Bram Erik Büscher - The Ecotourism-Extraction Nexus: Political Economies and Rural Realities of (un)Comfortable Bedfellows

Ecotourism and natural resource extraction may be seen as contradictory pursuits, yet in reality they often take place side by side, sometimes even supported by the same institutions. Existing academic and policy literatures generally overlook the phenomenon of ecotourism in areas concurrently affected by extraction industries, but such a scenario is in fact increasingly common in resource-rich developing nations.

This edited volume conceptualizes and empirically analyses the ecotourism-extraction nexus within the context of broader rural and livelihood changes in the places where these activities occur. The volumes central premise is that these seemingly contradictory activities are empirically and conceptually more alike than often imagined, and that they share common ground in ethnographic lived experiences in rural settings and broader political economic structures of power and control.

The book offers theoretical reflections on why ecotourism and natural resource extraction are systematically decoupled, and epistemologically and analytically re-links them through ethnographic case studies drawing on research from around the world. It should be of interest to students and professionals engaged in the disciplines of geography, anthropology, and development studies.

Bram Bscher is Associate Professor of Environment and Sustainable Development at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He is also Visiting Associate Professor of Environmental Management and Energy Studies at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Veronica Davidov is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Leiden University College, the Netherlands.

Routledge ISS studies in rural livelihoods

Editorial Board: A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi (Trent University), Saturnino M. Borras Jr. (Institute of Social Studies), Cristbal Kay (Chair) (Institute of Social Studies) and Max Spoor (Institute of Social Studies).

Routledge and the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, the Netherlands have come together to publish a new book series in rural livelihoods. The series will include themes such as land policies and land rights, water issues, food policy and politics, rural poverty, agrarian transformation, migration, rural-oriented social movements, rural conflict and violence, among others. All books in the series will offer rigorous, empirically grounded, cross-national comparative and inter-regional analysis. The books will be theoretically stimulating, but will also be accessible to policy practitioners and civil society activists.

Land, Poverty and Livelihoods in an Era of Globalization
Perspectives from developing and transition countries
Edited by A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi, Saturnino M. Borras Jr. and Cristbal Kay

Peasants and Globalization
Political economy, agrarian transformation and development
Edited by A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi and Cristbal Kay

The Political Economy of Rural Livelihoods in Transition Economies
Land, peasants and rural poverty in transition
Edited by Max Spoor

Agrarian Angst and Rural Resistance in Contemporary Southeast Asia
Edited by Dominique Caouette and Sarah Turner

Water, Environmental Security and Sustainable Rural Development
Conflict and cooperation in Central Eurasia
Edited by Murat Arsel and Max Spoor

Reforming Land and Resource Use in South Africa
Impact on livelihoods
Edited by Paul Hebinck and Charlie Shackleton

Risk and Social Change in an African Rural Economy
Livelihoods in pastoralist communities
John G. McPeak, Peter D. Little and Cheryl R. Doss

Public Policy and Agricultural Development
Edited by Ha-Joon Chang

Social Conflict, Economic Development and the Extractive Industry
Evidence from South America
Edited by Anthony Bebbington

The Ecotourism-Extraction Nexus
Political economies and rural realities of (un)comfortable bedfellows
Edited by Bram Bscher and Veronica Davidov

The Ecotourism-Extraction Nexus

Political economies and rural realities of (un)comfortable bedfellows

Edited by Bram Bscher and Veronica Davidov

First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2014 selection and editorial material, Bram Bscher and Veronica Davidov; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of Bram Bscher and Veronica Davidov to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
The ecotourism-extraction nexus: political economies and rural realities of (un)comfortable bedfellows / edited by Bram Bscher and Veronica Davidov.

pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Ecotourism. 2. Natural resourcesPolitical aspects. 3. Natural
resourcesEnvironmental aspects. I. Bscher, Bram, 1977
G156.5.E26E3539 2013

ISBN: 978-0-415-82489-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-38485-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear

ROSALEEN DUFFY

VERONICA DAVIDOV AND BRAM BSCHER

BRAM BSCHER AND VERONICA DAVIDOV

ANDREW WALSH

MEGAN A. STYLES

ROBERT FLETCHER

JAMES STINSON

JAMON ALEX HALVAKSZ, II

VERONICA DAVIDOV

TIMOTHY J. SMITH

LUISA J. ROLLINS-CASTILLO

FLORENCE REVELIN

LINDA D'AMICO

ELISABET DUEHOLM RASCH

WOLFRAM DRESSLER

Bram Bscher is Associate Professor of Environment and Sustainable Development at the Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and visiting Associate Professor at the Department of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Studies of the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. His research interests revolve around transfrontier conservation and conservation/development interventions, the political economy of nature and environmentalism, new media, ecotourism, and the politics of energy. He is the author of Transforming the Frontier: Peace Parks and the Politics of Neoliberal Conservation in Southern Africa (Duke University Press, 2013).

Linda DAmico is a cultural anthropologist whose recent work focuses on gender and the environment in Intag, Ecuador. She is interested in collaborative processes that lead to empowerment. Currently, she is a Professor of Global Studies and Womens and Gender Studies at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota, where she likes to bicycle and garden. She is the author of