Biodiversity tourism: a concept for oil palm villages sustainable revitalization

Abstract

Rural resilience has become an interestingly debated topic in recent years, with scholars offering opposing viewpoints. Studies have suggested that rural resilience is arguably better than that of urban. Especially in the context where the rural is supported economically by the existence of some businesses such as oil palm plantations. However, certain negative images are still linked to oil palm plantations, in particular with respect to biodiversity loss, despite many of the plantations having areas of high conservation value (HCV). HCVs are known to possess and attract wild species such as elephants, orangutans, and other primates, meaning that ecologically, HCV represents a significant added value of the oil palm plantations. This conceptual paper aims to contribute to this debate by envisioning feasible futures of biodiversity tourism for oil palm village revitalization by utilizing the biodiversity richness of HCVs. This study includes a conceptual model of biodiversity tourism for oil palm village revitalization that was developed using a causal loop diagram approach. The causal loop diagram depicts an overall understanding and describes the village system’s complexity. Positive and negative loops that form the reinforcement and balance circles represent the connection between the input and output variables. A systematic literature review and interviews with pilot village stakeholders were used to collect data. The potential of such a vision is discussed before finally concluding with an insight into the future of biodiversity tourism for oil palm village revitalization. This paper recognizes that biodiversity tourism for oil palm village revitalization can be done sustainably by presenting it as a complex system with its subsystems. It shows that oil palm villages and biodiversity are interdependent and interconnected. Moreover, biodiversity tourism can be recognized as a vehicle to promote the positive impacts of oil palm plantations in enhancing knowledge and awareness of biodiversity conservation beyond existing economic value.