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Journal ArticleDOI

The Ecotourium Concept and Tourism-Conservation Symbiosis

15 Jul 2005-Journal of Sustainable Tourism (Taylor & Francis Group)-Vol. 13, Iss: 4, pp 373-390
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose the development of an international network of protected areas "ecotouriums" that is designed to stimulate positive socioeconomic change within local communities and maintain and improve the ecological health of the protected areas.
Abstract: The credibility of contemporary ecotourism is threatened by the global dominance of a model that minimally fulfils the three core criteria – nature-based attractions, learning opportunities, ecological and sociocultural sustainability – that characterise this sector. A more rigorous ‘comprehensive’ model is better capable of fulfilling ecotourism’s potential to achieve sustainable outcomes, but only if this model embraces both the hard and soft dimensions of the sector. Based on the latter premise and informed by the principles of complexity, knowledge sharing and interdisciplinarity, we propose the development of an international network of protected areas ‘ecotouriums’ that is designed to stimulate positive socioeconomic change within local communities and maintain and improve the ecological health of protected areas. Cornerstone themes that enable the ecotourium concept are research and education, ecological health, community participation and development, and partnerships.
Citations
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01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: The literature is focused on market segmentation, ecological impacts of wildlife viewing, and community-based ecotourism, but there has been minimal attention to critical areas such as quality control, the industry, external environments or institutions as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The ecotourism literature is focused on market segmentation, ecological impacts of wildlife viewing, and community-based ecotourism, but there has been minimal attention to critical areas such as quality control, the industry, external environments or institutions even as the components and parameters of ecotourism are being extended. This imbalance, combined with the fragmentation and lack of integration within the literature, suggest that ecotourism, as a field of academic inquiry, is still in a state of adolescence. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

508 citations


Cites background from "The Ecotourium Concept and Tourism-..."

  • ...Fennell and Weaver (2005) propose the establishment of a network of ‘ecotourisms’ consisting of existing protected areas in which visitors would play a major personal role in enhancing and rehabilitating park habitat....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The literature is focused on market segmentation, ecological impacts of wildlife viewing, and community-based ecotourism, but there has been minimal attention to critical areas such as quality control, the industry, external environments or institutions as mentioned in this paper.

483 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A global database of annual conservation spending is assembled and a statistical model is developed that explains 86% of variation in conservation expenditures, and this is used to identify countries where funding is robustly below expected levels.
Abstract: Inadequate funding levels are a major impediment to effective global biodiversity conservation and are likely associated with recent failures to meet United Nations biodiversity targets. Some countries are more severely underfunded than others and therefore represent urgent financial priorities. However, attempts to identify these highly underfunded countries have been hampered for decades by poor and incomplete data on actual spending, coupled with uncertainty and lack of consensus over the relative size of spending gaps. Here, we assemble a global database of annual conservation spending. We then develop a statistical model that explains 86% of variation in conservation expenditures, and use this to identify countries where funding is robustly below expected levels. The 40 most severely underfunded countries contain 32% of all threatened mammalian diversity and include neighbors in some of the world’s most biodiversity-rich areas (Sundaland, Wallacea, and Near Oceania). However, very modest increases in international assistance would achieve a large improvement in the relative adequacy of global conservation finance. Our results could therefore be quickly applied to limit immediate biodiversity losses at relatively little cost.

450 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula, the authors found that ecotourism is more effective at improving well-being for local residents, at enhancing their access to key resources and information and at supporting biodiversity conservation than other locally available economic sectors.
Abstract: Doubt persists about ecotourism's ability to make tangible contributions to conservation and deliver benefits for host communities. This work in Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula tests the hypothesis that ecotourism in this region is more effective at improving well-being for local residents, at enhancing their access to key resources and information, and at supporting biodiversity conservation than other locally available economic sectors. Data from 128 semi-structured interviews with local workers, both in ecotourism and in other occupations, together with associated research, indicate that ecotourism offers the best currently available employment opportunities, double the earnings of other livelihoods, and other linked benefits. Locally, ecotourism is viewed as the activity contributing most to improvements in residents’ quality of life in the Osa Peninsula and to increased levels of financial and attitudinal support for parks and environmental conservation. Ecolodge ownership by local people is substantial, ...

173 citations


Cites background from "The Ecotourium Concept and Tourism-..."

