Mr. Tourism: One Man’s Plan to Save the Earth

Chuck Hutchinson is a soft-spoken, passionate man on a “save the environment” mission.

In a time when the world seems to be warming and governments debate the particulars, Hutchinson strives to make a difference now.

But you won’t find Hutchinson strapping himself to a tree or holding a picket outside the White House. He’s fighting environmental destruction by boosting tourism in developing countries.

That’s right. Tourism.

As the senior director of conservation and tourism planning for Conservation International (or C.I.), the 50-year-old Hutchinson promotes tourism as a way to generate revenue rather than having countries rely on environmentally harmful moneymakers, such as mining and logging. (C.I. is a member organization of the Clinton Global Initiative, which is holding its annual meeting on Sept. 26-28, in New York City.) 

Since Conservation International’s inception in 1987, tourism has been an effective strategy for improving countries’ environmental practices, says Peter Seligmann, chief executive officer of the Washington, D.C.-based organization. C.I. applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect plant and animal diversity; the group works in more than 40 countries on four continents.

“Bringing people to see your natural wonders became an obvious strategy,” Seligmann says.

But it’s not exactly an easy sell, he says. These developing countries often don’t have tourism departments, and the workforce is used to carrying axes, not visitor brochures. They also lack the necessary facilities to attract the big spenders — Americans and Europeans. That’s where Hutchinson, a Harvard-educated landscape architect, comes in. 
“Chuck is a very brilliant designer,” Seligmann says.

In 1992, Hutchinson helped Ghana turn the Kakum Forest Reserve into a national park. At the time, Hutchinson had to convince locals that their trees and animals could appeal to tourists. He says they thought that the only African experience that could draw throngs of tourists were safaris, with lots of elephants, zebras and lions.

“The African model of savanna parks and the Serengeti didn't work there,” Hutchinson says.
Instead, Hutchinson focused on making the Kakum National Park a visitor experience, building visitor center with interactive exhibits — like the “Hidden Connections: the Web of Life in a Rainforest” with trails that go deep into the forest. Suspended 100 feet above ground is a canopy walkway that offers a bird’s-eye view of the rain forest.
At the canopy’s height, one might see more than 300 bird species, 550 types of butterflies and monkeys being monkeys. Good luck seeing a furry fella, though. Kakum's mammals, including a forest elephant, are extremely elusive, Hutchinson says.

Today, more than 80,000 people a year visit the Kakum National Park and it has made more money and provided more jobs than logging, Hutchinson says.

“A lot of developing countries have incredible resources in tourism,” Hutchinson says. “My role has been to give these countries tourism opportunities to better themselves and at the same time do the right thing for Earth and conservation.”

Another park Hutchinson helped create is the Central Suriname Nature Reserve, a tropical rain forest that’s roughly the size of New Jersey. Hutchinson pushed for a new visitor center and a few modern conveniences, like hot water (powered by solar, of course) to make the area — which can only be reached by boat or charter flight — more accommodating.

This lovely soon-to-be opened park encompasses lowland forests, more than 5,000 plant species and 400 bird species — including the harpy eagle, Guiana cock-of-the-rock and scarlet macaw — and the Coppename River, which Hutchinson says is the “biggest pristine river system on Earth.”

Although Hutchinson continues to work on the Central Suriname Nature Reserve, earlier this year he turned his attention to helping South Africans use former diamond-mining areas.

De Beers, the diamond mining company, has been the region’s main employer for 80 years and with the closure of several mines, the area runs the risk of an unemployment epidemic. Hutchinson says the Northern Cape Province project has a lot of tourism potential.

“Nobody has seen the majority of this land, because it was secured when they were mining for diamonds, so the local intrigue is very high,” he says. “The natural landscape is very pretty and the coastline is incredibly pristine.”
Fred Minnick is a writer and photographer based in Louisville, Ky. Contact him at editor@fredwrite.com.