Challenges to Implementing Community Based Ecotourism (CBET) as a Bottom up Development Approach in the Sinharaja Rain Forest (Sri Lanka)
type: CreativeWork
description: Community based ecotourism (CBET) is a well-established concept and its implementation has been an important component for many regional development strategies. This thesis argues that CBET originated as a Western concept, and there are many successful CBET projects. However, CBET operates within geo-political, economic and cultural contexts, which generate challenges for its implementation. This research examines a CBET initiative in the Kudawa- Sinharaja site, Sri Lanka which shifted in 1995 from a central government approach to a community forest informed master plan, in line with Western CBET development models. This case study therefore provides the opportunity to explore the success of this CBET project. A qualitative approach has principally guided this research together with statistics to examine the socio-cultural, socio-economic and geo-political context. A total of 293 participants have informed this research, which includes 193 interviews (115 individuals, and 15 different focus groups totalling 78 people) and 100 questionnaire respondents. These participants were surveyed during late 2012 and early 2013, and included both domestic and overseas tourists, local community residents and tourist operators, tourism consultants, and government officials. One of the main findings is that despite plans being developed at a community level, the wider context includes superimposed capitalism, which dominates and counteracts the ideologies of CBET. Superimposed capitalism results in individualistic and competitive behaviours that undermine the collaborative community approach. It encourages poaching and the selling of rare flora and fauna (biopiracy), and results in anthropogenic disturbances to nature. The influence of “drug-sex’ tourism, associated with superimposed capitalism, creates potential for further socio-cultural issues. This research also highlights the strong influence of geo-politics, which operates at both the international and domestic scale. Nation…
abstract: Community based ecotourism (CBET) is a well-established concept and its implementation has been an important component for many regional development strategies. This thesis argues that CBET originated as a Western concept, and there are many successful CBET projects. However, CBET operates within geo-political, economic and cultural contexts, which generate challenges for its implementation. This research examines a CBET initiative in the Kudawa- Sinharaja site, Sri Lanka which shifted in 1995 from a central government approach to a community forest informed master plan, in line with Western CBET development models. This case study therefore provides the opportunity to explore the success of this CBET project. A qualitative approach has principally guided this research together with statistics to examine the socio-cultural, socio-economic and geo-political context. A total of 293 participants have informed this research, which includes 193 interviews (115 individuals, and 15 different focus groups totalling 78 people) and 100 questionnaire respondents. These participants were surveyed during late 2012 and early 2013, and included both domestic and overseas tourists, local community residents and tourist operators, tourism consultants, and government officials. One of the main findings is that despite plans being developed at a community level, the wider context includes superimposed capitalism, which dominates and counteracts the ideologies of CBET. Superimposed capitalism results in individualistic and competitive behaviours that undermine the collaborative community approach. It encourages poaching and the selling of rare flora and fauna (biopiracy), and results in anthropogenic disturbances to nature. The influence of “drug-sex’ tourism, associated with superimposed capitalism, creates potential for further socio-cultural issues. This research also highlights the strong influence of geo-politics, which operates at both the international and domestic scale. Nation…
author: Halvitigala Ihala Gamage, Chaminda Kumara
keywords: Community Based Ecotourism, Sinharaja Rain Forest, Bottom up Development
license: https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstreams/b27345bc-7f01-45c2-9866-13a709a93be9/download
date published: 2016
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:57:30Z
provider: University Waikato
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Waikato