ASSESSMENT OF ECOTOURISM IN PROTECTED AREAS: A STUDY OF JIM CORBETT TIGER RESERVE, INDIA

Abstract

Ecotourism emerged in reaction to the rising adverse impacts of mass tourism industry on the socio-cultural, economic, and environmental attributes of the tourist destinations. It acknowledges that the local people bear the brunt of tourism activities (e.g., congestion, pollutions, and hike in land and product prices) and restrictive conservation policies (e.g., restriction on the use of natural resources). Hence, they should be given preference in the distribution of ecotourism benefits by facilitating their involvement and engagement as the active stakeholders. According to the social exchange theory, stakeholders are likely to support ecotourism and biodiversity conservation, if the benefits from ecotourism and conservation exceed the costs. Furthermore, the stakeholder theory postulates that the local support for ecotourism and conservation can be achieved via stakeholders’ involvement in the planning, management, and decision-making processes. Against this backdrop, by taking a case of Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand, India, the present thesis attempts to achieve the following four objectives: 1) to analyze the trends and patterns of ecotourism research, and to explore the indicators of sustainability of ecotourism in protected areas; 2) to analyze the attitudes and perceptions of local communities about ecotourism and conservation; 3) to examine humanwildlife conflict (HWC) and management strategies, and; 4) analyzing tourists’ preferences for conservation and estimating the economic value of key conservation attributes in monetary units. To achieve these objectives, the thesis uses the mixed research approach, quantitative and qualitative. Using the systematic literature review, the thesis observes that ecotourism researches have persistently been growing over a period, might be resulting from the increasing recognition of contribution of ecotourism to the local development and nature conservation, and introduction of new journals. Moreover, these researches are highly skewed towards national parks. The review further suggests that community participation in the decision-making and management, skill development and capacity building opportunities, direct and indirect economic benefits, equitable distribution of benefits, social and infrastructural development, cultural recognition, and preservation, mitigation of HWC, favorable attitudes, perceptions and behavioral intentions, and nature conservation are the core indicators of ecotourism sustainability. In line with the social exchange theory and stakeholder theory, the estimated results based on the structural equation model reveal that community involvement in decision-making, perceived benefits and costs, and conservation awareness directly and/or indirectly influence the local support for ecotourism and conservation. It is also observed that the incidences of HWC have significantly declined, possibly due to a range of mitigation and preventive management strategies, including but not limited to electric fencing, lighting, and guarding, compensation schemes, ecotourism and conservationbased livelihoods, and local development programs. Furthermore, poaching and wildlife killing incidences have declined to zero, partly due to the effective patrolling with more patrolling personnel and modern technologies deployed like GPS and drones. Although declining, the incidences of cattle depredation and crop damage are considerably high, calling for the modification in the existing strategies and adoption of new strategies. Furthermore, the study finds that ecotourism has enough potential to generate finance for the conservation in the Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve, India. It further shows that tourists have significant preference and marginal willingness to pay towards the conservation attributes, like increasing number of employees, conducting conservation awareness programs, resettling the non-revenue villages situated inside the buffer zones, and reducing the crowding inside the CTR. The study also offers the following practical implications for the sustainable management of ecotourism, viz., there is a need for the meaningful participation of local people throughout the ecotourism development from planning to monitoring, regular assessment of ecotourism with respect to its importance in diversifying the local economy, addressing the challenges associated with the management strategies of HWC, and revising the entry fee structure according to the tourists’ preferences and willingness to pay.