TY - JOUR
T1 - Can ecotourism deliver real economic, social, and environmental benefits? A study of the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica
AU - Hunt, Carter A.
AU - Durham, William H.
AU - Driscoll, Laura
AU - Honey, Martha
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was made possible through a grant from the Tinker Foundation. We are grateful to Funda-cion Corcovado for their assistance throughout the complexities of fieldwork logistics. Our thanks go to the residents and businesses of Puerto Jimenez and Drake Bay who shared with us their invaluable knowledge and experience in countless interviews and conversations with our research teams. We are very grateful for the time they granted us, and for their patience and wisdom in sharing perspectives on their home. We also wish to acknowledge the efforts of our student research assistants: Stanford University students Caroline Adams, Molly Oshun, Joshua (Mac) Parish, and Anne Scalmanini, and Andrea Cordero Retana and Isabel Arias Sure of the Golfito branch of the University of Costa Rica.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014, © 2014 Taylor & Francis.
PY - 2015/3/16
Y1 - 2015/3/16
N2 - 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, and many local ecotourism workers plan to launch their own businesses. The data offer a convincing rebuttal to arguments that ecotourism does little to address poverty or disparities in access to resources and equally rebuts claims that ecotourism is simply a part of the “neoliberal conservation toolkit” that cannot help but exacerbate the very inequalities it purports to address.
AB - 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, and many local ecotourism workers plan to launch their own businesses. The data offer a convincing rebuttal to arguments that ecotourism does little to address poverty or disparities in access to resources and equally rebuts claims that ecotourism is simply a part of the “neoliberal conservation toolkit” that cannot help but exacerbate the very inequalities it purports to address.
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U2 - 10.1080/09669582.2014.965176
DO - 10.1080/09669582.2014.965176
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84922434157
SN - 0966-9582
VL - 23
SP - 339
EP - 357
JO - Journal of Sustainable Tourism
JF - Journal of Sustainable Tourism
IS - 3
ER -