Benefits Of Ecotourism Research Articles

Emerging frontiers for blue growth in African Great Lakes: The potential for recreational fishing industry in Lake Victoria, Kenya

AbstractSport fishing for Nile Perch and Tilapia are key attractions to recreational anglers on Lake Victoria. Existing hospitality establishments promote sport fishing with angling as the main form of recreational fishing. Development of this industry is expected to generate accrued benefits of eco-tourism and community empowerment by providing alternative sources of income from the already strangled commercial and subsistence fisheries calling for diversification within the fishing industry. Key informant questionnaires were administered to County tourism and fisheries representatives, hotel directors or managers, and officials of Beach Management Units while questionnaire-led-interviews were conducted at the beaches or community recreation sites. Seven tourist resorts, one yacht club, and seven beaches/fish landing sites were assessed. The study aimed to assess the current status of recreational fishing and identify growth opportunities within the industry. Recreational fishing was concentrated around Mfangano Island targeting Nile Perch using artificial baitfish as a tackle. On average, boat hire charges including fishing tackle were USD 30 per trip (< 3 hours) and USD 100 per day per fishing trip. “Blue tourism” rating was low across the respondents with the 2007 political unrest said to have heavily impacted the number of tourists to the region. Water Hyacinth and poor water quality remain a key challenge within Winam gulf while overfishing posed a major concern in the open lake with the number of longline fishers reported to be on the rise. Resource spatial planning should be instituted to cater for the different players in the Blue Economy. The strict enforcement of the Nile Perch slot size is recommended and cooperation among industry players on access and use of the products from recreational fishing. A national census survey on recreational catches should be conducted if its full potential is to be realized in promoting blue growth.

Ecotourism and Rural Livelihood Nexus: An Assessment of the Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary Reserve

Ecotourism has been envisaged not only as an alternative to mass tourism, but also as a livelihood diversification strategy for rural people. Researchers have presented mixed arguments regarding the relationship between Community Based Ecotourism Projects and rural livelihoods. This study therefore examined the link between rural livelihoods by conducting an in-depth assessment of the Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary Reserve. The research employed a cross sectional design with a mixed research approach. Questionnaires were used to collect data from 214 respondents in Kpanfa, Pellinkpari, Dochere, Dornye, Talawona and Tuole. Series of in-depth interviews were also carried out using interview guides and field observation. The study found that, the emergence of ecotourism in the area caused the emergence of some new livelihood activities while some traditional livelihood activities saw a decline while others were completely abandoned due to the enactment of some conservation bye- laws. Respondents were dissatisfied with the contribution of ecotourism livelihood activities to sustainable livelihoods coupled with unequal sharing and distribution of ecotourism benefits among sanctuary communities. The study recommended for more sustainable livelihood options to be developed by the Sanctuary Management Board to help improve the situation of the poor rural farmer on who’s livelihood ecotourism activities have a direct bearing and to also develop and implement a strategic policy framework to facilitate benefit sharing among catchment communities.

How to unlock the benefits of ecotourism: a case study of Karpaz, North Cyprus

PurposeThis research was motivated by the strong desire of the researchers to make an impact on the protection and conservation of the environment and to make recommendations to enhance sustainable ecotourism development in the Karpaz peninsula, North Cyprus. The aim of the research was first to assess the current challenges faced by those involved in ecotourism and sustainable practices and secondly to develop solutions for these challenges.Design/methodology/approachQualitative applied research was used with the objective of combining the concerns of local entrepreneurs with the knowledge of the members of the ecotourism associations and organisations to raise public awareness, empower locals, bring social change and improve the lives of the local community. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted with ecotourism entrepreneurs, members of the Ecotourism Association, the Ecotourism Movement and the Karpaz Ecotourism Cooperative.FindingsThe results showed that the main challenges faced were a lack of finance, a lack of support from the local and national governments and a lack of knowledge regarding ecotourism and sustainable development amongst members of the local community. The solutions are educating the local community about agri-ecotourism, putting pressure on local and national governments to support agri-ecotourism, getting other tourism associations such as tour operators on their side and setting up farming cooperatives for farmers.Originality/valueThe value and originality of this study lie in the use of applied research approach with its social agenda of finding solutions which can be developed from the new knowledge which arises from the study.

