Paper short abstract:

Using David Harvey’s concept of “accumulation by dispossession” (2003), this paper explores the seemingly paradoxical linkages between the mining industry and ecotourism development projects in the municipalities of Pedernales and La Ciénaga in the southwestern region of the Dominican Republic.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the seemingly paradoxical linkages between the mining industry and ecotourism in the municipalities of Pedernales and La Ciénaga in the Dominican southwest. The ecological diversity and marginalized economic position of these municipalities has made them the target of ecotourism projects combined with the production of "green" commodities for alternative markets in organic and fair trade foods. At the same time, they are sites of continued extraction of bauxite (in Pedernales) and larimar (in La Ciénaga)—a stone found only in this region. Locals express a desire for development strategies that guarantee local community participation. In contrast, the Dominican state and foreign investors are proposing projects that would require the natural landscape be used as a platform for a more traditional form of tourism, such as beachfront lodges. These projects have been stifled by conflicts over land rights and environmental concerns. Using David Harvey's concept of "accumulation by dispossession" (2003), I explore the relationships between natural resource extraction and ecotourism development. Aside from the possible damages to local ecosystems, globalized extractive industries dispossess local populations of access to natural resources without due credit. As envisioned by the state, an intense form of ecotourism uprooted from adjacent communities would dispossess locals of physical and economic access to these areas, and exclude them from direct participation and benefits. Further, I argue that, with regards to their promotion as ecotourist destinations, bauxite and larimar become part of both the "natural" and "cultural" landscapes of these places. The extractive nature of these activities "greenwashed" through their linkage to ecotourism.