This chapter describes an ecotourism partnership by using the case of Posada Amazonas in Peru. It... more This chapter describes an ecotourism partnership by using the case of Posada Amazonas in Peru. It is established that the true integration of conservation and development through ecotourism has been a challenging and time-consuming process. Posada Amazonas has also benefited from certain advantages at the outset. As the end of the 20-year contract nears, Posada Amazonas stands at a crossroads: a savvier set of community partners who yearn for its independence yet still lack vital expertise, and a business partner that hopes to continue to earn profits while also fulfilling its commitment to integrated conservation and development.
Limited social capital poses a critical bottleneck for sustainable rural development. Despite vas... more Limited social capital poses a critical bottleneck for sustainable rural development. Despite vast investment, development interventions focused on preserving the biodiversity of the Osa and Golfito region of Costa Rica have done little to address poverty or improve the well-being of local residents. The authors of the current study draw upon field research and data gathered from semi-structured interviews with 310 community leaders and rural residents to investigate the bottlenecks to development and how they are related to forms of social capital in the Osa and Golfito cantons in Costa Rica. Specifically, we draw upon the distinction of bonding, bridging, and linking forms of social capital to characterize the nature of benefits from collective action in communities in Osa and Golfito. The data suggest that the lack of bridging and linking forms of social capital may explain the region's persistent development challenges and may thus indicate where development-related investme...
This volume offers a close look at leading experiments under way today in ecotourism in the Ameri... more This volume offers a close look at leading experiments under way today in ecotourism in the Americas, a hemisphere where this increasingly important form of tourism flourishes. The chapters explore ecotourism in settings as different as indigenous community lands in the Amazon (Chapters 1, 2 and 10), a luxurious private ecolodge in Montana (Chapter 7), the famous National Park and World Heritage Site of Galapagos (Chapter 5) and in the state-controlled centralized economy of Cuba (Chapter 12). We hope this cross-cutting sample ...
By 1992, overfishing along the South American coast prompted a large migration to Galápagos of fi... more By 1992, overfishing along the South American coast prompted a large migration to Galápagos of fishers, middlemen, and buyers, who began a “gold rush” harvest of brown sea cucumbers (a spiny marine organism) for the lucrative Asian market. Attempts to regulate that harvest by the government of Ecuador and the Galápagos National Park Service provoked more than a decade of protests and violence, which were only curbed when fishers were given an effective role in decision-making. But because the brown sea cucumber requires a minimum density for reproduction—an example of the Allee effect—it proved too challenging for the first participatory management system, which failed, but it led to a simpler system that continues successfully today. Galápagos is proving to be a showcase not simply for genetic evolution but also for the cultural evolution of new forms of governance, ideally including sustainability that it can then model for the world.
This chapter describes the experiences of several indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon... more This chapter describes the experiences of several indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon, which have shown that economic development options are limited. Compared to outside extractive activities or extensive agroindustries, like soyabeans, cattle ranching and palm oil, ecotourism is one of the more promising alternatives. Although earnings from ecotourism may seem to outsiders as minimal, many indigenous families identify them as substantial.
This chapter describes an ecotourism partnership by using the case of Posada Amazonas in Peru. It... more This chapter describes an ecotourism partnership by using the case of Posada Amazonas in Peru. It is established that the true integration of conservation and development through ecotourism has been a challenging and time-consuming process. Posada Amazonas has also benefited from certain advantages at the outset. As the end of the 20-year contract nears, Posada Amazonas stands at a crossroads: a savvier set of community partners who yearn for its independence yet still lack vital expertise, and a business partner that hopes to continue to earn profits while also fulfilling its commitment to integrated conservation and development.
Limited social capital poses a critical bottleneck for sustainable rural development. Despite vas... more Limited social capital poses a critical bottleneck for sustainable rural development. Despite vast investment, development interventions focused on preserving the biodiversity of the Osa and Golfito region of Costa Rica have done little to address poverty or improve the well-being of local residents. The authors of the current study draw upon field research and data gathered from semi-structured interviews with 310 community leaders and rural residents to investigate the bottlenecks to development and how they are related to forms of social capital in the Osa and Golfito cantons in Costa Rica. Specifically, we draw upon the distinction of bonding, bridging, and linking forms of social capital to characterize the nature of benefits from collective action in communities in Osa and Golfito. The data suggest that the lack of bridging and linking forms of social capital may explain the region's persistent development challenges and may thus indicate where development-related investme...
This volume offers a close look at leading experiments under way today in ecotourism in the Ameri... more This volume offers a close look at leading experiments under way today in ecotourism in the Americas, a hemisphere where this increasingly important form of tourism flourishes. The chapters explore ecotourism in settings as different as indigenous community lands in the Amazon (Chapters 1, 2 and 10), a luxurious private ecolodge in Montana (Chapter 7), the famous National Park and World Heritage Site of Galapagos (Chapter 5) and in the state-controlled centralized economy of Cuba (Chapter 12). We hope this cross-cutting sample ...
By 1992, overfishing along the South American coast prompted a large migration to Galápagos of fi... more By 1992, overfishing along the South American coast prompted a large migration to Galápagos of fishers, middlemen, and buyers, who began a “gold rush” harvest of brown sea cucumbers (a spiny marine organism) for the lucrative Asian market. Attempts to regulate that harvest by the government of Ecuador and the Galápagos National Park Service provoked more than a decade of protests and violence, which were only curbed when fishers were given an effective role in decision-making. But because the brown sea cucumber requires a minimum density for reproduction—an example of the Allee effect—it proved too challenging for the first participatory management system, which failed, but it led to a simpler system that continues successfully today. Galápagos is proving to be a showcase not simply for genetic evolution but also for the cultural evolution of new forms of governance, ideally including sustainability that it can then model for the world.
This chapter describes the experiences of several indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon... more This chapter describes the experiences of several indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon, which have shown that economic development options are limited. Compared to outside extractive activities or extensive agroindustries, like soyabeans, cattle ranching and palm oil, ecotourism is one of the more promising alternatives. Although earnings from ecotourism may seem to outsiders as minimal, many indigenous families identify them as substantial.
Uploads
Papers by William Durham