Political Empowerment Support to Ecotourism Development: A Study the Indigenous Tribal Populations in India

This research was framed as an attempt to empirically retest the assumed relationship between political empowerment and resident support for ecotourism, with perceived benefits and perceived costs as mediating variables. The study is analytical-descriptive in nature and followed a cross-sectional survey design. The survey participants included the local inhabitants of the ecotourism zones of three protected areas in India. On the basis of a review of the literature pertaining to community-based tourism, an initial research instrument was developed. This questionnaire included items to measure political empowerment, perceived benefits of ecotourism, perceived costs of ecotourism, and support for sustainable tourism development, that were adopted from previous studies. The results derived from the Structural Equation Modeling of the data gathered by us, quite contrary to indications in the literature, suggest that political empowerment critically diminishes destination local community support for ecotourism development. Even though the extant literature generally indicates that empowerment is central to community-based tourism, it appears that, under certain conditions, empowered community members might skip tourism and pursue alternate economic opportunities.

A Sustainable Tourism Based on a New Institutional Economics Approach: Ecotourism Based on the Community in the Gasan Gadang Fishermen Village

This study aimed to determine the patterns of development and implementation of community-based ecotourism management and identify the impact of the community-based ecotourism in Gasan Gadang Village on the economic, social, and environmental aspects of the surrounding community. The methodology used was descriptive analysis with a new institutional economics approach and the Kruskal-Wallis Test analysis. The patterns of development and implementation of community-based ecotourism management with all levels of social change analysis, including formal and informal rules such as culture, customs, habits of Gasan Gadang villagers, institutional and governance management, and even the economy, are considered good. The Community-based ecotourism management has adopted the theory of resource allocation among stakeholders of Gasan Gadang Village. The findings of this study showed that community-based ecotourism institutions and management bring positive impacts on economic, social, and culture. There was no significant difference among economic, social, and environmental impacts between the non-authorities and community-based ecotourism authorities of Gasan Gadang Village. Thus, it could be said that the benefits of community-based ecotourism received by the community were all the same. Everyone got positive benefits. However, based on the findings, it could be seen that the biggest difference was the economic impacts followed by the social impacts, while the smallest difference is the environmental impacts. From this situation, it could be concluded that the performance of community-based ecotourism authorities in Gasan Gadang Village was good and positively impacted the economic, social, and environmental aspects of the Gasan Gadang Village fishermen community.

Dynamics of Ecotourism Benefits Distribution

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to explore the dynamics of ecotourism benefits distribution at Boabeng, which is found within the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary (BFMS) in Ghana. Data collection instruments included schedules, in-depth interview (IDI) and focus group discussion (FGD) guides. Findings from the study showed that there was disparity in the distribution of ecotourism benefits to the local households at Boabeng. Adverse impacts of ecotourism are making it difficult for households whose livelihood activities are located in the fringes of BFMS to engage in normal activities. The study has brought to the fore the complete personified livelihood experience within the individual households and ecotourism livelihoods in the Boabeng community. Again, this study argues that there is no significant relationship between socio-demographic characteristics of households and the distribution of ecotourism benefits. The study recommends that managers of the project in the community should consider the provision of social amenities using revenue from the project.

Study on the Benefits of Ecotourism as an Alternative form of Tourism

Ecotourism is defined as the movement of tourist to the natural and undisturbed areas. It is emerged as the form of alternative tourism for the minimization of the adverse impacts of mass tourism. Eco-tourism is also referred as Community-based Tourism as the betterment of the community is one of the major principles of ecotourism. It has the appearance of being environmentally and socio-culturally sustainable, rather in a way that enhances the natural and cultural resource base of the destination and promotes the feasibility of the operation. The most obvious characteristic of ecotourism is that it is nature based. Ecotourism has started with an experimental idea that many expected to contribute for the conservation of natural resources worldwide. In this research the researcher has tried to find out the impacts of ecotourism on the life of host community. This research evaluate the benefits of the ecotourism as an alternative form of tourism and its effects on the life of people life of the people living in and around the natural area where the eco-tourist visit more frequently. This research focuses on Manali as the research area as it is the most important tourism site in India, famous for its natural beauty. This research focuses on the how the people got empowered socially and economically by adopting ecotourism practices.

Factors of community participation that explain the benefits of ecotourism

The sustainability of ecotourism initiatives represents a major challenge. The aim of this study is to enhance our understanding of how community participation in ecotourism management can contribute toward achieving more sustainable results by identifying key factors that make it possible to potentiate a broader range of economic, social and environmental objectives. Based on the theory of collaborative planning and the strategic focus of community tourism, our work adopted a mixed approach to compare and explain the differences between two local cooperatives on the coast of the state of Nayarit, Mexico. The results reveal statistically‑significant differences between the benefits obtained through ecotourism and identify the factors that foment active community participation by local residents that, in turn, generates positive correlations with those benefits. Findings were supported by qualitative interviews with external informants. Our conclusion is that the level of benefits obtained can be reasonably explained by a set of six key factors

