Forest owners' perceptions of ecotourism: Integrating community values and forest conservation

The use of forest land for ecotourism has been well accepted due to its ability to provide income to local people and to conserve the forest. Preparing the forest with infrastructure to attract and educate visitors has been reported of importance. This study applied Q methodology in a small rural co...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inAmbio Vol. 44; no. 2; pp. 99 - 109
Main Authors Rodríguez-Piñeros, Sandra, Mayett-Moreno, Yesica
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer 01.03.2015
Springer Netherlands
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Aged
Agriculture
Atmospheric Sciences
Attitude
Communities
Community development
Community involvement
Conservation of Natural Resources - economics
Conservation of Natural Resources - methods
Construction
Earth and Environmental Science
Ecology
Economic development
Ecotourism
Education
Environment
Environmental education
Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology
Environmental Management
Female
Forest conservation
Forest management
Forests
Humans
Infrastructure
Low income groups
Male
Mexico
Middle Aged
Nature
Perception
Perceptions
Physical Geography
Poverty
Preserves
Recreation - economics
Recreation - psychology
Rural areas
Rural communities
Sustainability
Tourism
Travel - economics
Travel - psychology
Mexico
Puebla Mexico
Perceptions
Q methodology
Small-scale forest management
Ecotourism
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The use of forest land for ecotourism has been well accepted due to its ability to provide income to local people and to conserve the forest. Preparing the forest with infrastructure to attract and educate visitors has been reported of importance. This study applied Q methodology in a small rural community of the State of Puebla, Mexico, to reveal forest owners' perceptions to build infrastructure in their forest as part of their ecotourism project. It also discloses forest owners' underlying motives to use their forest for ecotourism. Ecotourism is perceived as a complementary activity to farming that would allow women to be involved in community development. Low impact infrastructure is desired due to forest owners' perception to preserve the forest for the overall community well-being.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0044-7447
1654-7209
DOI:10.1007/s13280-014-0544-5