Context-sensitive political ecology to consolidate local realities under global discourses

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First published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Contents

and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint a/the Taylor & Francis Group, an in/orma business

© 2016 selection and editorial material, Sanjay Nepal and Jarkko Saarinen; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Sanjay Nepal and Jarkko Saarinen to be identified as authors of the editorial material, and ofthe individual authors as authors of their contributions, has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

List of illustrations Foreword Acknowledgements List ofabbreviations List of contributors

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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XIX

SANJA Y NEPAL , JARKKO SAARINEN AND ERIN MC LEAN-PURDON

PART!

Communities and livelihoods 1

Indigenous tourism as a sustainable social-environmental enterprise: the political ecology of tourism in Southeast Alaska

17

21

THOMAS F. THORNTON AND PAPHAPHIT WANASUK

2 ISBN: 978-1-138-85246-4 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-72347-1 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby

XV XVll

Introduction: political ecology and tourismconcepts and constructs

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library a/Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Nepal, Sanjay Kumar, editor ofcompilation. 1Saarinen, Jarkko, 1968editor of compilation. Title: Political ecology and tourism / edited by Sanjay Nepal and Jarkko Saarinen. Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2016.1 Series: Routledge studies in political ecology Identifiers: LCCN 20150340261 ISBN 9781138852464 (hardback) 1ISBN 9781315723471 (e-book) SUbjects: LCSH: Tourism--Environmental aspects--Case studies. 1 Tourism--Political aspects--Case studies. 1Political ecology--Case studies. Classification: LCC G155 .AI P648 20161 DDC 338.4/791--dc23 LC record available at http://\ccn.loc.gov/2015034026

IX Xl

Political ecology of the flats fishing industry in the Bahamas

39

THOMAS KARROW AND TRACEY THOMPSON

3

Decommodifying neoliberal conservation? A political ecology of volunteer tourism in Costa Rica

54

NOELLA J. GRAY, LISA M. CAMPBELL, AND ALEXANDRA MEEKER

4

The politics of community-based ecotourism in Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, Bhutan HEIDI KARST AND NGAWANG GYELTSHEN

IJ FSC

MIX Paper from responsible sources

lOl'!re r.01 ::IR04

68

VI

Contents

Contents PART IV

PART II

Class, representation and power 5 "A fragmented shore": class politics and the Connecticut beaches

VIl

83

Environmental justice and community empowerment

207

87

13 Context-sensitive political ecology to consolidate local realities under global discourses: a view for tourism studies

211

HANNU I. HEIKKINEN, NICOLAs ACOSTA GARciA, SIMO SARKKI

ADAM KEUL

AND ELISE LEPY

6 The call of the wild: power and ideology in the Adirondack Park

100

ELIZABETH S, VIDON

7 Political ecology of community-based natural resources management: principles and practices of power sharing in Botswana

14 "Skwelkwek'welt is what we call this place": Indigenous-Settler relations and the 'othered' side of British Columbia's Sun Peaks Resort

225

LISA COOKE

115

MONKGOGI LENAO AND JARKKO SAARINEN

15 Environment, gender, and identity: the Taselotzin Project run by indigenous women in Cuetzalan, Mexico

239

ISIS SAAVEDRA-LUNA AND YOLANDA MASSIEU-TRIGO

8 Conservation for whom? Parks, people, and tourism in Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal

130

SMRITI DAHAL AND SANJAY N E PAL

Conclusions: towards a political ecology of tourism - key issues and research prospects

253

JARKKO SAARINEN AND SANJAY NEPAL

PARTm

Dispossession and displacement 9 Maya as commodity fetish: accumulation by dispossession and ecotourism in the Yucatan Peninsula

145

149

ALEX R. COLUCCI AND AMANDA N , MULLETT

10 A political ecology of tourism in the shadow of an inter-oceanic canal in Nicaragua: displacing poverty or displacing social and environmental welfare?

163

C ARTER HUNT

11 High-end coastal tourism in northeastern Brazil: implications for local livelihoods and natural resources management

179

FERNANDA DE VASCONC E LLOS P EG AS

12 Tourism development, dispossession and displacement of local communities in the Okavango Delta, Botswana JOSEPH E, MBAIWA

