„Sustainability‟ of Sustainable Development Discourse (With Special Focus on Community Based Eco-tourism in the Sinharaja Rain Forest)

Community based eco-tourism (CBET) is a well-established concept that based onsustainable development discourse and its implementation has been an important componentfor many regional development and eco-system management strategies. This research paperargues that CBET under the sustainable development discourse has originated as a westernconcept, however, CBET operates within diversgeo-political, economic and cultural contexts,which generate challenges to achieve realistic goals of sustainable development discourse.This research examines a CBET initiative in the Kudawa- Sinharaja site, Sri Lanka whichshifted in 1995 from a central government approach under the forestry sector master plan, inline with western CBET and sustainable development ideologies.A qualitative approach has principally guided this research together with quantitative analysisto examine the socio-cultural, socio-economic and geo-political context. A total of 293participants have provided information for this research, which includes 193 interviews (115individuals, and 15 different focus groups totalling 78 people) and 100 questionnairerespondents. These participants were surveyed during late 2012 and early 2013, and includedboth domestic and overseas tourists, local community residents and tourist operators, tourismconsultants, and government officials. A critical discourse analysis (CDA) method was usedto examine both primary qualitative data, which were collected through participant and directobservation, interviews as well as secondary data. One of the main findings is that despiteplans being developed at a community level, the wider context includes superimposedcapitalism, which dominates and counteracts the ideologies of sustainable developmentdiscourse. Superimposed capitalism results in individualistic and competitive behaviours thatundermine the collaborative community approach. It encourages poaching and the selling ofrare flora and fauna (biopiracy), and results in anthropogenic disturbances to nature.Further, this research also highlights the strong influence of geo-politics, which operates atboth the international and domestic scale. Political corruption, access to funds, and the lack ofestablished decision making processes are also associated with geo-politics. This researchalso underlines the influence of the socio-cultural context such as gender inequality and castediscrimination, which substantially disempower certain people. The research concludes thatsustainable development discourseis a phantasy ideology if not to be addressed, in particular,superimposed capitalism, socio-cultural and geo-political issues in the particular areas. Thefindings of this research will inform CBET in similar developing countries, but caution isrequired because the geo-political, economic and cultural context is different in every country.Keywords: Sustainable development discourse, Community based eco-tourism