Integrating ICTs into
ecotourism and sustainable
community development
Martin Franklin and Roger Hosein
Department of Economics
UWI, St. Augustine
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Format of this Presentation
 Introductory remarks on Sustainable
development and Ecotourism
 Challenges to our communities
 Possible causes of non-sustainable
development
 Priorities for ICT in development
 Knowledge, ICT & Development
 ICT in Sustainable Development &
Ecotourism
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Community Development (CD)
A process (SCCD, 2001 )
 building active communities based on social justice and
mutual respect
 changing power structures, in order to remove the barriers
that prevent people from participating in the issues that
affect their lives
 changing existing organizations so that their practices and
culture embrace the empowerment of their communities.
Frazer (2005)
 Some of these barriers are poverty, lack of access to
resources, rights, goods and services, discrimination, and
the economic, social and digital divides.
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Community Development (CD)
A multi-disciplinary process (IACD, 2003)
 focuses on building solidarity among groups of
people who share common interests
 concerned with building the capacity of people
to define and address their problems and
visions within the context of their own culture.
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Sustainable Community Development
(Swisher, Rezola & Steins 2006)
 CD becomes sustainable when it results in a community that is
environmentally sound, economically productive, and socially just.
 Sustainable communities recognise that their economic and social
structures as well as the health of their local environment are
intertwined.
 Sustainable communities understand that programs and policies that
foster only one aspect of development, be it economic growth, social
gain, or environmental protection, to the exclusion of the other two
aspects will not promote sustained progress for the community.
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Sub-Processes, Components and Measurable
Outcomes of Sustainable Community
Development (SCCD 2001)
Sub Process
Community Empowerment
Enhancing the Quality of Life
Component
Outcome
Personal empowerment
A learning community
Positive action
A fair and just community
Community organizing &
volunteer support
Participation and
involvement
Community economic
development
Social and service
development
Community environmental
action
Community arts and cultural
development
Governance and
development
An active and organized
community
An influential community
A shared wealth
A caring community
A safe and healthy
community
A creative community
A citizens’ community
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Ecotourism (Honey 2008)
 travel to fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas that
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strives to be low impact and (often) small scale
typically involves travel to destinations where flora, fauna,
and cultural heritage are the primary attractions
a conceptual experience, enriching those who delve into
understanding the environment around them
gives visitors an insight into their impact as human beings
and also a greater appreciation of natural habitats
provides funds for conservation
directly benefits the economic development and political
empowerment of local communities
fosters respect for different cultures and for human rights.
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Ecotourism
(Harris & Vogel, 2005)
In the context of sustainable community
development, ecotourism is closely associated
with community-based tourism (CBT).
CBT is a mechanism for fostering natural and
cultural resource conservation and community
development.
CBT is often implemented in support of wildlife
management, environmental protection and/or
development for indigenous peoples.
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Ecotourism
(Tisdell & Wilson, 2002)
In the context of sea turtles, ecotourism can have direct benefits for the
conservation of nature as well as indirect benefits.
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The direct benefits are the protection of breeding sites of turtles,
investments that assist in increasing the likely survival of baby turtles,
scientific data collection, and stimulus to programmes aimed at
controlling poachers.
The indirect benefits occur because tourists, as a result of their turtle
experience, become more aware of threats to populations of marine
turtles, show greater appreciation for the value of turtles, develop greater
empathy for them and learn ways in which they can foster turtle
conservation.
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Challenges to Communities
The challenge facing communities is to integrate environmental, economic
development and the well-being of all people, not just for today, but for countless
generations to come so that development be sustained (IISD 2005).
Communities are also challenged to ensure that the following requirements are
met in implementing any strategy for sustainable community development:
 members of the community believe that they have the capacity to resolve their
own problems and shape their own future;
 community development initiatives are geared towards developing the
community’s capacity to deal with global issues e.g. HIV/AIDS, Climate
Change at the local level. (Swisher, Rezola & Steins 2006).
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Challenges to Communities
Franklin & Hosein (2009)
 Communities are also challenged by the globalization and
technological shifts that have stimulated a revolution in the
information and communication industry.
 The centre of this technological revolution is the Internet with
its significant potential for accessing and transferring
information, computer-based communication and innovative
teaching strategies, all at a global level.
 Communities must chart a course towards their sustainable
development and in so doing, adopt/integrate the new information
and communication technologies (ICT).
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Possible causes of non-sustainable development.
(AlKutbi & Ahmed 2006)
 Strategy - The practice of strategic planners in the
fields of ICT and Development to (a) work separately
and (b) adopt ICT applications that are replicated
from the developed countries notwithstanding the
differences in culture as well as the social, economic,
infrastructure and institutional structures;
 ICT - Low penetration of ICT;
 Human - Lower human knowledge and varying
levels of culture resistance.
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Moving forward to SCD
(AlKutbi & Ahmed 2006)
Recognition be given to:
 the Internet is a powerful tool for the promotion of knowledge acquisition and
creation;
 building human capacity of individuals through knowledge creation and
acquisition is an influential factor in sustainable development that should not
be overlooked;
 the low penetration of ICT is related to either poor infrastructure and/or the cost
of services;
 the number of Internet users increases significantly as the cost of Internet
connection decreases;
 the issue of culture resistance to the sharing of tacit knowledge is complex and
difficult to measure since it involves social and physiological elements.
