Browsing by Subject "Ecotourism"

Now showing 1 - 13 of 13
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    A Progress Evaluation of National Geographic's Geotourism Program
    (2012-04-26) Torres, Hannah; Nystrom, Joel; Stern, Tamar; Brouwer, Susannah
    In response to the deleterious effects of traditional mass tourism, National Geographic launched a Geotourism Program in 1997 in an effort to sustain or enhance the geographical character of a place – its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents. A major tenet of Geotourism is establishing an evaluation process for strategies implemented by Geotourism destinations. This study targets one stakeholder group - businesses featured on the Geotourism MapGuide - through an exploratory case study approach to create a methodology and establish baseline data for a participant evaluation system. Data collection instruments determine the social, economic and environmental impacts of the Geotourism Project as perceived by participants in two destinations: Sierra Nevada and Crown of the Continent. Analysis of results yields recommendations for how stakeholder education and involvement, impact measurement, and project positioning can be more effectively integrated into each destination’s strategic plan.
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    Developing a Framework to Assess SEE Turtles Ecotourism Ventures
    (2008-04-25T03:22:45Z) Luderer, Caitlin
    The Ocean Conservancy recently launched their SEE Turtles Campaign (seeturtles.org) which serves the dual purpose of inspiring sea turtle conservation ethics in tourists and encouraging sustainable use of sea turtles by communities around the world. The campaign utilizes media pathways to promote selected “partner” sea turtle ecotourism ventures and also provides small grants to these enterprises for operational support. The SEE Turtles project has a list of site selection criteria but lacks a more structured framework for assessing future SEE Turtles candidate sites. The goal of this master’s project was to develop a comprehensive site selection process using ecotourism and community development literature. This framework may be used to identify potential SEE Turtles sites that will have the largest positive impacts on sea turtle conservation and local communities.
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    Ecological Assessment of the Flamingo Mangroves, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
    (2011-04-29) Fedak, Derek; Windstein, Marie
    Mangroves are tropical and subtropical ecosystems found in intertidal zones that provide vital ecosystem services including sustenance of commercially important fishery species, improvement of coastal water quality through nutrient cycling and sediment interception, and protection of coastal communities from storm surge and erosion. However, land use conversion and water pollution are threatening these ecosystems and their associated services worldwide. This master’s project conducted an ecological assessment on a mangrove forest adjoining the property of the Flamingo Beach Resort and Spa in Playa Flamingo, located in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica. The project analyzed vegetation health, water and soil quality, bird species richness, and identified threats to the forest. It also assessed several options for the resort’s development of ecotourism, such as community involvement, the construction of an educational boardwalk, and the creation of a vegetation buffer adjoining the mangroves. The results indicate that the Flamingo Mangroves are generally in a healthy state. Vegetation structure like canopy height, biomass, vegetation importance values, and species distribution compares well with previous ecological studies on mature tidal mangroves. The ecosystem supports 42 resident bird species and likely up to 30 migratory species. However, water quality is a major concern, which reported elevated levels of nitrogen and phosphorus through runoff and discharged wastewater in the northern section of the forest. Additionally, the western edge of the forest adjoining the beach road is frequently disturbed by automotive traffic and runoff, displaying reduced or stunted vegetation and sandy soil. This report contains several recommendations on how to preserve the mangroves by improving water quality, reducing physical and chemical disturbances, and engaging the community. The results of the project will be incorporated into our client‘s and Flamingo community‘s future management practices to conserve the Flamingo Mangroves and emphasize the value of this ecosystem.
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    Establishing a Socioeconomic Baseline of Sea Turtle Ecotourism in Baja California, Sur
    (2009-04-24T17:08:41Z) Finkbeiner, Elena
    Baja California Sur provides vitally important habitat to five of seven species of sea turtles. All five species have long been subject to direct and indirect exploitation in the region, and federal intervention has largely failed to address conservation goals. A powerful opportunity exists to incentivize sea turtle conservation by means of ecotourism, as locals can use turtles non-consumptively to their socio-economic benefit. However, ecotourism is a complex multi-faceted endeavor built upon a mix of social, economic, and environmental factors. Community participation, a central component of ecotourism, depends on local perceptions and realities, but is often overlooked in ecotourism implementation. The purpose of my research is to describe and contextualize community perception and involvement in sea turtle ecotourism, with existing infrastructure and resources in the region. To achieve this goal, oral surveys, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation techniques were administered in communities throughout Baja California Sur during the summer of 2008. My findings suggest that local perceptions of ecotourism are highly optimistic but vary significantly between communities, as do existing tourism infrastructure and resources. Current local participation is low, but desire to participate is high among communities. Drivers to participate are based on a variety of economic, social and conservation factors. These findings will advise on proper implementation of sea turtle ecotourism in the region in order to maximize community involvement, and will provide a baseline from which to measure future successes and failures of sea turtle ecotourism.
