Ecotourism Project Research Articles

Misrepresenting Communities: The Politics of Community‐Based Rural Ecotourism in Gales Point Manatee, Belize1

ABSTRACT While the celebration of community in conservation provides legitimization to contest centrist and coercive protected area management strategies, representations of community in resource management writings and in particular strategies such as ecotourism, are often based on simplistic images and generic models that ignore politics. Based on research in a community‐based rural ecotourism project in Gales Point Manatee, Belize, from 1992–1998, the paper provides concrete examples of how the politics of class, gender, and patronage inequities limit the co‐management of ecotourism associations, equitable distribution of ecotourism income, and support for conservation regulations across the community. Attention to multiple interests and identities within the rural community and their relationships to external actors, political institutions, and national policies are critical to understanding the challenges facing community‐based conservation in Belize and demonstrated the relevance of such attention elsewhere.

Ecotourism research and promotion on the Web: experiences and insights

There is a great need for detailed information about environmental tourism projects in Latin America and many are using the Internet as a library. However, institutional Websites from environmental groups (World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International) are often filled with outdated material. This paper will examine how Websites can assist local communities, students, policy‐makers and travellers in assessing ecotourism projects on the Web. We will examine some case studies and outline a process of improving Websites.

Ecotourism and conservation in Amazonian Perú: short-term and long-term challenges

Several authors have suggested that ecotourism can enhance the value of intact wildlands and thereby promote conservation. Two rainforest lodges dating from the 1970s and located in southeastern Amazonian Perú have been held up as early success stories in tourism-driven conservation, but a more recent assessment reveals that both lodges have since lost their rainforest reserves to encroachment. One of the major reasons for failure was that the national land laws in effect at the time did not allow the purchase of land titles. Recently, Perú has instituted a process for the purchase of land titles in the rainforest. One lodge has used the new land tenure laws with some success to create a rainforest reserve. The very attempt to buy land for purposes of conservation can promote encroachment and land-buying speculation, and the lodge's current agreement with its neighbours to provide a school in exchange for non-encroachment is fraught with moral hazards and appears unstable over the long term. Tourism can promote conservation primarily at the national level, and ecotourism projects in the Peruvian Amazon can stabilize land-use patterns at least in the short term. However, the conservation of habitat over the long-term will rest primarily on the ability of the State to enforce a consistent land use policy with regard to land tenure and Park protection.

Assessing and managing the sociocultural impacts of ecotourism: revisiting the Santa Elena rainforest project

This paper outlines the second phase of an ecotourism project undertaken in the Santa Elena community, in the Monteverde region of Costa Rica. The community originally established a rainforest reserve with the help of Youth Challenge International in an attempt to provide a wider economic base and employment for the area. The project has been successful in the first phase in that it is now drawing an annual income of US$40 000 and it employs guides and management from the local community. In terms of the underlying principles usually aligned with ecotourism it has been successful but it is now necessary to evaluate the impacts this project is having on the community. The second phase of the project was to assess the sociocultural impacts of ecotourism on that community and the paper outlines this phase.

Ecotourism: The Santa Elena rainforest project

This paper outlines an ecotourism project undertaken in the Santa Elena community in the Monteverde region of Costa Rica. The community is seeking to establish a rainforest reserve on a parcel of land that has been permanently leased to their high school by the Costa Rican Government. The Community and Youth Challenge International are developing an ecotourism project that will provide a wider economic basis for the area and employment for students graduating from the high school. This project seeks to achieve sustainable development and fulfil the development requirements of the population surrounding the project. This is in the belief that it is only when conservation projects benefit local communities, and are set up with an infrastructure that vests control within local communities, that genuine ecotourism is achieved.

Ecotourism for Eco Friendly Guest and Green Host - A Case Study on Thenmala Ecotourism Project, Kerala

Ecotourism is a purposeful travel to understand the nature and culture of a particular area taking care not to alter the integrity of the ecosystem, while producing economic opportunities that make conservation of natural resources beneficial to the local people. Protected Areas such as national Parks, Biosphere Reserves and Wild Life Sanctuaries have figured prominently in biodiversity conservation and well-designed and managed Protected Areas can form the pinnacle of nation's efforts to protect biological diversity and also provide opportunities for recreation and tourism. Scientific studies show that planning ecotourism in Protected Areas as done in Thenmala ecotourism project, Kerala, first planned ecotourism project in India, which can be a model for other such destination development programmes. In Protected areas, developing forests as recreation spots can mitigate hardships of indigenous communities. This will provide monetary returns to thepublic exchequer, while protecting bio diverse patches with the support of the local community. For better planning and implementation of different components of ecotourism, zonalisation, site-specific action plan, reliable estimates of carrying. capacity and Environment Impact Assessment may be done in all the Protected Areas so as to avoid the ill effects of tourism. This research paper analyses and evaluates the methodology and typology of ecotourism practices at Thenmala, Kerala and proposing Thenmala as a model for the development of similar program in India