193

Index

265

13 Context-sensitive political ecology to consolidate local realities under global discourses A view for tourism studies Hannu 1. Heikkinen, Nicolits Acosta Garcia, Sima Sarkki and Elise Lepy Introduction Current local and national environmental discourses and research agendas are often framed by problems, such as the loss of biodiversity, the unsustainable use of ecosystem services and climate change (European Union, 2009; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). In this context, recent tourism studies have emphasized discourses on sustainability and ecotourism. The idea of ecotourism is to bring environmental values to the market, thereby increasing both the environmental and the societal sustainability of tourism (see Becken, 2013; Gossling & Hall, 2006). Climate change, ecosystem services and ecotourism are investigated in this paper with a focus on their societal dimension, especially as these global discourses shape scientific and policy agendas throughout the world. Research on tourism and global change has often emphasized the following key topics: the effects of climate change on the potential for tourism (Amelung, Nicholls & Viner, 2007; Morrison & Pickering, 2013; Tervo, 2008), the potential for local tourism provided by ecosystem services (e.g. Tallis, Kareiva, Marvier & Chang, 2008) and the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as attractions for tourists in ecotourism destinations (Baral, Stem & Bhattarai, 2008; Broadbent et aI., 2012; Puhakka, Sarkki, Cottrell & Siikamiiki, 2009). Even though these global discourses are relevant at various scales (Scott, 2011), they tend to narrow down the scope of research to focus on a single trend shaping local realities (Weaver, 2011) and possibilities for adaptation instead of focusing on the wide-ranging set of challenges encountered at the local level (Kajan & Saarinen, 2013). The same holds true with top-down environmental governance and policies at national and international levels, which in spite of virtuous intentions may undermine local concerns (Heikkinen, Sarkki, Jokinen & Fornander, 2010). In order to explore this discrepancy between, on the one hand, the use of global discourses in science and policy and, on the other hand, local concerns and objectives, we discuss how this contradiction may be solved by context-sensitive political ecology. For us, essential in political ecology is its broad and critical but concrete problem orientation and its sensitivity to major societal phenomena, such as power relations and inequalitv. which are often resent in the stud of

212

Hannu 1. Heikkinen, Nicolas Acosta Garcia et al.

environmental issues. The epistemological understanding of political ecology is that political, economic, social and cultural factors interact at various temporal and spatial scales. These dimensions are always intermingled, resulting in environmental cOllundonns begitming from the definition of problems to the sketching of possible solutions. Such a politico-ecological view is supported by local case studies, but it can also build a conceptual bridge from local perspectives to understanding and explaining environmental complexities (Forsyth, 2004; Peet & Watts, 1996; Robbins, 2004). We take context sensitivity as a major asset of political ecology and, therefore, we assume it to have great potential as a research approach. Furthennore, we see it as our mission to fill in the gaps between different bodies of knowledge and to mediate between the fields of science and policy and between local communities and governance sectors (see Heikkinen & Robbins, 2007; Heikkinen, Moilanen, Nuttall & Sarkki, 2011). In this paper, we explore global change challenges based on experiences encountered during the ED Life+ VACCIA project (Vulnerability Assessment of ecosystem services for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation), which took place between 2009 and 2011 (Bergstrom, Mattsson, Niemela, Vuorenmaa & Forsius, 2011; Forsius et aI., 2013). This project aimed at developing adaptation measures based on the understanding of: 1) the likelihood of local change due to climate change, 2) the vulnerability of p cillc sector to predicted climate change, and 3) knowledge production regarding local-scale possibilities for adaptation. VACCIA' s Action 12 on toW"ism ammged palticipatory workshops and interviews with local nature-based tourism stakeholders in the tourism destinations of the town of Kuusamo and the municipality of Sotkamo in NOIthern Finland (Lepy et aI., 2014; see Figure 13.1). One of the main challenges was to tr ansfOUll the long temporal scope of climate change studies into locally meaningful weather events and to translate the concept of ecosystem services into understandable environmental benefits and changes for local tourism entrepreneurs. Another important challenge was related to the effect of global discourses that could easily have suppressed local concerns about the nearby mining development of Talvivaara by keeping a narrow focus on the predetermined global climate change research agenda. From the political ecology point of view, by limiting the discussion on the original agenda of climate change, the researchers would have been forced to take part in the local politic in an apolitical camouflage which would have stifled people's actual worries (Robbins, 2004). Such observations led us to acknowledge the need for context-sensitivity and bottom-up approaches in global change research agendas in tourism shldies. The objective of this paper is to explore and discuss the reasons and mechanisms behind these two challenges and to propose solutions for taking local concerns better into account in science and policy concerned with global change. We do so by outlining the chaUenges we encountered in more depth, discussing the power of global discourses in terms of ontological politics and by highlighting how the adoption offlat ontologies could make cience (and policy) more tuned towards Local concerns. Finally we discuss the role of the transdisciplinary researcher in improving cOl1ulluuication and local agency. We illustrate our theoretical

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