Community-Based Ecotourism and Environmental Protection in Mexico: A Synergetic Strategy or Trendy Slogan?

Indigenous and community-managed Protected Areas are currently being promoted and backed financially by governmental institutions and international Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) as a way of enhancing voluntary conservation efforts. In this context, strategies and means focus on sustainable resource use and often emphasize community-based and/or nature-based tourism. While broader socio-cultural shifts in western societies and market trends related to them are promising, there is still little evidence that tourism effectively supports biodiversity conservation, local development, and cultural self-determination in the long-term. To address these issues, this chapter presents a case study that sheds light on the complex socio-political transformations triggered by fast-paced tourism development in La Ventanilla, an increasingly popular destination on Mexico’s Pacific coast. In order to study the community-based tourism development, the authors apply an actor-oriented analysis, that takes local population, government institutions, NGOs, multilateral institutions, and businesses into account. The chapter concludes that despite genuine attempts to enhance community-based tourism development, the aims originally established have not been achieved, as many projects conceived to promote nature-based tourism have altered conditions of local development in La Ventanilla; such as social cohesion, a sense of community, and mutual trust. Well-intentioned interventions by non-place-based actors have exacerbated socio-economic disparities and compromised the potential for future sustainable tourism-driven development