GreenHeart Conservation Company Ltd.

Canopy Walkways: The State of the Art

Industrial society, as opposed to some indigenous cultures, has recognized the need for conservation of nature fairly recently. While the urgency of conservation is becoming ever more clear, how to achieve it is not. National Parks, endangered species legislation, anti-pollution laws, more rational forestry practices, are some of the approaches we are using to tweak our culture into living more sustainably.

Many conservation efforts attempt to protect areas of scenic, recreational or biological importance by locking them up in protected areas. Obviously this is essential, but these protected areas are subject to the whim of governments and changing social values. However daunting the idea of making society more sustainable may be, those of us optimistic enough to try are forever in need of new ideas on how to go about it.

After long apprenticeships in conservation and community development, Ian Green and I, founders of Greenheart Conservation Company Ltd., are attempting to demonstrate a new approach to conservation. Our specialty is designing conservation strategies for protection of areas of ecological importance based on canopy tourism, education and research. We design canopy walkways as economically viable businesses that support conservation.

Canopy walkways are a series of suspension bridges hanging from tree to tree, or, tower to tower, or a mixture of these components. They travel out from a hillside, although sometimes over flat ground using inclined bridges, and allow tourists to walk in the upper canopy of the forest. They are effective at attracting visitors who then become an audience ripe for information about environmental issues and approaches such as Ecoforestry.

We believe that conservation can be economically viable. The fastest growing part of the global economy is tourism, and the fastest growing segment of tourism is ecotourism. Unfortunately, this term has been misused so often, it has become almost meaningless, encompassing everything from trophy hunting to bird watching.

The best in ecotourism profiles a natural environment and often a local culture. It aims to protect, or at least cause a minimal impact on a small area while generating the financial capacity to protect a larger area of ecological value. Even this type of tourism is ultimately unsustainable because it relies on jet fuel and other travel requirements. But it can serve as an interim step between purely destructive resource development and something approaching sustainability. What sustainability in the modern world actually looks like is unclear to me. Sustainability is somewhat like health. A person is more or less healthy; a development is either more or less sustainable.

In many ways, Greenheart has already become a model of how to shift gears from an industrial to a green economy. The aluminum components are manufactured by a shipbuilding company in Steveston, B.C. "Mancatcher" netting on the sides of the bridges is Workers' Compensation Board-approved. Manufactured in Canada, it is the best netting available for this purpose. We are exporting Canadian expertise, materials, manufacturing and technology, as well as a green approach to development.

Conservation planning around a viable ecotourism business is a huge topic. This aspect of Greenheart project development is equally important to what is actually built. However, what is probably of most interest to readers of ICAN is the actual design of the walkway.

Greenheart is a B.C. registered business and all our designs satisfy Canadian engineering standards (more or less the same as U.S., although our engineer is also U.S. certified). Everything we build around the world satisfies these same standards to protect the canopy walkway concept. It must continue to be seen as a safe activity in the long term. Every facility has to have proper engineering drawings that are signed off by a P.Eng, and remain on site. If an accident happens in any country on a sub-standard walkway a smart lawyer can always point to a properly engineered design and say, look, this was not built to the acceptable standards of the day. From a liability point of view, based on our new designs, there is no longer any excuse (including lack of budget) for building something that is built to less than Canadian engineering standards.

The Greenheart walkway system is protected by a U.S. patent and includes 26 sub patents. Bridges and platforms in trees hang from the Treehugger (patent pending), a suspension system designed by Greenheart and our engineers to allow trees to grow while supporting huge loads. We use the latest, very sophisticated computer modeling to analyze designs. Bridge spans are up to 80m, although usually less than 50m. Loading level is 150 Lbs per ft2. Our system uses exact bridge geometry, loading conditions and considers external conditions such as tree sway. We do not use cable clamps because they are ugly, and prone to catching clothing, cutting hands and they damage the cable. Lastly, we build in real redundancy in our suspension system to maximize public safety.

A testimonial to the strength of our system is that the walkway in Georgia was hit by a hurricane shortly after being installed. A big tree fell and landed on the backstay cables holding a bridge. Although it moved a few things around, nothing broke and the affected bridge and platform can be repaired with nothing more than a little adjustment.

Another requirement is to assess the health of the trees in the system. We use Dr. Julian Dunster, an arborist who uses a resistograph to produce an image of the structural integrity of the tree. He signs off on trees, much like an engineer signs off on the structure.

One additional important point is that Greenheart can help finance projects for those without funds. Export Development Canada, and similar, but private agency called Northstar, aim to help Canadian companies export. They enable a foreign buyer that can satisfy credit requirements to borrow up to 80% of the value of a walkway at reasonable interest rates. Designed properly, the walkway can then pay for itself and leave the buyer, be it a non-profit organization, park, or whatever, with a permanent revenue-generating tool to sustain their conservation program over time.

Looking back, a project we built in Ghana in 1994 has been a remarkable success. Prior to the walkway, Kakum National Park had fewer than 900 visitors per year. After it gets about 80,000 visitors per year and grosses about U.S. $1 million while regional economic spin-off is valued at about $5million. The walkway pays for the anti-poaching team, funds economic development in surrounding communities, directly employs about 50 people in the park and uncounted numbers in the region and country. However, it is based on a US Army Corps of Engineers design and is not acceptable from an engineering point of view for public use. Although it has been in place for 10 years, and served well with no accidents, it has many design flaws that have been improved upon in subsequent designs.

Greenheart currently has a long list of projects in development: We are building a project in the cloud forest near Cuzco, Peru, for Amazon Conservation and ACEER. This will be a tower-based walkway in a Dr. Suess-like forest filled with bromeliads and orchids. It will attract tourists from Cuzco who presently only visit Machu Picchu. It will generate revenue and raise awareness of the unprotected cloud forest, a necessary refuge for Amazonian life in a warming climate. National Geographic Conservation Trust is a partner in this project.

A project that is just becoming operational is in Cross River State, Nigeria. This will be a tree-based walkway in a beautiful forest remnant. Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary is home to the last twenty or thirty Cross River gorillas, and the walkway holds the promise of protecting this area. The walkway will be built for the State Government at the site of Pandrillus, an engo that rehabilitates primates.

Another exciting project in development is a 300-metre walkway in Madagascar’s Ranomafana National Park where visitors will be able to view tree-nesting lemurs. A business plan has been done on this project showing that a canopy walkway in the poorest part of Madagascar, one of the three or four poorest countries in the world will make money. The President of the country has recently doubled the protected areas of Madagascar showing their hope for ecotourism and a future driver of the economy. The head of the national parks system said the walkway was his dream.

These projects, among others, give us hope we can make a living in conservation. Is that not the best one can hope for?

Greenheart Conservation Company Ltd.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada
www.greenheart.ca

E-Mail: info@greenheart.ca

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