I have long been skeptical of
ecotourism initiatives. They are often promoted by conservationists and development projects as the perfect market-based environmental initiative: an income-generating activity that also protects natural resources. Yet many factors need to coalesce for any tourism project to be successful, and even more factors are necessary for ecotourism. For instance, in Madagascar I lived in villages along the
Ankeniheny-Zahamena rainforest corridor (Didy and Antanandava). The area is beautiful, yet the northern part where I lived is off the tourist trail. Poor infrastructure in terms of roads and hotels keep the relatively few tourists that visit Madagascar's rainforests away. Still, every NGO I knew promoted ecotourism as a solution to preserving the rainforest and generating income. People in the villages took these cues and asked for English language training, guide training, and funding to build lodging. All of this despite the fact that barely any tourists visited the national park (Zahamena) and even less visited the community-managed forest in Didy (and none of these were English-speakers, aside from Peace Corps Volunteers). I tried to describe some of
my thoughts in a rambling Peace Corps service-era post here. In short, ecotourism may work in very specific examples where there are the right conditions for it, but promoting it in any and all conservation hot spots can be a dangerous technique.
With that thinking in mind, I was very curious to watch the below video via Conservation Bridge entitled "
The Death of Ecotourism in Jisha, China." It tells the story of an ecotourism project, the brainchild of a conservation scientist, that tears a community apart. The end result is an unused guesthouse and new hostilities among community members. Interestingly, the reason cited is the competing interest of a for-profit business; there is no mention of tourist demand for the project in the video, although
the case study does mention the community profiting from tourism growth already. Speaking of the case study, here is its closing quote to entice you to watch:
Despite the assistance and knowledge that Li Bo and his legal consultant offered, the ecotourism lodge that the villagers built still goes unused. The divisions within the community have hindered the village’s ability to successfully get their community based tourism business off the ground, and Li Bo and his team have since left the village and moved on to work in other organizations.
The video is interesting and worth the watch:
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