Sustainable Tourism Experiences in Ecuador; Implementing knowledge’ Social Construction process in a rural community

Abstract

This work aims to socialize a successful experience for Social Knowledge Construction in the field of Environmental Literacy. This work takes place at the rural Afro-Ecuadorian community “San Miguel”, located in Ecuador, South America. The participants are 35 women and men, who installed a communitarian tourism project with the support of national and international rural development programs in 2005. However, any study had been executed in the location to determine the impacts on the natural and cultural heritage, since the touristic project began; in consequence, the community has not information to take decisions about their entrepreneurship. This work applied the ethnographic social research method and the techniques of semi-structured interview and community surveys to collect data. It was applied the Model of Echavarren for Assessing the Tourism Impacts on Natural and Cultural Resources. The results show that the economical contribution from the touristic project is still low but, necessary in the community. There are no relevant impacts on the natural and cultural heritage. However, an Environmental Literacy Plan based on Mendonca and the Social Knowledge Construction approach is introduced by the authors to strengthen local people environmental behavior. This plan can be adapted and applied in other communities. It is concluded that environmental literacy plans can be more efficient when are applied as transversal topics during formal and informal communitarian activities. This community members respect their agreement for keeping their natural and cultural resources for the enjoying of the future generations; even when, this represents a limited economic retribution.