Ecotourism: the ‘human shield’ for wildlife conservation in the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

Gutierrez, Beatriz Lopez; Zambrano, Angélica M. Almeyda; Mulder, G.; Ols, C.; Dirzo, Rodolfo; Zambrano, Sandra L. Almeyda; Gil, C.; Diaz, Juan Carlos Cruz; Álvarez, Dionisio Rodríguez; León, Valderrama; Villareal, E.; Espinosa, Abraham; Quiros, Angela L.; Stein, Taylor V.; Lewis, Karen D.; Broadbent, Eben N.

doi:10.1080/14724049.2019.1686006

Cited by 25 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…This is reflected in a wealth of ecotourism research that has since emerged, institutional responses such as the UN's declaration of 2002 as the 'International Year of Ecotourism,' and the number of operators that use "ecotourism" as a label to identify themselves within a crowded market. Several recent studies support the notion that ecotourism has the potential to provide its purported benefits, such as encouragement of sustainable behavior (La Manna et al, 2020;Morse et al, 2019), financial contributions to host communities (Hunt et al, 2015;Mendoza-Ramos & Prideaux, 2018), and support for conservation (Boley & Green, 2016;Lopez Gutierrez et al, 2020;Stronza et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

What drives ecotourism: environmental values or symbolic conspicuous consumption?

Beall

Boley

Landon

et al. 2020

Journal of Sustainable Tourism

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Despite an influx of ecotourism research since the term was first coined, it is still not entirely clear why tourists choose ecotourism over other tourism experiences. While most of the previous literature assumes that ecotourism is preferred by travelers for moral reasons, emerging evidence suggests that opportunities to project one's social status are increasingly salient factors in decision-making about travel. This article compares the relative influence of two possible predictors of ecotourism intention: environmental values (measured through the value-beliefnorm theory) and symbolic conspicuous consumption (measured through expected social return). Respondents were drawn from a panel of U.S. tourists who had taken an overnight trip within the last year (n ¼ 786). Results of a structural equation model suggest that both personal norms (b ¼ 0.22, p < 0.001) and social return (b ¼ 0.60, p < 0.001) explain a considerable amount of variance in ecotourism intention (R 2 ¼ 0.44), with social return having the stronger influence. These results suggest that environmental values are not the sole reason for travelers' choice of ecotourism alternatives, and that ego-enforcing motives play an important role. The positive and negative implications of demand for ecotourism extending beyond those with strong environmental values are discussed.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

What drives ecotourism: environmental values or symbolic conspicuous consumption?

Beall

Boley

Landon

et al. 2020

Journal of Sustainable Tourism

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“…Differences in species composition are in part due to large-bodied species being relatively abundant in Corcovado National Park and have dispersed and occupied areas within GDFR like Lapa Rios Ecolodge Natural Reserve [ 31 ]. Fragmented, isolated, and small forest patches, such as Playa Sandalo, cannot sustain populations of large-size vertebrates [ 12 , 53 ] without adequate connectivity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, the proximity and intensity of urban and agricultural development around the Playa Sandalo region increases edge effects, hunting pressures, and conflicts with cattle ranchers which might have potentially led to absence of animals such as felines, deer, tapir, or peccaries within Playa Sandalo [ 53 , 54 , 55 ]. The historical effects of hunting, together with their low fecundity [ 56 ], and diurnal activity patterns [ 31 , 57 ], might be responsible for the absence of sizable rodents and birds at Playa Sandalo. For example, agoutis or great curassows are considered a culinary delicacy across Latin America [ 55 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…hunting, cattle conflict) affected the area, until the 1990s when the Lapa Rios Reserve was established [ 27 ]. Currently, LRENR creates long-term ecological viability for key and endangered species such as jaguars ( Panthera onca ), peccaries ( Tayassu pecari and Pecari tajacu ), and tapirs ( Tapirus bairdii ), once limited to Corcovado National Park and now inhabiting, moving, or dispersing across the Reserve [ 31 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although conservation is a strong trend in the Peninsula, hunting, gold mining, and industrial agriculture, such palm oil, persist in this region [ 29 , 30 ]. Outside of protected areas, information on the status of ground vertebrate species [ 31 ], hunting or human-predator conflict are scarce ( www.inogo.info ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An island of wildlife in a human-dominated landscape: The last fragment of primary forest on the Osa Peninsula’s Golfo Dulce coastline, Costa Rica

Gutierrez¹,

Zambrano²,

Zambrano³

et al. 2019

PLoS ONE

Self Cite

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Habitat loss and fragmentation, together with related edge effects, are the primary cause of global biodiversity decline. Despite a large amount of research quantifying and demonstrating the degree of these effects, particularly in top predators and their prey, most fragmented patches are lost before their conservation value is recognized. This study evaluates terrestrial vertebrates in Playa Sandalo, in the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica, which represents the last patch of “primary” forest in the most developed part of this region. Our study indicates that the diversity of ground species detected within Playa Sandalo rival other areas under active conservation like Lapa Rios Ecolodge. Historical fragmentation, together with the maintenance of forest cover in isolated conditions, are potentially responsible for the species composition observed within Playa Sandalo; facilitating the development of a prey-predator system including ocelots, medium-size mammals, and birds at the top of the trophic chain. The high diversity of both habitat and vertebrates, its prime location and cultural value, as well as its unique marine importance represent the ideal conditions for conservation. Conservation of Playa Sandalo, and other small tropical forest remnants, might represent the only management option for wildlife conservation within ever growing human-dominated landscapes.

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Habituation of wildlife to ecotourism: A COVID‐19 lockdown experiment in Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica

Cruz‐Díaz,

Villalobos,

Montalvo

et al. 2024

Wildlife Letters

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Corcovado National Park (CNP) in Costa Rica is an important destination for ecotourism. However, the effects of increasing human visitation on wildlife needed evaluation and the global COVID‐19 pandemic lockdown provided a scenario to test the effects of tourist activity on wildlife presence and activity. We performed a camera trap survey initiated during the COVID‐19 lockdown and continuing when tourism resumed (Oct 2020–May 2021). We deployed camera traps on walking trails, including those that remained closed to tourists at all times (control) and those open to tourists after the lockdown was lifted (experimental). With an effort of 2312 trap nights, we assessed the photo rates and diel activity patterns of humans, 11 other species of mammals, and two species of birds. Our results suggest that wildlife species were already habituated to tourists in this area, and thus their behavior and activity did not change after the lockdown was lifted.

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Ecotourism: the ‘human shield’ for wildlife conservation in the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

Cited by 25 publications

References 32 publications

What drives ecotourism: environmental values or symbolic conspicuous consumption?

What drives ecotourism: environmental values or symbolic conspicuous consumption?

An island of wildlife in a human-dominated landscape: The last fragment of primary forest on the Osa Peninsula’s Golfo Dulce coastline, Costa Rica

Habituation of wildlife to ecotourism: A COVID‐19 lockdown experiment in Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica

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