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Priorities for ICTs in development
(Heeks 2005)
ICT for development can be decomposed into two parts,
namely:
ICT consumption i.e. the use of technology in
applications such as e-commerce e.g. ATM and egovernment e.g. online drivers licence renewal;
ICT production i.e. the creation of hardware, software
and other components of the ICT infrastructure.
Empirical evidence suggests that the developmental
gains from investing in ICT production are greater than
for investment in ICT consumption.
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Integrating ICTs into SCD
(OECD 2003)
SCD requires co-operation at the local, regional and international levels. Principles
proposed by DAC members for integrating ICTs into development co-operation are:
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Sustainable ICT projects should be locally owned and accompanied by human capacity
development (CIDA, Japan, Netherlands).
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Capacity in effectively using ICTs for development is often the main constraint, not
equipment (majority of donors).
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The private sector is instrumental in expanding ICTs for development access and
applications (USAID).
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Governments play a key role in establishing a well-regulated, competitive enabling
environment for ICTs to flourish (CIDA, EC and majority of donors).
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For ICTs to have a positive development impact, the various social groups must have equal
access to them, particularly disadvantaged groups such as the poor, children and indigenous
people (CIDA).
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Many important aspects of ICT infrastructure are cross-border in nature, and therefore require
international/regional co-operation (World Bank).
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Knowledge
 Knowledge resides in each community. It can be created,
shared and utilized in each community.
 Analytical models demonstrate that knowledge is the main
engine of economic development.
 The Internet is a powerful and enabling tool to promote
knowledge acquisition (education and lifelong learning)
and knowledge creation (R&D).
 ICT can be used as technologies for facilitating
knowledge acquisition, sharing and utilisation in
communities.
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Knowledge Framework for Sustainable
Development
(AlKutbi & Ahmed 2006)
Recognising the imperative of human knowledge in
SD, the framework involves:
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Online Learning
Continuous Learning
Exchange of tacit and explicit knowledge
Knowledge Creation, Sharing & Utilization
Human Capital Accumulation
Sustainable Development.
This framework must however be supported by the
synergy between ICT and Development Strategies as
well as flourishing ICTs.
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Examples of ICT used as online technologies for
knowledge acquisition (AlKutbi & Ahmed 2006)
Technology
Application(s)
Portal
One-stop Online Curriculum Portals
Streaming Audio/Video
Pre-recorded Lecture, Classroom Interaction,
Hands-on
Chat, VoIP, Blog
Interactive Discussions, Foreign Language
Practice, Audio-graphic Teleconferencing
Web Whiteboard
Emulsion of Classroom Lessons.
(Combined Graphic Conferencing & VoIP)
Real time Teacher-Student Collaboration of
graphic information , Brainstorming
Immediate contact with teachers, students,
tutors
Instant Messaging
Internet in wireless handheld 3G devices
Graphics & Video to rural communities on
palm devices
Semantic Web
Machine-understandable reasoning and
inference of data on the Web
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ICTs and Development
The potential and role of ICT as a tool for contributing
to development has received much attention in the
literature e.g.
 Digital Opportunity Initiative (2000)
 UNDP et al. (2001)
 Sandro M. R. (2002)
 Arunachalam (2002)
 Quibria et al (2002)
 Harris (2004)
 Lallana (2004)
 Willard & Andjelkonic (2005)
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A sample of ICT Interventions that have the capacity
to contribute to SCD and Ecotourism
Component
ICT Intervention
Outcome
Personal empowerment
Distance Learning; Blended Learning; Online
Learning; Flexible Education; Multipurpose
Community Telecentres (MCTs);
A learning community
Positive action
Social Networks; Free Press; Visual Broadcasting
of working conditions; Voice for marginalised
communities;
A fair and just community
Community organizing &
volunteer support
Participation and involvement
Social Networks; MCTs
An active and organized
community
An influential community
Community economic
development
MCTs; ICT applications in Flow of Remittances,
Ecotourism e.g. e-CBT, Small & Micro
Enterprises (SMEs), Medium Enterprises &
Agriculture; Hardware and Software
Enterprises; Virtual business clusters; Incubator
Programmes
A shared wealth
Social and service development
Social Web; Tele-Health/Telemedicine; Flexible
Education; MCTs; Flow of Remittances;
Dissemination of HIV/AIDS Messages;
A caring community
Community environmental action
MCTs; ICTs for Energy efficiency/ Eco-ICTs;
A safe and healthy community
Community arts and cultural
development
Governance and development
ICTs for Local Content; Community Radio; VoIP;
MCTs; CMCs
A creative community
Social Networks; Flexible Education; MCTs; egovernment
A citizens’ community
Community Multimedia Centers (CMCs); Mobile
Communications; Flexible Education
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ICTs & Rural Communities
(Harris & Vogel, 2005)
 There is a need for pro-poor policies that ensure the
ICT sector covers rural areas.
 E-commerce for community-based tourism, or e-CBT,
can become a pump-primer for introducing the
telecentres into rural communities.
 Telecentres can subsequently be used to foster the
other forms of development that ICTs make possible.
 Telecentres that target income-generating
opportunities from the outset are more likely to
survive after the initial start-up funding dries up.
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Thank You
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