Ecotourism land tenure and enterprise ownership: Australian case study

Abstract

Ecotourism has been promoted widely as a potential tool in conservation and community development, in both developed and developing nations (Fennell, 1999; Weaver, 2001). In some instances at least, ecotourism has indeed contributed to conservation on private, community, or public lands outside the protected area estate (Buckley, 2003a; TOISTD, 2003; WTO, 2002). Elsewhere, however, tourism industry promoters have used the term ecotourism simply as an avenue to increase access to protected areas by commercial tourism operators, most recently under the guise of so-called partnerships (Buckley, 2002, 2003b). The outcomes of ecotourism hence depend not only on the ecotourism enterprise itself, but on the land or water where it operates. This aspect of the ecotourism sector, however, seems to have received rather little attention in the research literature. It has become contentious in Australia recently because of current political pressures to expand commercial tourism operations in protected areas (Australia DITR, 2003; Buckley, 2003b), and efforts to improve conservation on private land (Australia NTHT, 2003). Here, therefore, I examine the degree to which existing ecotourism enterprises in Australia operate on various different types of land tenure; and consider how these results may be relevant worldwide.