Rosaleen Duffy

The Ethics of Tourism Development

Introduction 1. Ethical Values 2. The Virtues of Travel and the Virtuous Traveller 3. The Greatest Happiness is to Travel? 4. Rights, Codes of Practice, and Social Justice 5. From Social Justice to an Ethics of Care 6. Authenticity and the Ethics of Tourism 7. Ethics and Sustainable Tourism

Governing climate change transnationally: Assessing the evidence from a database of sixty initiatives

With this paper we present an analysis of sixty transnational governance initiatives and assess the implications for our understanding of the roles of public and private actors, the legitimacy of governance ‘beyond’ the state, and the North–South dimensions of governing climate change. In the first part of the paper we examine the notion of transnational governance and its applicability in the climate change arena, reflecting on the history and emergence of transnational governance initiatives in this issue area and key areas of debate. In the second part of the paper we present the findings from the database and its analysis. Focusing on three core issues, the roles of public and private actors in governing transnationally, the functions that such initiatives perform, and the ways in which accountability for governing global environmental issues might be achieved, we suggest that significant distinctions are emerging in the universe of transnational climate governance which may have considerable implications for the governing of global environmental issues. In conclusion, we reflect on these findings and the subsequent consequences for the governance of climate change.

Non-governmental organisations and governance states: The impact of transnational environmental management networks in Madagascar

Abstract This article examines the concept of governance states in relation to environmental politics in Madagascar. Governance states can be regarded as a new development in North–South relations. The concept denotes a move towards the politics of post-conditionality, where states are defined as ‘stakeholders’ and drawn into ‘partnerships’ with global public–private networks. This article uses Madagascar as a case study through which to examine the politics of post-conditionality. In particular, it examines the politics of environmental governance through complex networks of actors, especially international environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the World Bank. It focuses on how such transnational networks deeply affect conservation policy-making within Madagascar in particular, and the developing world more generally. It examines the complex and increasingly close relationships between states in the developing world, global environmental NGOs and the World Bank. It argues that such relationships are at once reflective of and constitutive of emerging forms of global environmental governance, namely the production of governance states.

Waging a war to save biodiversity: : the rise of militarized conservation

This article examines the rise in militarized approaches towards conservation, as part of a new ‘war for biodiversity’. This is a defining moment in the international politics of conservation and needs further examination. The claims that rhinos and elephants are under threat from highly organized criminal gangs of poachers shapes and determines conservation practice on the ground. Indeed, a central focus of the 2014 London Declaration on the Illegal Wildlife Trade is the strengthening of law enforcement, and recent policy statements by the US government and the Clinton Global Initiative also draw the link between poaching, global security and the need for greater levels of enforcement. Such statements and initiatives contribute substantially to the growing sense of a war for biodiversity. This article offers a critique of that argument, essentially by asking how we define poachers, and if militarized approaches mean conservationists are becoming more willing to engage in coercive, repressive policies that are ultimately counterproductive. Further, this article examines how the new war for biodiversity is justified and promoted by referring to wider debates about intervention in a post-Cold War era; notably that the international community has a responsibility towards wildlife, especially endangered species, and that military forms of intervention may be required to save them.

Shadow players: ecotourism development, corruption and state politics in Belize

This article examines the way that developing societies have been increasingly incorporated into global networks, and the effect that this has had on the states themselves. The notion of a shadow state is used here to inform the ways that the state has been modified by the global networks represented by ecotourism development on the one hand and drug trafficking (and associated offshore banking sectors) on the other. Belize provides an excellent example of the way that these North-South linkages, in the form of global networks, undermine the ability of states to enforce regulations in offshore banking, drug trafficking and environmental protection that are demanded of the South by the North.

The Environmental Challenge to the Nation-State: Superparks and National Parks Policy in Zimbabwe

The transnational nature of environmental problems has highlighted the need for cooperation between nation‐states. In southern Africa the field of wildlife conservation has already witnessed a growth in multinational conservation schemes. The Trans Border Conservation Area or ‘superpark’ which incorporates parts of Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa is a good example. While the ecological and economic basis of the superpark has been agreed, political factors have slowed its implementation. This article explores the political context of the superpark proposal within Zimbabwe, and analyses why the Zimbabwean state has proved to be less enthusiastic than its partners. In particular, it examines the internal disagreements in the ruling party and in the Parks Department which have proved to be significant stumbling blocks for wildlife conservation. The troubled history of the area covered by the superpark is investigated, including the impact of military forces from the three partner states and poaching ope...

