Paper short abstract:

The diverse values and practices referred to as ecotourism have enjoyed, via association with the term, a kind of benign imaginary. This paper examines these dynamics through an ethnographic focus on domestic 'eco' tourism in the Philippines.

Paper long abstract:

The diverse values and practices which might be referred to as ecotourism have enjoyed, via association with the term, a kind of benign imaginary. The assumption that ecotourism will be beneficial for people and places often conceals the value-laden politics of measuring its impacts and alternatives. This paper uses an ethnographic focus on domestic 'eco' branded tourism in the Philippines to examine how the labelling of products as such acts to obscure, rather than necessarily articulate, the potential values of ecotourism. The supposed, vague good of ecotourism becomes a rich field for anthropologists to understand how value is being reproduced by a range of social actors with both shared and divergent understandings of what it means to live sustainably. Specifically I examine a context on Palawan Island where ecotourism is regularly and powerfully presented as capable of both transforming the livelihoods of those Tagbanua families who reside in this highly valued forest region, and providing broader benefits for the Philippine nation. Ecotourism dynamics are shaped by a fantasy that Tagbanua possess a precolonial, innately Filipino relationship with nature which can be appropriated by middle class Filipinos even as environmental and economic good is generated through their presence as tourists. This fantasy is sustained through a suggestion that Tagbanua require external interventions like ecotourism ventures to provide an alternative to livelihood activities long considered 'primitive' and an environmentally destructive threat to ecotourism.