The Meaning of the Manatee: An Examination of Community-Based Ecotourism Discourse and Practice in Gales Point, Belize, in PEOPLE, PLANTS, AND JUSTICE: THE POLITICS OF NATURE, 2000

Community-based conservation (CBC) in general, and ecotourism in particular, arose to correct human injustices and social impacts wrought by a p rio r model o f protected area management that subordinated resident peoples' welfare and rights, and local econom ic development, to envirorunental preservation (West and Brechin 1991). Proponents o f community-based ecotourism defend i t as a loca lly beneficial w ay to use ru ra l landscapes and cultures, especially relative to tim ber o r mineral extraction, that contributes to both local economic development and the conserva­ tio n o f threatened habitats and species (Boo l99Ch Whelen 1991; Lindberg and Hawkins 1993; H orw ich et al. 1993; Western and W righ t 1994), However, despite good intentions and high hopes, community-based ecotourism is not necessarily benign, nor is i t always benevolent. In the case o f the Gales Point Manatee C om m unity Conservation project in central Belize, cottununity-based eco­ tourism is an invention o f and intervention by conservationists and the ir allies in government m inistries and nongovernmental agencies, and rural elites. Rather than resolving contradictions between environmental protection and use, com m unitybased ecotourism has reinforced h istoric p o litica l struggles w ith in the community and w ith im peria l national and g loba l forces, and i t has intensified human injustice in the process. I o ffe r the case o f Gales Point as a cultural and po litica l critique o f community-based ecotourism, and as an example o f the need fo r greater attention to po litica l struggles and outcomes.