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    FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY PLAN FOR A DRY FOREST PROTECTED AREA IN THE COLOMBIAN CARIBBEAN REGION
    (2007-05) Elsin, Yoanna Kraus
    Colombia’s dry forest ecosystem has been greatly reduced and few patches are left hosting the endemic and endangered Cotton Top Tamarin. The objective of this Master’s project is to analyze the financial feasibility of protecting a small remaining patch of dry forest near Cartagena, a high tourism city, based on ecotourism activities. The project analyses the background of the area including a SWOT analysis, a Stakeholders review and a short market analysis. It then proposes not-for-profit activities: park maintenance, community development and research as well as profitable activities: daily visit, camping, a traditional restaurant and advertising for the area. The activities’ costs are estimated, and the average number of visitors required to sustain the different combinations of the activities on the proposed protected area are calculated to assess financial feasibility. According to the analysis, the park would be financially feasible based on daily visits and restaurant activities, but advertising and other funding sources and partnership would be advisable to reduce the pressure on the natural resources produced by the visitation rates required for financial sustainability.
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    Guidelines for Ecotourism and Community-based Management in Jigme Dorji National Park, Bhutan
    (2010-04-30T12:23:39Z) Kissick, Amelia
    Bhutan is a small land-locked country between India and China with a landscape ranging from subtropical plains in the south to high Himalayan peaks in the North. The country has generally isolated itself and continues to conserve its culture and environment through restricted tourism and a development policy that revolves around Gross National Happiness instead of Gross Domestic Product. At 4,349 Km2, Jigme Dorji National Park (JDNP) covers about 11% of the total area of Bhutan and has some of the highest biodiversity in the country. Given that there are also over 6,000 inhabitants in the park and increasing human-wildlife conflicts, the Royal Government of Bhutan sees ecotourism as a way to incentivize the conservation of the environment while addressing issues of poverty and unemployment. While true ecotourism is hindered by Bhutan’s tourism policy, improved collaboration among tour operators, park management, government, and community members living in JDNP will lead to more authentic ecotourism and increased benefits to stakeholders in the park. Policy recommendations and ecotourism guidelines provided are based on site visits, interviews, and the results of surveys measuring tourist and tour operator practices and preferences in Bhutan and Jigme Dorji National Park.
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    Protected areas and biodiversity conservation in India
    (Biological Conservation, 2019-09-01) Ghosh-Harihar, Mousumi; An, Ruby; Athreya, Ramana; Borthakur, Udayan; Chanchani, Pranav; Chetry, Dilip; Datta, Aparajita; Harihar, Abishek; Karanth, Krithi K; Mariyam, Dincy; Mohan, Dhananjai; Onial, Malvika; Ramakrishnan, Uma; Robin, VV; Saxena, Ajai; Shahabuddin, Ghazala; Thatte, Prachi; Vijay, Varsha; Wacker, Kristen; Mathur, Vinod B; Pimm, Stuart L; Price, Trevor D
    Three well-supported generalizations in conservation biology are that developing tropical countries will experience the greatest biodiversity declines in the near future, they are some of the least studied areas in the world, and in these regions especially, protection requires local community support. We assess these generalizations in an evaluation of protected areas in India. The 5% of India officially protected covers most ecoregions and protected areas have been an important reason why India has suffered no documented species extinctions in the past 70 years. India has strong legislation favouring conservation, government investment focused on 50 Tiger Reserves, and government compensation schemes that facilitate local support, all of which brighten future prospects. However, many protected areas are too small to maintain a full complement of species, making connectivity and species use of buffer zones a crucial issue. Conservation success and challenges vary across regions according to their development status. In less developed areas, notably the biodiverse northeast Himalaya, protected areas maintaining the highest biodiversity result from locally-focused efforts by dedicated individuals. Across India, we demonstrate considerable opportunities to increase local income through ecotourism. Our evaluation confirms a lack of data, increasing threats, and the importance of local support. Research on biodiversity in buffer zones, development of long-term monitoring schemes, and assessment of cash and conservation benefits from tourism are in particular need. For policy makers, two main goals should be the development of monitoring plans for ‘eco-sensitive zones’ around protected areas, and a strong emphasis on preserving established protected areas.