Distribution of the Benefits of Ngare Ndare Forest Trust and Il Ngwesi Group Ranch Ecotourism Enterprises in Kenya

Equity in distribution of the benefits of ecotourism is critical as many African communities have remained poor though they occupy areas that are rich in tourism resources. In Kenya, some studies show tourism has been beneficial to most locals and even pro-poor while others reveal different inequalities including elite capture. In light of this divided opinion, this study investigated the distribution of benefits of Ngare Ndare Forest Trust’s and Il Ngwesi Group Ranch’s ecotourism enterprises in Kenya. The study was a cross-sectional survey that applied mixed-methods approach with quantitative data being collected through face-to-face interviews and qualitative data collected using focus group discussions. Its results showed that the two community owned and operated enterprises yielded various benefits to locals but there was limited channelling of these to women, youth and the poor. The study demonstrates that amidst the degrowth movement’s call for a shift from profit-driven development to community-centred approaches, there is need to address inequities that lie at the pinnacle of local participation in which communities own and operate tourism enterprises.

STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF VISITOR PERCEPTION, EBOLA RISK FACTOR, AND WATER QUALITY OF MOLE NATIONAL PARK FOR SUSTAINABLE ECOTOURISM FUNCTIONS

Aligning with Parks’ sustainability, tourist perceptions about integral field conditions for ecotourism functions were studied at Mole in Ghana (Africa) through periodic physicochemical analyses of water using (APHA/AWWA/WEF, 2012) protocols. Optimally, 81.5 wet days with 1,107.38mm rainfall intensity- regulated the park’s dynamic natural primary productivity within six years interval (2005 to 2010), revealing direct insignificant regressive linear relationships (y = 1.7x + 0.2778) in the rainfall pattern interspersed with marginal variations in standard errors of the month-by-month figures (R2 = 0.6839). Zero Ebola records status boosted ecotourism functions, although, foreign visitors’ statistics dropped in 2014 with reciprocal ascendance of locals when the Government of Ghana adopted WHO/CDC Ebola preventive interventions. Routine carrying capacity measures regulated tourist numbers annually. Ground littering, pool contamination, olfactory wild animal odours, and higher entrance fees seldom discouraged 90-95% of the subjects who considered the park’s environs as recreationally moderately attractive. CaCO3 varied widely from 32.03 to 124.72 mg/L similar to turbidity (1.27 - 57.4) NTU, while pH remained neutral (7) in the entire park’s water resources. Boreholes temperatures varied slightly between Laribanga (23.7ᵒС) and Mole (27.8°С) whereas, EC differed significantly (p<0.05) between Mole dam 1b (47.6 µS/cm) and Mole pool (2181 µS/cm). A few water sources exhibited lower TDS, though higher figures also exceeded the Ghana EPA standard (100mg/L), reducing its safety for recreational occupancy. Prognosis integral responses towards improving these water resources by redefining acceptable quality index, modelling of synergies using existing park’s natural resources databases could posterity wise, secure, or improve ecotourism benefits.

Discrete Element Analysis on the Correlation between Marketing Means and Economic Benefits of Island Ecotourism

Mo, J. and Ren, F., 2020. Discrete element analysis on the correlation between marketing means and economic benefits of island ecotourism. In: Yang, Y.; Mi, C.; Zhao, L., and Lam, S. (eds.), Global Topics and New Trends in Coastal Research: Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 103, pp. 1038–1041. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.The traditional analysis method of the correlation between island eco-tourism marketing means and economic benefits has a large error, so it can't provide reference for the development of island eco-tourism. Therefore, a discrete element analysis method of the correlation between island eco-tourism marketing means and economic benefits is designed. This paper analyzes the influencing factors of the correlation between marketing means and economic benefits, extracts the data table of island eco-tourism business, converts the data, and collects the correlation data of island eco-tourism marketing means and economic benefits. On this basis, the discrete element analysis method is used to calculate the correlation between the island eco-tourism marketing means and economic benefits, so as to complete the calculation of the correlation between the marketing means and economic benefits. The experiment proves that the discrete element analysis method of the correlation between the island eco-tourism marketing means and economic benefits is less error than the traditional method, and it has practical significance.

