?Very high ecological value indeed, as exemplified by the choice of placing a Nature Reserve in the area. Excellent asset for this ecotourism project.? This description, in the Environmental Impact Assessment for a cable car project at Tamarind Falls, sums up the issues posed by the initiative of Seven Waterfalls Horizons (Mtius), the developer.

Seven Waterfalls Horizons (Mtius) holds an industrial lease for 60 years from the ministry of Housing and Lands and the Central Electricity Board. The cable car project is closely related to the development of a ?Leisure Village? at Tamarind Falls on 27 arpents of private property owned by the same company. In the report, it is said the project ?entails promotion of eco-tourism development in Mauritius?.

Sham Seetaram, the managing director of Seven Waterfalls Horizons, compares his 3.2 km long project to what has been realised in South Africa on the Table Mountain: ?I have previously studied and visited 62 installations around the world?.

Since 2006, when preliminary fieldwork met hostility from some ecologists and after an episode when CEB refused access to its land, the developer?s EIA has been much awaited for. With the light that much of the forest land rented by CEB had already been almost totally destroyed for agriculture, hunting and development, the Mauritius Wildlife Foundation (MWF), in its own report, recommended that six hectares of forest should be actively managed to maintain the ecological beauty and sensitiveness of the area.

Unsurprisingly, the promoter?s EIA stresses the interdependence of nature conservation and development: pristine nature that will attract tourist and sustainable development that will give means to conserve it.

Not normally accessible to the common man

And the natural setting is really invaluable. Most of the route of the cable car is above native vegetation cover (55%), about 30% is above pasture and other exotic growths and 15% close to or above water. This high standard of naturalness, translated in terms of flora, by ?one of the most diverse areas on record in Mauritius, with 138 sampled species?, of which "58 are endemic", is obviously seen as an asset by promoters.

The cable car would include six towers with a minimum height of 40m. Surveys were conducted to assess the impact of the set-up and the operation at each tower and base location of the proposed development. As it seems the threat to nature seems less potentially harmful than the original South-East Highway project in Ferney valley.

But the principle waved by the late Nature Watch Organisation in 2005 remains: the native forest in Mauritius nears 1% of the land and each portion of it should be looked after with the utmost care. This underlines the relative discretion of some ecologists since the Ferney episode.

Yet, about 14% of the cable car route will be directly above a Nature Reserve (Le Cabinet), designated as a scientific zone and normally not accessible to the common man. Above that part of the site, developers assure that the cable car track would hove at a minimum height clearance of 30 meters.

At the MWF, a source indicates that the non-governmental organization would send further suggestions to the EIA committee in due course after studying thoroughly the report.

But Sham Seetaram is confident about the soundness of his proposals on the conservation front: ?We are putting at the disposal of environmentalists considerable means, we propose to carry out weeding and fencing of highly sensitive areas and we are ready to take under our responsibility more than 6 hectares.?

Before the eventual launching of the cable car, the Swiss team that will be dispatched to Mauritius would ?ensure thorough training of the mechanical staff but also of the tourist guides and related workers to keep the highest standards in terms of service.?

Govind Tannoo, who has been guiding tourists for various operators for seven years in the Gorges, may enroll in the first batch. ?There are already three or four colleagues that earn a living from tourist visits here and there may be newcomers with that new opportunity.?

But he is also supporting the project from the point of view of the nature lover. ?Mentalities have evolved. We are also there to teach people to respect nature.? The issue is important since the increased number of visitors could disturb the wildlife and vegetation. With proper visitor management, it is unlikely that the use of the cable car will result in increased litter and waste.

The rest will be compensating measures to address the habitat loss and habitat fragmentation generated by the building of the towers and station. But then if eco tourism is the price to pay for a new hindsight put on our responsibilities before nature, why not?