Distorting the utopia of sustainability and eco-tourism: defense from the indigeneous perspective

Abstract

The world should no longer postpone the renewal of paradigms. The urgency is oriented to serve two of the priority issues of worldwide interest: environmental deterioration and the civilization/dehumanization crisis, where greater interest is put in recovering the harmony with nature, in order to promote life and ensure its reproduction. Paraphrasing Houtart (2011), it is about achieving the Well-Being of the humankind, which implies, as a first step, the respect for the integrity of Nature, as a source of life. In this orientation and as an effort to add to this movement, the aim of this paper focuses on the resistance and protecting expressions witnessed in the ecological ejidal Ojo de Agua de Ballesteros, Salvatierra, Guanajuato, which by promoting the ejidal ecological tourism, is actually doing no more than preserving its property and natural patrimony and thus the sustainability of its environmental offer. The research methodology is based on the Participative Action Research, through the application of guided in-depth interviews, case studies, elaboration of diagnostics and participative observation. As one of the main result of this survey, we show how the collective action among his actors is fundamental to build a rural sustainability, as a mean of assuming a global ecological mission.