Bayesian Belief Network models as trade-off tools of ecosystem services in the Guayas River Basin in Ecuador

Food production often leads to environmental degradation. Consequently, insights into ecosystem functioning in relation to exploitation are needed as a basis for socioeconomically acceptable mitigation of these impacts. A Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) model is developed to link three major ecosystem services (ES), i.e. food production, water provision and ecotourism, and determine the effect of local agricultural practices and management on the ES in the Guayas Basin (Ecuador). Several data sources were integrated into the BBN model, including processed spatial data from primary and secondary sources, sampling and survey data, and expert knowledge. The model suggests that banana and sugar cane generate the highest yield but provide low ecotourism benefits. In contrast, cacao produces the lowest yields but contributes to better water quality. Scenario analyses suggest that environmental gains are possible by optimising the land use (LU) based on the edaphoclimatic requirements of crops. Moreover, the integration of LU optimisation with upscaling and farming intensification can allow for additional advantages in water provision and ecotourism while mitigating productivity losses. The BBN development approach can serve as a reference for other case studies, where data scarcity plays a limiting factor in the assessment of interactions between key ES.

The Role of Ecotourism in the Prespa National Park in Greece. Evidence from a Travel Cost Method and Hoteliers’ Perceptions

The Prespa National Park, is situated in a cross-border region in Greece, constitutes a protected ecosystem that provides very significant ecosystem services. In this region, ecotourism may constitute a powerful driving force for both environmental protection and local economic development. Therefore, future planning and management of this area should take under consideration its potential (eco)tourism benefits. However, as most of the recreation and leisure benefits cannot be directly captured by market valuation models, non-market valuation techniques should be applied to identify them. One of the most frequently used non-market valuation techniques to assess outdoor recreational services of specific sites (e.g. forests, protected areas, cultural heritage sites etc.) is the travel cost method (TCM). This methodology aims to relate the observed behavior of visitors to the total cost of their visit. In this paper, a hybrid travel cost model is developed and then applied to determine the individual recreational values and then to measure the total benefits of ecotourism in Prespa region. Then, in order to get a more comprehensive picture about the current and future role of ecotourism in this area, two surveys were implemented on local hotel owners by using both structured and semi-structured approaches.

Environmental cost assessment model based on ecosystem services, environmental pollution indicators and DEA

This paper establishes an environmental cost assessment model and uses the losses of ecosystem services to estimate the environmental degradation. Non-monetary estimates of ecosystem services (ESC) are made to determine ecosystem service indicators. Ecosystem services are integrated into three categories: direct services (DV), indirect services (IV), and existential services (EV). The small indicators of direct services, indirect services and existential services are respectively weighted by entropy weight method. Further the coefficient of variation method is used to weight three services, and finally we can obtain a linear combination of ecosystem services. Environmental pollution indicators (EPI) are used to assess the losses of biodiversity and ecotourism values. The linear function is used to indicate the reduction trend of ecotourism benefits due to environmental pollution. The sigmoid function is used to indicate the decreasing trend of biodiversity due to environmental pollution. Finally, the DEA model is established to evaluate the real benefits of land use projects.

Tagang System Development: The Impacts and Perception of Local Communities in Terbat Mawang Village, Sarawak, Malaysia

Growing in popularity of tourism industry in Sarawak creates opportunities for economic development. This industry has been recognized as one of the sectors that contribute to the economic growth in the state. The number of tourists willing to visit the unexplored nature and different cultures has sparked and increased the development for the ecotourism industry. This study focuses on the impacts and perception of local communities on Tagang system development in Terbat Mawang Village, Sarawak. The respondents' feedback was analysed using factor analysis and reliability test. The study showed that three subscales components were identified including economic impact, conservation and protection, and ecotourism benefits in the analysis. In short, the socioeconomic and environmental implications captured an excellent opportunity for economic development in the ecotourism industry.

Ecotourism for Sustainable Development in Gilgit-Baltistan: Prospects under CPEC

Ecotourism is an instrument for protecting the natural landscape along with improving the livelihood of the rural communities. It helps minimise the negative impacts of tourism on bio-diversity of the protected areas .With the increasing prospects of better infrastructure and improved means of communication under the framework of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), there is huge potential for promoting ecotourism in the ecologically fragile areas like Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). This paper attempts to evaluate the theoretical concept of ecotourism and sustainable development and also analyses how the two issues are intertwined. Furthermore, it explores the prospects for developing ecotourism in GB with the help of a better infrastructure development as planned under the CPEC. While doing so, this study examines the potential benefits of ecotourism for sustainable development of the rural communities of GB.

