Unpacking the Baggage of Ecotourism: Nature, Science, and Local Participation

Ecotourism has arisen as a popular strategy for merging the interests of environmental conservation and development. One way of analyzing ecotourism is to consider how this linkage between environment and development is constructed in various environmental discourses to promote ecological, economic, and/or human interests. Although a variety of definitions and discursive models of ecotourism are circulated among academic circles, non-governmental organizations, and multi-lateral institutions, ecotourism remains an ambiguous term that allows actors to speak the same language while pursuing different objectives. Following an assessment of the discourses of ecotourism, this paper explores three of its underlying assumptions. First, the dominant vision of nature upheld through ecotourism is critiqued as an enforcement of western environmental values. Second, the presumed authority of conservation scientists is examined. Finally, the promotion of local involvement and participation is criticized for its concealment of the uneven distribution of power and benefits among institutions and social groups that occurs in practice. It is only if and when these assumptions are questioned that an ‘ideal’ form of ecotourism might be possible.