Three stories under the same hut: Market preferences and forest governance drive the evolution of tourism construction materials

Abstract

Forest resource extraction evolves with commodification and shifts in product use and demand. Tourism is a major economic sector that represents approximately 10% of the global GDP and has the potential to drive major changes in forest activities. In the last three decades the boom of coastal tourism created new markets for the emergent community forestry sector in Quintana Roo (SE Mexico). Employing ethnobotanical and archival research methods we analyzed the evolution of management and use of three distinct forest products used in tourism architecture: polewood, thatching materials and chicozapote tree (Manilkara zapota) posts. Current models explain processes of forest product substitution and management intensification either in terms of economic efficiency and resource depletion, or power differences. Our results suggest the need to expand our understanding of extractive cycles to explicitly incorporate multi-scale governance, shifting values, and external shocks (i.e., hurricanes) as major drivers of change of forest products.