“Ecotourism’s Contribution to the Social-ecological Resilience of Protected Areas and Local Communities: A Comparative Analysis of Rural, Dryland Ecotourism in Costa Rica and Kansas”

ABSTRACT
In the context of global environmental change, the reconciliation of economic development and environmental conservation becomes increasingly challenging, particularly in dryland regions.  These pressures are heightened in developing countries and in rural areas worldwide, where short-term economic needs may override long-term environmental concerns.  This scenario too often results in deforestation, resource exploitation and loss of biodiversity in some of the world’s most fragile ecosystems.  Sustainable development emerged in the 1980s as a means to link economic development and poverty alleviation with environmental protection (5, 6).  Ecotourism, a form of nature-based tourism, is hailed by proponents as a solution to the apparent disconnect between ‘sustainability’ and ‘development’.  Ecotourism can provide a viable means of sustainable development in both developing countries and rural areas by supporting economic growth, local culture, biodiversity conservation and livelihood diversification (2).  However, previous studies also indicate significant shortcomings in the field of ecotourism (2, 8).

While sustainability as a goal has proved to be a concept that is difficult to measure, a new complex systems science has emerged that recognizes sustainability as a process rather than an end goal and identifies resilience as a key attribute (1).  This research study addresses the question: “What are the key characteristics of rural, dryland ecotourism that increase social-ecological resilience?”  At risk are protected areas as well as the character and livelihoods of adjacent communities that together host visitors arriving in increasing numbers.

With ecotourism as an economic strategy of nearly every developing country since the early 1990s (3) and an increasing economic strategy in rural areas worldwide (4, 7), a robust theoretical approach that addresses the complex linkages between the protected area, community and visitors is needed for this study.  Turning to the broader field of tourism, Farrell and Twining-Ward (2003) find that theoretical models are lacking and call for a reconceptualization of tourism study that incorporates social-ecological systems (SES) theory.  Building upon their findings, this study investigates ecotourism through the lens of social-ecological resilience, a component of the SES theoretical framework.  The research is designed to test characteristics of ecotourism that might cause different levels of resilience: governance, protected area ecosystem and management, local community participation, ecotourism industry pressures and visitor diversity.  These relationships are represented by linked and continually changing social and ecological systems, diagramed by Holling’s (1986) adaptive renewal cycle (1).  This study measures the key factors of resilience in terms of the important components of ecotourism combined with key components of dryland social-ecological resilience, to learn which characteristics produce the highest levels of resilience.