  • ...There has been considerable scholarship on this topic (reviewed by Agrawal & Redford, 2006; Fennell & Weaver, 2005; Stronza, 2001; Weaver & Lawton, 2007), and Costa Rica has emerged as arguably the world’s most iconic ecotourism destination (Honey, 2008)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
Judith Mair1
TL;DR: In this paper, the socio-demographic characteristics of VCO purchasers in Australia and the UK were investigated, and the results suggest three groups: "Ecocentrics", "Middle of the Road", and "Anthropocentrics" (33%).
Abstract: This paper advances understanding of consumers who purchase voluntary carbon offsets (VCOs) for flights by profiling the socio-demographic characteristics of VCO purchasers in Australia and the UK and investigating their environmental attitudes and beliefs. Earlier research shows that there is confusion and lack of clarity around VCO schemes, yet small numbers of consumers continue to purchase them. Using an online panel survey of 502 respondents, this research considers whether those who purchase VCOs can be considered to be ecocentric, and whether they share a similar socio-demographic profile with those engaging in other forms of pro-environmental behaviour. The results suggest three groups: “Ecocentrics” (36%), “Middle of the Road” (31%) and “Anthropocentrics” (33%). While VCO purchasers appear to be ecocentric, not all ecocentric respondents purchased VCOs and, additionally, those who did purchase, appear to have a different socio-demographic profile from others engaging in pro-environmental behaviou...

167 citations


Cites background from "The Ecotourium Concept and Tourism-..."

  • ...Much research has examined pro-environmental behaviour in an attempt to define or understand ecotourism (e.g. Fennell & Weaver, 2005) and ecotourists (e.g. Sharpley, 2006; Weaver, 2002)....

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  • ...Gössling et al., 2009). However, it remains to be seen whether these proposals will be successful in increasing rates of offsetting. For example, there are many airlines around the world that already offer the purchase of VCOs at the click of a button during the online purchase process (e.g. Qantas and British Airways), but anecdotally, few of these airlines have reported higher than average VCO purchase rates, suggesting perhaps that simply making it easier to purchase offsets will not result in significant increases in purchase rates. In addition to the issues raised above, which may be considered to be of a “technical” nature, there are a number of “behavioural” issues around offsetting. VCOs have been labelled as simply a way to salve one’s conscience, or alleviate guilt (Frew & Winter, 2008; Mair & Wong, 2010). From the consumer point of view, however, media articles criticising carbon offsetting (e.g. Kotchen, 2009; Revkin, 2007) are likely to cause further confusion. Some of the strongest criticism comes from Gössling et al. (2007, p. 241), who contend that: “carbon offsets in principle are environmentally risky options that do nothing to directly reduce aviation emissions”. Kollmuss and Bowell (2007) assert that offsets should not be seen as a way to buy “environmental pardons” and further to this, Metz, Davidson, Bosch, Dave and Meyer (2007) believe that the relatively low cost and ease of offsetting can act as a disincentive to the structural change in the consumption of energy (through changing the behaviour of individuals), which is necessary given the profound and rapid reductions required to minimise climate change....

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References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analys...
Abstract: In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analys...

