Doctoral Dissertation Research: Indigenous Resilience and Grassroots Ecotourism Development

Indigenous communities are increasingly turning toward cultural and environmental tourism as a development and economic alternative to resource extraction. Ecotourism is particularly promising to historically marginalized communities who possess deep cultural knowledge and unique ecological features and seek avenues of community development that honor that cultural knowledge and preserve those resources.

How do community members involved with ecotourism development make choices about the elements of their culture and environment they emphasize to visitors? Are ecotourism programs reflective of broader community ideals and identity, and how do these perspectives vary within the community? This doctoral dissertation research explores the intersection between ecotourism development and socio-environmental resilience in a North American Indigenous community.

The research tests the applicability of theories on socio-environmental resilience used across disciplines dealing with human-environment relations to Indigenous contexts. It also trains a doctoral dissertation student in theory and methods in cultural anthropology and the work will be distributed broadly to academic audiences, community stakeholders, and the public.

This project has three main objectives; 1) to investigate how indigenous ecotourism coordinators and affiliates develop ecotourism infrastructure in relation to their ideas of what should be made resilient in their communities; 2) to examine the traditional subsistence and land-based practices of community members both in and outside of ecotourism programming and the degree to which they reflect community ideals and identity; and 3) to explore how different generations of community members construct their identities and futures in the face of community change both ecotourism-driven and otherwise. The research involves ethnographic methods, including semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and community based participatory workshops.

The research advances understanding about the role of Indigenous knowledge in ecosystem science, ecotourism development, and sustainability. This project also tests whether theories about frequently used to characterize the resilience of socio-ecological systems have efficacy within Indigenous socio-ecological systems and the perspectives of Indigenous system participants.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.