Green tape can be useful!
This is a 90-sec talk given by WTA chair Ronda Green as part of an ‘opinion-leader’ panel at the Global Eco Asia-Pacific Congress in November 2013:
So, we’re cutting green tape and opening our national parks to ecotourism. I hate red tape. One example. I was applying to trap frogs for an impact assessment and told the ethics officer I was was already identifying some by their calls. He said “Don’t tell me that – it’s not legal.’ ‘What? It’s not legal to listen to frogs?’ ‘Oh you can listen but you can’t identify them for consultancies without a permit.’ ‘But I’m not doing anything to the frogs.’ ‘Don’t expect ethics legislation to have anything to do with welfare.’ ok, so red tape, even green tape, can be infuriating and ludicrous. But half a century ago I enjoyed galloping horses through the national park, not realising the extent of the weeds and erosion. I never did like my father’s duck-shooting buddies laughing about the eagles and swans they were shooting, or seeing whole hillsides cleared of bushland for tax rebates, and was very happy when legislation stopped a lot of that. Now wildlife are facing climate change, habitat destruction for urbanisation and various industries and – please – let’s not make ecotourism one of the threats. Let’s use our knowledge, our imagination and technological advances to give our tourists wonderful experiences without increasing impacts. Some regulations do make a lot of sense. While we’re unraveling tangles of ridiculous red tape, please let’s not throw the green baby out with the bathwater