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    Setting Standards for Sustainable Tourism: An analysis of US tourism certification programs
    (2009-04-24T14:50:19Z) Poser, Elizabeth
    As one of the biggest industries in the world, tourism has huge positive and negative socioeconomic, cultural and environmental impacts. Over the past fifteen years, a plethora of tourism certification programs have sprung up worldwide in an effort to recognize tourism businesses who truly work to reduce negative impacts by using sustainable practices. This worldwide proliferation of tourism certification programs, however, has led to consumer confusion, lack of brand recognition and widely varying standards. With a global accreditation body looming on the horizon that aims to create a single recognizable sustainable tourism brand, tourism certification programs will soon have the opportunity to become accredited by complying with minimum standards that will be determined by the Sustainable Tourism Stewardship Council. Accreditation will provide certification programs with the legitimacy and credibility they need to differentiate their programs, and thus the certified tourism businesses, from others with weaker standards, and may eventually lead to a shift of the tourism industry towards more sustainable practices. Here I use the best practice standards for tourism certification programs as laid out in the Mohonk Agreement, and the recently released Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria, envisioned to serve as the common set of baseline criteria by which to accredit certification programs, to evaluate four state-level tourism certification programs as case studies in the United States. In assuming that these standards and criteria are the minimum requirements that need to be met for a certification program to become accredited, I find that none of these four programs, and presumably none of the US state-level programs as they currently stand, will meet accreditation requirements. I discuss the challenges these programs have in complying with best practice standards and in fulfilling the triple bottom line principles of environmental, socioeconomic, and cultural sustainability as specified by the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria. I also conjecture what the future may look like for these programs and US tourism certification in general.
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    Striving Toward Responsible Viewing: An Evaluation of Dolphin-Watch Ecotour Operations in Clearwater, Florida
    (2004) Whitt, Amy
    In the past decade, marine mammal tourism has increased dramatically in the United States. To promote sustainability of this industry while minimizing harassment, NOAA Fisheries has developed guidelines to encourage appropriate viewing practices among boaters. In Clearwater, Florida, NOAA Fisheries is developing a workshop to train commercial tour operators in responsible marine mammal viewing and effective interpretation. To assist in the development process, I evaluated the dolphin-watch tour operations to determine the operators’ compliance with the viewing guidelines, the structure of the interpretation programs of the tours, and dolphin behavior during interactions with tour vessels. During June 2003, I accompanied the tour vessels and recorded a total of 45 interactions between bottlenose dolphins and operators. During these interactions, operators adhered to all the guidelines approximately 60% of the time. The operators maintained complete compliance with the viewing time limit but failed to end encounters when dolphins exhibited possible disturbance behaviors. Operators frequently approached dolphins within 50 yards and used inappropriate techniques to maneuver around dolphins. Many of the operators presented information about basic dolphin biology, but very few included the MMPA regulations, the NOAA viewing guidelines, or other critical components of an effective interpretation program. These results indicate a strong need for the ecotour training workshop in Clearwater. In addition to attendance at the workshop, the development of a code of conduct specific to Clearwater operators would address possible cumulative impacts of the industry and promote self-enforcement. A monitoring program is also needed to manage tour operations and examine the long-term effects of ecotourism on the local bottlenose dolphin population.
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    The Nai'a Guide 2.0: Utilizing Mobile Apps for Marine Conservation Efforts
    (2015-04-22) Edwards, Courtney
    With 75% of Americans owning a smartphone, such devices and subsequent apps are effective, but underutilized resources to promote marine conservation issues. This project consisted of three components. First, I built a web-based app called The Nai‘a Guide based off an existing app to educate those looking to participate in swim-with Hawaiian spinner dolphin programs about the biology of the animal and proper interaction etiquette. This type of app has many advantages for organizations looking to design similar apps, including responsiveness across multiple device types and platforms and ease of use for non-developers. Second, I searched iTunes and Google Play to determine the number and relevance of apps using four keywords. I found environmental conservation apps make up an insignificant portion of the total apps available and a vast majority of the search results are not relevant. Finally, I did a series of interviews with organizations that have relevant apps available to learn more about their outreach strategy, resulting in a number of key recommendations for future app development.
