.
“Important investors from all over are coming, many from the Arab world, many from Turkey, many from Iran, from China, from India, from Brazil to invest in tourism,” he said on state television in November, hailing “the growth of hotels, guesthouses and tourist services across the country.”
Maduro reiterated the call to investors in early December: “Tourism is already a great motor, but it still must cover a lot of ground to become the secret motor of the new economy.”
The government has signed tourism deals with Nicaragua, Cuba and Syria, tourism minister Leticia Gomez said during the same broadcast, without giving further details.
She hailed a 69% increase in tourism through November, compared with the same period a year earlier, saying 1.8 million international tourists visited – including from Russia, Poland, Iran, Cuba and neighboring Colombia.
By comparison, more than 3.1 million visitors entered Colombia in the first six months of 2024.
The plans for La Tortuga, 53 miles off the country’s northern coast, also include an airport and port.
“There is a master plan … by transnational companies that are experts in these types of islands and who have done major developments in Qatar, in the Maldives, in French Polynesia and in Hawaii,” Nicolas Maduro Guerra, Maduro’s lawmaker son, told Reuters in May, without naming the companies.
The plan is “ecologically stable and friendly to the island, keeping part of the island virgin,” Maduro Guerra said.
Environmental permits are not public and Venezuela’s environment and tourism ministries did not respond to requests for comment, but two government sources said impact studies were not conducted for the runway extension in Los Roques, where one conservation group says the work violates a 2004 law.
“The national park has become a disaster,” said retired Los Roques park ranger and conservationist Toribio Mata, who still lives on the archipelago, saying turtle hunting, spearfishing and visits by the public to restricted areas have all risen over the decade since his retirement because of lack of enforcement.
National parks institute Inparques is responsible for managing the parks, sanctuaries and reserves that make up about a third of Venezuela’s territory. It did not respond to a request for comment.
WASTE AND SEWAGE WORRIES
Upon arrival at Gran Roque, Los Roques’ largest island, about 88 miles north of the mainland, visitors pay an entrance fee and receive a wristband and a glossy pamphlet showcasing protected areas, recreational activities and places to stay.
The pamphlet does not mention trash and sewage problems recounted by residents, who mostly live off fishing and tourism.
Reuters witnesses saw what appeared to be sewage being dumped into the sea in a remote area of Gran Roque. Residents, who asked not to be named, said they fear increased tourism will worsen waste issues.
La Tortuga has no capacity to process waste, environmental advocates say.
Governance of that island, as well as of Los Roques and other islands, is the purview of government minister Anibal Eduardo Coronado, who is also the head of the department that monitors implementation of Maduro’s policies.
The communications ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
The United Nations and coastal countries have warned coral reefs are being devastated by the effects of warming oceans, experiencing their worst bleaching on record.
Los Roques’ already-damaged reef and coral on La Tortuga are important incubators for coral and fish species present in other reefs in Curazao and Aruba, and also sustain fishing families in neighboring coastal states.
Mata, the son of a park ranger, joined the service in 1979 at 22 and has kept years’ worth of drawings of migratory birds and notes from 3 a.m. conservation missions.
“The park was conserved because we were paying attention, we conducted rounds to protect turtles in the park, marine species, to prevent construction on the cays,” Mata said.
Inparques now rotates rangers in monthly from Caracas.
Mata’s worries about faltering conservation were echoed by other residents.
Three local fishermen told Reuters they have noticed a reduction in marine species including lobster and octopus, which they blame on over-fishing in protected areas and a lack of enforcement of regulations within the park.
Fishermen told Reuters that illegal fishermen use chlorine to startle octopus out of reefs and capture them, also damaging the coral. Some tourists ignore warnings not to use sunscreen, which can harm reefs, and leave behind trash including cigarette butts.
The local trash incinerator is broken, according to residents.
The environment ministry did not respond to questions about park management, the destruction of coral and mangroves due to infrastructure construction or over-fishing.
‘CONSTRUCTION BRINGS CONSEQUENCES’
The archipelago’s reef suffered a bleaching in November 2023, according to biologist and university professor Angel Farina, and another bleaching began in October this year.
“We have the highest temperatures registered for Caribbean sea water and our coasts,” he said, citing climate change but also use of the chemicals for fishing and the presence of sewage.
Construction of more infrastructure would “obviously bring consequences,” he said. “Construction creates pollution, it creates sedimentation that can affect reefs temporarily or permanently … deforestation of mangroves is harmful anywhere because they are nurseries for diverse species.”
A resort constructed before Maduro’s tourism push has already put pressure on La Tortuga’s delicate ecosystem, the Venezuelan Observatory of Political Ecology said.
“It’s a jewel, an ecological jewel,” said a scientist who worked at a now-shuttered research station in Los Roques and who asked for anonymity, referring to the archipelago. “The regulations of the national park are not being respected, it’s being pushed toward commercialization, toward mass tourism.”
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Julia Symmes Cobb and Daniel Wallis)
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