Is ecotourism a panacea? Political ecology perspectives from the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, India

Ecotourism is increasingly being promoted as an instrument that helps local socio-economic development and generate revenues to strengthen conservation of critically endangered biodiversity. It is often posited the magic bullet particularly across protected areas in the Global South. In theory, ecotourism can provide economic benefits to economically weaker communities living around protected areas and inspire them to protect the biodiversity in their own interest. This paper, however, provides empirical evidence that the so-called win–win is not an unqualified truism. With a case study on Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, world’s largest mangrove biodiversity and home of highly endangered Royal Bengal Tiger, this article examines complexities involved in ecotourism and urges the need to make it context-specific. It assesses ecotourism’s ability to provide livelihood alternatives to local communities and how can it help in conservation. The findings demonstrate an unequal, uneven, and skewed accumulation of benefits of ecotourism, often associated with market mechanisms of global environmental protection. As little as 36% of the interviewees claimed receiving direct or indirect benefits from ecotourism, the study finds. It failed to offer any benefits at all to the poorest and most marginal communities. On the contrary, it offered disproportionately larger returns to the remotely located capital invested in the local ecotourism facilities in the Sundarbans, thus defeating the principle behind the mechanism. In the area of conservation, tourism was blamed for increasing pollution and harming the health of the ecosystem by tourists who were considered ‘outsiders’ and insensitive to the ecology by the locals and conservation agencies alike.

Design, monitoring and evaluation of a direct payments approach for an ecotourism strategy to reduce illegal hunting and trade of wildlife in Lao PDR.

Ecotourism as a strategy for achieving biodiversity conservation often results in limited conservation impact relative to its investment and revenue return. In cases where an ecotourism strategy has been used, projects are frequently criticized for not providing sufficient evidence on how the strategy has reduced threats or improved the status of the biodiversity it purports to protect. In Lao PDR, revenue from ecotourism has not been directly linked to or dependent on improvements in biodiversity and there is no evidence that ecotourism enterprises have contributed to conservation. In other developing countries, direct payments through explicit contracts in return for ecosystem services have been proposed as a more cost-effective means for achieving conservation, although further research is needed to evaluate the impact of this approach. To address this need, a new model was tested in the Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area (NPA) in Lao PDR using a direct payments approach to create ecotourism incentives for villagers to increase wildlife populations. Over a four-year period, we monitored along a theory of change to evaluate assumptions about the linkages between intermediate results and biological outcomes. Preliminary results show a negative correlation between ecotourism benefits and hunting infractions in target villages; no increase in hunting sign in the ecotourism sector of the NPA relative to a three-fold increase in hunting sign across the NPA’s non-tourism sectors; and an overall increase in wildlife sightings. This case provides key lessons on the design of a direct payments approach for an ecotourism strategy, including how to combine threat monitoring and data on wildlife sightings to evaluate strategy effectiveness, on setting rates for wildlife sightings and village fees, and the utility of the approach for protecting very rare species.

Incorporating ecotourism into social education (shakai kyouiku 社会教育) and lifelong learning (shougai gakushuu 生涯学習) in Japan

This paper examines the benefits of incorporating ecotourism programs into the adult education curriculum. Social education and lifelong learning ( shougai gakushuu) are terms used to refer to adult education and related activities in Japan. Adult education originated immediately after Second World War with the enactment of the Fundamental Law of Education (1947; revised in the 1980s). Since the mid-1980s lifelong learning has been the more commonly used term. Lifelong learning involves not only going to school to learn how to read and write, it can also involve the learning that takes place outside the classroom—through volunteering, outdoor activities, sporting events, and so on. A literature review was conducted as the means to pursue the aim of introducing ecotourism into adult education. Education for Sustainable Development was examined to see how its contexts can be applied to Japan’s adult education. This paper is aimed specifically at how the host community can learn, from adult education centers in their communities, to practice a sustainable ecotourism. Although there have been researchers and communities who are against ecotourism practices, this paper maintains that, with proper education in night schools and adult and community centers, of the benefits of ecotourism these communities will accept and welcome ecotourism. However, the government first needs shakai kyouiku to re-examine and re-write the adult education curriculum so as to include ecotourism.

Community-Based Ecotourism Management: The Case of a Cooperative in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico

AbstractNature-based ecotourism has been a growing trend, especially in rural areas where balance with the environment is desirable and it turns into a driver for economic and social development. An ecotourism cooperative operating in the “El Verde Camacho” Sanctuary, is an example of collaborative work between the government experts and the community. The cooperative was created with the support of the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP, in Spanish Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas), developed and funded by this government office, it involved the advice of experts in ecology as well as cooperative’s management and residents of “El Recreo” community. This study aims to describe the involvement process and community management as well as the benefits derived from ecotourism according to the reviewed literature; a case study with a qualitative approach was defined in the Sanctuary in this regard. Semi-structured interviews were used to discover community members’ perception of management involvement and benefits of ecotourism. The findings show positive opinions of community residents.