Ecotourism and Sustainable Development: Who Owns Paradise? (ISBN 1559635827)

Snoozer:
I cannot believe I paid money for this book. We need information about ecotourism, particularly in the developing world. But the author shows no first-hand knowledge. She includes a lot of reports and obviously attends many policy meetings. But outside of the classroom, I do not think this book is of much use.

First-hand account of ecotourism projects around the world:
Martha Honey argues that the responsibility of ecotourism operators stretches far beyond their physical impact on the land. She argues that real ecotourism must involve seven vital and interrelated characteristics: travel to nature destinations; minimizing negative environmental impact; building environmental awareness; direct financial benefits for conservation; financial benefits and empowerment for local people; the respect of local culture; and the support of human rights and democracy. Her book is an excellent account of worldwide ecotourism.

Outdated but worth the reading, shows the complexities of ecotourism in its infancy:
This book presents a very comprehensive state-of-the-art review of ecotourism practices in Latin America and Africa, up to 1998, including very detailed discussions of study cases in seven countries, some of which host prime examples of true ecotourism, such as Galapagos Island (Ecuador), several parks in Costa Rica, the Maasai Mara Game Reserve (Kenya), and the Kruger National Park (South Africa). Also, a scorecard for each of the seven countries is presented based on the seven principles of real ecotourism, as defined in the book. Throughout the book, Mrs. Honey makes crystal clear what is considered genuine ecotourism, ecotourism lite and what is pure greenwashing. As it is typical of social sciences, one of the main weaknesses of the analysis presented is that relies too much on anecdotal evidence, but in view of the lack of statistics or quantitative findings from ecotourism research, this limitation is unavoidable. After reading the book I reached two unexpected conclusions. First, ecotourism is full of contradictions and paradoxes. And second, the whole concept was developed exclusively from the point of view of conservationists and environmentalists, with complete disregard of the most basic principles of economics in a free market, despite being advocated as a means for sustainable economic development. The book also shows that by the late nineties there were several schools of thought within the field. On the one hand, the more radical conservationists and environmentalists, for whom tourism to pristine natural areas is simply not feasible, conservationism and economic development can't live together. For them, the negative impacts of ecotourism begin from the moment a tourist takes a jet plane to depart from home, and they see negative impacts everywhere, criticizing even the construction of any kind of infrastructure in the vicinity of the ecotourism locals, which is required to attend the tourists. There is another school that thinks the symbiosis is possible, but they set such contradicting goals, that the principles of genuine ecotourism are almost impossible to achieve in practice, and this is how the paradoxes begin. Some examples. Globalization is the main engine of today's international tourism, and ecotourism is the faster growing segment in the industry. However, scholars are very critical of capitalism and globalization, and sometimes they are advocating for highly centralized government planning of the industry. They want the activity to produce sustainable economic development in the third world, but they do not want too many tourists. They want everybody doing ecotourism during their whole trips, but is this what the regular turist want? Or is this attractive just for a minority looking for an educational experience? Clearly, tourism is a demand driving industry, and even on green trips, most people also want beach and sun, adventure, and fun, not just the genuine ecotourism and its educational aspects, because as recounted in the book, some tourists rather spend the day by the swiming pool than participating all day in guided eco tours. And logically, tourism operators are providing what the market is asking for. Basic economics and business principles are work. Also, how can you keep the lion's share of ecotourism benefits within the local community? Tourism is done through a complex chain of providers, and as the experience has shown, as one site becomes successful, greater numbers of tourists arrive, and the services and infrastructure required become so huge, that these demands are almost impossible to be handled or financed by small businesses and the local community; and then, there is the risk of a bigger environmental impact, things begin to run out of control. And this goes on and on, full of contradictions and paradoxes. Clearly, what is described in the book is ecotourism in its infancy. As a new crop of books on ecotourism was published in 2007 (see Critical Issues in Ecotourism: understanding a complex tourism phenomenon, Ecotourism Third Edition or Quality Assurance and Certification in Ecotourism (Ecotourism Book)), let's hope that some of the key contradictions and paradoxes have been resolved, and that this time they get the economics right. Also, I am looking forward for the promised 2008 update of Mrs. Money book, particularly because several of the country cases are revisited. Anyway, I do recommend this book for those interested in the origin of ecotourism and the difficulties in keeping a sustainable symbiosis between conservationism and economic development. PS: The updated second edition is now listed in Amazon and due July 2008. See Ecotourism and Sustainable Development, Second Edition: Who Owns Paradise?

good buy, long wait:
The book was in great condition and I saved a lot of money. However, it took almost a week to get my shipment, even though I paid for express delivery.

Not so good:
Disappointing tome with numerous factual mistakes and a lack of understanding of those the author is interviewing. The book is far too dependent on paper sources and fairly clueless on the ground.