IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v8y2018i3p59-d160149.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards a Decommodified Wildlife Tourism: Why Market Environmentalism Is Not Enough for Conservation

Author

Listed:
  • Teo Xin Yi Belicia

    (Division of Sociology, Nanyang Technological University Singapore, 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637332, Singapore)

  • Md Saidul Islam

    (Division of Sociology, Nanyang Technological University Singapore, 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637332, Singapore)

Abstract

Wildlife tourism is frequently touted as a solution to the problems of increased poaching, habitat destruction, and species extinction. When wildlife is able to pay for its right to survive through attracting tourists, there is an incentive to conserve wildlife populations and the habitats that support them. However, numerous reports in recent years have drawn attention to the potential negative impacts of wildlife tourism attractions. This paper examines whether market environmentalism diminishes the potential of wildlife tourism to contribute to conservation and the welfare of individual animals. Market environmentalism commodifies the animals involved in wildlife tourism attractions and fuels an anthropocentric worldview where animals are resources to be used by humans for entertainment or economic gain, potentially presenting a threat to long-term conservation. Instead, we call for a decommodified experience of wildlife tourism based on more than just economic value.

Suggested Citation

  • Teo Xin Yi Belicia & Md Saidul Islam, 2018. "Towards a Decommodified Wildlife Tourism: Why Market Environmentalism Is Not Enough for Conservation," Societies, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:8:y:2018:i:3:p:59-:d:160149
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/3/59/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/3/59/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ballantyne, Roy & Packer, Jan & Sutherland, Lucy A., 2011. "Visitors’ memories of wildlife tourism: Implications for the design of powerful interpretive experiences," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 770-779.
    2. Wearing, Stephen & McGehee, Nancy Gard, 2013. "Volunteer tourism: A review," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 120-130.
    3. Ralf C Buckley & J Guy Castley & Fernanda de Vasconcellos Pegas & Alexa C Mossaz & Rochelle Steven, 2012. "A Population Accounting Approach to Assess Tourism Contributions to Conservation of IUCN-Redlisted Mammal Species," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(9), pages 1-8, September.
    4. Douglas J. McCauley, 2006. "Selling out on nature," Nature, Nature, vol. 443(7107), pages 27-28, September.
    5. Ros Clubb & Georgia Mason, 2003. "Captivity effects on wide-ranging carnivores," Nature, Nature, vol. 425(6957), pages 473-474, October.
    6. Rosaleen Duffy, 2013. "The international political economy of tourism and the neoliberalisation of nature: Challenges posed by selling close interactions with animals," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 605-626, June.
    7. Roberto Bermejo, 2014. "Handbook for a Sustainable Economy," Springer Books, Springer, edition 127, number 978-94-017-8981-3, September.
    8. John B. Davis & Wilfred Dolfsma (ed.), 2008. "The Elgar Companion to Social Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3765.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthias Winfried Kleespies & Paul Wilhelm Dierkes, 2020. "Impact of biological education and gender on students’ connection to nature and relational values," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-18, November.
    2. McGrath, F.L. & Carrasco, L.R. & Leimona, B., 2017. "How auctions to allocate payments for ecosystem services contracts impact social equity," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 44-55.
    3. BĂLĂŞESCU, Florin Răzvan, 2015. "Circular Economy - A Possibility For A Sustainable Economic Development," Journal of Financial and Monetary Economics, Centre of Financial and Monetary Research "Victor Slavescu", vol. 2(1), pages 241-247.
    4. Saner, Marc A. & Bordt, Michael, 2016. "Building the consensus: The moral space of earth measurement," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 74-81.
    5. Rode, Julian & Le Menestrel, Marc & Cornelissen, Gert, 2017. "Ecosystem Service Arguments Enhance Public Support for Environmental Protection - But Beware of the Numbers!," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 213-221.
    6. Wenxi (Bella) Bai & Ivan Ka Wai Lai & Jose Weng Chou Wong, 2023. "Memorable Tourism Experience Research: A Systematic Citation Review (2009–2021)," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    7. Agapito, Dora, 2020. "The senses in tourism design: A bibliometric review," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    8. Janet Loebach & Adina Cox, 2020. "Tool for Observing Play Outdoors (TOPO): A New Typology for Capturing Children’s Play Behaviors in Outdoor Environments," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-34, August.
    9. Paul E. Rose & James E. Brereton & Lewis J. Rowden & Ricardo Lemos Figueiredo & Lisa M. Riley, 2019. "What’s new from the zoo? An analysis of ten years of zoo-themed research output," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-10, December.
    10. José Abreu & Marisa R. Ferreira & Beatriz Casais, 2021. "Empowering the Community or Escape Daily Routine—A Voluntourism Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-14, October.
    11. Marcin Pigłowski, 2021. "The Intra-European Union Food Trade with the Relation to the Notifications in the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-19, February.
    12. van Bavel, Bas, 2016. "The Invisible Hand?: How Market Economies have Emerged and Declined Since AD 500," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199608133.
    13. Pistorius, Till & Schaich, Harald & Winkel, Georg & Plieninger, Tobias & Bieling, Claudia & Konold, Werner & Volz, Karl-Reinhard, 2012. "Lessons for REDDplus: A comparative analysis of the German discourse on forest functions and the global ecosystem services debate," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 4-12.
    14. Matzek, Virginia & Wilson, Kerrie A. & Kragt, Marit, 2019. "Mainstreaming of ecosystem services as a rationale for ecological restoration in Australia," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 79-86.
    15. Florian V Eppink & Matthew Winden & Will C C Wright & Suzie Greenhalgh, 2016. "Non-Market Values in a Cost-Benefit World: Evidence from a Choice Experiment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-12, October.
    16. Alec Foster, 2021. "Volunteer Urban Environmental Stewardship, Emotional Economies of Care, and Productive Power in Philadelphia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-13, July.
    17. Palola, Pirta & Bailey, Richard & Wedding, Lisa, 2022. "A novel framework to operationalise value-pluralism in environmental valuation: Environmental value functions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    18. Wilfred Dolfsma & Gerben Velde, 2014. "Industry innovativeness, firm size, and entrepreneurship: Schumpeter Mark III?," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 713-736, September.
    19. Heagney, E.C. & Rose, J.M. & Ardeshiri, A. & Kovac, M., 2019. "The economic value of tourism and recreation across a large protected area network," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    20. Christopher Changwe Nshimbi, 2015. "Networks of Cross-border Non-State Actors: The Role of Social Capital in Regional Integration," Journal of Borderlands Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 537-560, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:8:y:2018:i:3:p:59-:d:160149. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.