31,693 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1987

13,141 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The concept of a recognizable cycle in the evolution of tourist areas is presented in this paper, using a basic s curve to illustrate their waving and waning popularity, and specific stages in the evolutionary sequence are described, along with a range of possible future trends.
Abstract: The concept of a recognizable cycle in the evolution of tourist areas is presented, using a basic s curve to illustrate their waving and waning popularity. Specific stages in the evolutionary sequence are described, along with a range of possible future trends. The implications of using this model in the planning and management oftourist resources are discussed in the light of a continuing decline in the environmental quality and, hence, the attractiveness of many tourist areas. Le concept principal de cette communication est que les endroits touristiques ont leur propre cycle d’evolution. Le concept se traduit en modele theorique, qui utilise une courbe s pour demontrer I’accroissement et la diminution subsequente de la popularite d’endroits touristiques. La communication se concentre sur certains stages, les plus importants, de I’evolution, et vise a etablir une gamme de directions eventuelle qui pourront itre suivies par ces endroits. On examine les implications de I’utilisation de se modele dans I’amenagement de resources touristiques, surtout dans I’optique des problemes causes par la diminution de la qualite de I’environnement et, par suite, de I’attraction de beaucoup d’endroits touristiques. There can be little doubt that tourist areas are dynamic, that they evolve and change over time. This evolution is brought about by a variety of factors including changes in the preferences and needs of visitors, the gradual deterioration and possible replacement of physical plant and facilities, and the change (or even disappearance) of the original natural and cultural attractions which were responsible for the initial popularity of the area. In some cases, while these attractions remain, they may be utilized for different purposes or come to be regarded as less significant in comparison with imported attractions.’ The idea of a consistent process through which tourist areas evolve has been vividly described by Christaller: The typical course of development has the following pattern. Painters search out untouched and unusual places to paint. Step by step the place develops as aso-calledartist colony. Soon a cluster of poets follows, kindred to the painters: then cinema people, gourmets, and the jeunesse dorde. The place becomes fashionable and the entrepreneur takes note. The fisherman’s cottage, the shelter-huts become converted into boarding houses and hotels come on the scene. Meanwhile the painters have fled and sought out another periphery periphery as related to space, and metaphorically, as ‘forgotten’ places and landscapes. Only the painters with a commercial inclination who like to do well in business remain; they capitalize on the good name of this former painter’s corner and on the gullibility of tourists. More and more townsmen choose this place, now en vogue and advertised in the newspapers. Subsequently the gourmets, and all those who seek real recreation, stay away. At last the tourist agencies come with their package rate travelling parties; now, the indulged public avoids such places. At the same time, in other places the same cycle occurs again; more and more places come into fashion, change their type, turn into everybody’s tourist haunt.2 While this description has most relevance to the European and, particularly, to the Mediterranean setting, others have expressed the same general idea. Stansfield, 5

3,893 citations

Book
01 Apr 2000
TL;DR: Berkes et al. as mentioned in this paper link social and ecological systems for resilience and sustainability by learning to design reslilient resource management: indigenous systems in the Canadian subarctic Fikret Berkes 6.
Abstract: 1. Linking social and ecological systems for resilience and sustainability Fikret Berkes and Carl Folke Part I. Learning from Locally Devised Systems: 2. People, refugia and resilience Madhav Gadgil, Natabar S. Hemam and B. Mohan Reddy 3. Learning by fishing: practical engagement and environemntal concerns Gisli Palsson 4. Dalecarlia in Central Sweden before 1800: a society of social and ecological resilience Ulf Sporrong Part II. Emergence of Resource Management Adaptations: 5. Learning to design reslilient resource management: indigenous systems in the Canadian subarctic Fikret Berkes 6. Resilience and neotraditional populations: the caicaras of the Atlantic forest and caboclos of the Amazon (Brazil) Alpina Begossi 7. Indigenous African resource management of a tropical rain forest ecosystem: a case study of the Yoruba of Ara, Nigeria D. Michael Warren and Jennifer Pinkson 8. Managing for human and ecological context in the Maine soft shell clam fishery Susan S. Hanna Part III. Success and Failure in Regional Systems: 9. Resilient resource management in Mexico's forest ecosystems: the contribution of property rights Janis B. Alcorn and Victor M. Toledo 10. The resilience of pastoral herding in Sahelian Africa Maryam Niamir-Fuller 11. Reviving the social system-ecosystem links in the Himalayas Narpat S. Jodha 12. Crossing the threshold of ecosystem resilience: the commercial extinction of northern cod A. Christopher Finlayson and Bonnie J. McCay Part IV. Designing New Approaches to Management: 13. Science, sustainability and resource management C. S. Holling, Fikret Berkes and Carl Folke 14. Integrated management of a temperate montane forest ecosystem through holistic forestry: a British Columbia example Evelyn Pinkerton 15. Managing chaotic fisheries James M. Acheson, James A. Wilson and Robert S. Steneck 16. Social mechanisms and institutional learning for resilience and sustainability Carl Folke, Fikret Berkes and Johan Colding Index.

3,071 citations

Book
01 Jan 1985
TL;DR: In this paper, tourism as a community industry and its significance are discussed, including the environment and accessibility issues, economic cycles and benefits, social and cultural strategies, and tourism planning goals and methods.
Abstract: Part 1: Tourism and its significance 1. Scope and Nature of tourism 2. Evolution of tourism 3. Issues in tourism Part 2: The environment and accessibility 4 Environmental-accessibility issues 5 Environmental and accessibility strategies Part 3: Economics and business 6. Economic cycles and benefits 7. Economic response strategies Part 4: Society and culture 8. Hospitality and authenticity issues 9. Social and cultural strategies Part 5: Planning and management 10. Tourism planning goals and methods 11. Tourism as a community industry. Afterword. References. Name index. Subject index.

1,491 citations