Private protected areas, ecotourism development and impacts on local people's well-being: a review from case studies in Southern Chile

Abstract

Private protected areas (PPAs) are expanding rapidly in less-industrialized nations. This paper explores cases in Los Rios, Chile, to understand how local people living in and near three PPAs viewed impacts of tourism development on human well-being and local governance asking: (1) Why and how do governing PPA actors engage local people in conservation and ecotourism? (2) How do local people perceive the impacts of PPAs? (3) How do perceived impacts differ between PPA ownership types and contexts? We used an Opportunities, Security and Empowerment research framework derived from local definitions of well-being. Results suggest that governing PPA actors (PPA administrations and Chilean government officials) viewed local people as threats to forest conservation goals, embraced exclusion from reserve governance, but encouraged self-governance among local people through educational campaigns promoting environmental stewardship and ecotourism entrepreneurship. PPA administrations avoided emerging participatory democracy approaches to ensure local resistance did not threaten their authority. Despite asymmetrical power relations, PPA-community partnerships were viewed locally as both improving and damaging well-being. Our findings suggest that the social impacts and consequences of PPAs facilitating ecotourism development should be subjected to the same level of scrutiny that has been given to public protected areas.