Linking Culture and the Environment

K. Horochowski and R.N. Moisey 189
traditional system of elders based on respect. Now, anybody can buy or sell
his position; it’s corrupt’.
Perceptions of functional efficiency of community structures
The perception on the efficiency of formal and informal community structures
was a virtually unanimous response of distrust. Although the distrust
was primarily directed towards the government, many people also expressed
suspicion of other members in their community. The mistrust was usually
generalized and was founded on past experiences or rumours of misallocation
of funds, insidious land transactions and failed projects. ‘Politicians
make promises when they want your vote but once they reach office, they
forget us (the poor) and steal from the projects intended to help our country’,
was one man’s complaint. Many subjects claimed that whether or not a
group could be trusted depended mostly on the leaders (organizers) of that
group. Overall, people did not join or trust groups unless they felt an obligation
to do so.
When asked if they trusted non-political leaders more than political ones
in their community, most people pointed out that such leaders (people who
mobilize the community without a personal political agenda) did not exist in
their communities. In rare instances that non-political leaders were identified,
people said they trusted them over politicians. Surprisingly, an overwhelming
number of the respondents claimed they would rather trust a
foreigner than someone from their own community. The reasoning behind
this confidence towards foreigners is the belief that outsiders (usually associated
with international development agencies such as CARE, Peace Corps,
etc.) have no ulterior motives for uniting people into groups, whereas ‘the
Hondurans who organize other people are always looking to take advantage
of them by having access to project money or by taking their land after it has
been cleared’.
Level of community awareness of, and support for, tourism development
In both areas, the mass influx of beach-going vacationers during Holy Week,
television advertisements from Miami and international advertisements
seem to guide people’s expectations of what tourism is: sun, sea, sand and
sex. Generally, people believe that tourism is accomplished through the
building of large-scale resorts, requiring substantial investments and offering
many services to a large number of visitors. Consistently, people considered
the development of the industry in their area beyond their means and
frequently stated that it was the responsibility of government to either build
resorts or find investors for it.
Of all the respondents, only two had a general knowledge of the meaning
of ecotourism and few others had heard the term before but had no idea