Workshop: The Politics of Mobilities: Ecotourism in NorthSouth Relations, Lancaster University, 14-15 January 2005
Ecotourism in Kenya: the vulnerability of communities
Chris Southgate (Department of Environmental Management, UCLAN)
Ecotourism has become regarded as a potential means for reconciling what many
consider intractable conflicts between development and conservation. To the Maasai
of southern Kenya, development has taken the form of agricultural innovation and
land individualization. Security of tenure, and the tangible rewards from land use
change have been valued above the conservation of ‘natural’ landscape, wildlife and
the tourism revenue generated by it. Where better then to test the hypothesis that
ecotourism can provide the economic rewards and incentives to reverse the trend.
Amongst a flurry of activity and anticipation, the Loitokitok Division of Kajiado
District has witnessed a range of ecotourism initiatives during the past decade, and in
taking stock of their impacts a number of issues emerge. On one hand much of the
ecotourism potential of the area has not materialized due, in part, to the highly
fragmented character of the ‘local community’ – one in which the tensions between
age group, clan and political allegiance combine to preclude collective action and
consensus. Not only has such heterogeneity hampered community-based tourism, it
has also facilitated the exploitation of ecotourism potential by commercial operators.
This case study sheds light on wider issues of ecotourism politics –in particular the
vulnerability of ‘communities’ in the face of ecotourism’s global reach.