Global Environmental Governance and the Politics of Ecotourism in Madagascar

This paper examines the politics of ecotourism, through an examination of how it intersects with broader shifts in the global system. In particular, it argues that the changes brought about by the end of the Cold War led to increasing forms of governance through public–private networks of actors that range from states to NGOs to private companies. This article focuses on the development of ecotourism policy in Madagascar as an example of how ecotourism is integrated into global politics through rising forms of what is often called ‘global governance’. It specifically investigates the politics of ecotourism as ideologically informed by neoliberal definitions of development which underpin global governance, and through an analysis of the interplay between different interest groups involved in it. It examines the operation of the Donor Consortium and its relationship to global environmental NGOs, in order to understand why ecotourism is promoted by organisations as diverse as the World Bank and environmental NGOs.

Peace Parks: The Paradox of Globalisation?

Concern for environmental protection within an increasingly ‘globalised’ international system has led in many parts of the world to plans for transfrontier conservation areas, commonly known as ‘Peace Parks’. These offer the prospect of providing integrated management for bioregions that have been divided by state frontiers, and reopening animal migration routes. They also promise increased tourist revenues since visitors, too, would be free to benefit from the enhanced transnational space that the parks provide. This paper examines plans for such parks in two regions, Southern Africa and Central America. In practice, these plans have been undermined by the existing uses of transnational space for informal (and often criminal) transfers that themselves benefit from the permeability of frontiers in areas that are weakly controlled by state authorities; these include smuggling, poaching, illegal immigration and the trade in narcotics. Such activities, which likewise derive from ‘globalisation’, generate powerful political interests, both among local communities and more widely. Paradoxically, the creation of Peace Parks requires more, and not less, state control of frontier zones, and raises significant issues for the management or control of globalising forces in weakly administered regions of the developing world.

Nature-based tourism and neoliberalism: concealing contradictions.

Tourism, including nature-based tourism, simultaneously produces and conceals the contradictions of capitalism. This is because it relies on creating attractions, or new sources of accumulation from the very crises it produces. Nature-based tourism is promoted as a ‘win-win’ that can resolve the contradiction between continual economic growth and finite natural resources. This is made possible via a process of neoliberalising nature, which cuts the threads that bind ecosystems together, so that the constituent parts can be transformed into new commodities. To draw out these broad arguments, this paper firstly examines the claims around tourism as ‘green economy’ – which proponents claim can produce environmentally sustainable economic growth – a benefit also associated with nature-based tourism. I also show that this can be regarded as simply the latest version of an existing debate rather than offering a new interpretation. This is explored further via a comparative analysis of how tourism neoliberalises nature at the scales of the individual animal (elephant trekking in Thailand) and the landscape (by global networks of NGOs operating in Madagascar). In the case of neoliberalisation of nature at the individual animal scale, the notion of bodily fix is also important. It is not just the elephants that are primed for commodity capture, it is the emotional experience of close interactions with elephants which is commodified. Such changes reshape societal relations with nature, but in uneven and incomplete ways. This is underlined by a discussion of the case of the Durban Vision Initiative in Madagascar – which reveals how neoliberalisation was incomplete as a result of its encounter with local level materialities.

The militarization of anti-poaching: undermining long term goals?

Conservation is at a critical juncture because of the increase in poaching which threatens key species. Poaching is a major public concern, as indicated by the rises in rhino and elephant poaching, the United for Wildlife Initiative and the London Declaration, signed by 46 countries in February 2014. This is accompanied by an increasing calls for a more forceful response, especially to tackle the involvement of organized crime in wildlife trafficking. However, there is a risk that this will be counter-productive. Further, such calls are based on a series of assumptions which are worthy of greater scrutiny. First, calls for militarization are based on the idea that poverty drives poaching. Yet, poaching and trafficking are changing because of the shifting dynamics of poverty in supply countries, coupled with changing patterns of wealth in consumer markets. Second, the ways increases in poaching are being linked to global security threats, notably from Al Shabaab are poorly evidenced and yet circulate in powerful policy circles. There is a risk that militarization will place more heavily armed rangers in the centre of some of the most complex regional conflicts in the world (such as the Horn of Africa and Central Africa/Sahel region).