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    Through the Lenses of Q’eqchi Maya: (Re)Framing the Story of Development in a Guatemalan Indigenous Community Through Participant-Created Photographs
    (2016-08-24) Funk, Lara
    The question of evaluations of development projects has been widely debated within the field of international development, with scholars and development practitioners calling for increased community-driven evaluations. However, there has been a paucity of research in community-led project evaluations, and a largely absent investigation utilizing visual anthropology/sociology methodologies. This paper seeks to shift this power by giving voice to the intended beneficiaries of an eco-tourism project in a rural indigenous Guatemala village. Through photographs taken by community members and corresponding interviews, this paper shows the way in which community members have and continue to reframe the idea of development in their village. Specifically, my analysis reveals how residents see changing forms of access, how they reframe ideas of beauty and modernization, and how they reframe their relationship to the land through Western conservation and private property ideals. This research thus provides an alternative narrative to the Western NGO’s evaluations and knowledge production, especially in respect to development and indigenous knowledge. By showing how community members are reframing the story of development, this paper demonstrates the usefulness of using participatory documentary photography in community-led evaluations, and helps balance the playing field by providing a much-needed alternative narrative of project evaluation.
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    Tourism, Environmental Stewardship, and Community Engagement on Andros Island, Bahamas
    (2020-04-22) Melvin, Emily C.
    Tourism is the mainstay of the economy of the Bahamas, making up between 40-60% of the GDP and providing jobs for nearly half of the country’s population. However, local communities do not always realize the benefits of tourism, with much of the revenue lost to other countries’ economies. The Small Hope Bay Foundation is a new non-profit organization on Andros Island in the Bahamas with a mission to create an economically and environmentally sustainable Andros. This study aims to understand (1) how the Foundation and the tourism industry on Andros Island can mobilize the perceptions and values of tourists to improve the impacts of the tourism industry on local communities and the environment; and (2) what barriers to community engagement in the dive industry must be overcome to maximize the potential benefits of development. I find that tourists receive functional, emotional, social, and epistemic value from environmental stewardship, environmental quality, and community engagement, suggesting that efforts to improve environmental sustainability and increasing local engagement can appeal to tourists’ values. Thus, preserving natural environments and promoting interactions with the local community can enhance rather than detract from tourists’ experiences, providing support for the Foundation’s efforts in acting as environmental stewards while engaging and empowering the local community. However, lack of local capacity in the dive industry remains a considerable barrier in improving local engagement. Overcoming these barriers will require broad-scale institutional changes as well as local capacity-building efforts in order to improve the ability of local communities to fully realize the benefits of this industry. By working with the community to develop environmental sustainability and community training programs that appeal to tourists, the Foundation can work toward supporting a successful community-based ecotourism model.
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    Wasted Visits? Ecotourism in Theory vs. Practice, at Tortuguero, Costa Rica
    (2007-12-14) Meletis, Zoë Angela
    In this thesis, I contemplate the ecotourism in theory and in practice. I use the case study of a solid waste crisis (2002-2004) in Tortuguero, Costa Rica, a turtle tourism destination, to explore: the consumptive nature of ecotourism, tourist perceptions of the environment, ecotourism aesthetics, local resistance to ecotourism development, local perceptions of ecotourism's environmental impacts, and the future of ecotourism. I used mixed methods including participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and on-site surveys to collect data. I conducted mainly qualitative analysis (thematic coding; adapted grounded theory) influenced by political ecology, environmental justice, resistance studies, tourism studies, and the geography of tourism. My use of environmental justice concepts to frame the solid waste crisis in Tortuguero, and the application of key concepts from Scott's (1981) Weapons of the Weak to local behavior and narratives both represent fairly novel applications in an ecotourism context. I attempted to move beyond a restricted case study by emphasizing characteristics shared between Tortuguero and other sites, in the hopes of contributing towards efforts to inject new theoretical applications into tourism studies. This case study reveals the consumptive side of ecotourism, and the analysis of tourist survey responses highlights the central role of aesthetics in ecotourism. This project challenges simplistic portrayals of ecotourism as 'benevolent and benign' (e.g. by highlighting its consumptive impacts and related injustices), and of ecotourists as more aware and altruistic than mass tourists (e.g. by presenting a heterogeneous group of respondents who none the less, stress aesthetics). It updates existing literature on Tortuguero by presenting data on tourist and local perceptions of Tortuguero, and by suggesting explanations for divergent perceptions of the park's role in ecotourism, for example. The evidence that I present of local resistance and waste-related injustices suggest that despite its high profile reputation, multimillion dollar annual revenues, improved local standards of living, and green turtle conservation successes, critical details and key voices have largely been 'left out of the story of ecotourism in Tortuguero'. I hope that his study contributes to encouraging the culture of 'greater ecotourism realism' that is needed in order to move forward.