The role of land tenure in livelihood transitions from fishing to tourism
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RESEARCH
The role of land tenure in livelihood transitions from fishing to tourism Michael Fabinyi 1 Received: 9 March 2019 / Accepted: 13 August 2019 # The Author(s) 2019
Abstract Coastal tourism has been supported by the growth of middle-class tourist markets, promoted by governments who view it as an important avenue for economic growth and backed by environmental organisations who regard it as an alternative, more environmentally sustainable livelihood than capture fisheries. How policymakers and households in coastal areas negotiate the challenges and opportunities associated with growing tourism and declining capture fisheries is increasingly important. Drawing on extended ethnographic fieldwork from the Philippines between 2006 and 2018, this paper examines the transition from fishing to tourism and the consequences for one coastal community. I focus on land tenure as a key variable that shapes the effects and opportunities associated with livelihood transitions from fishing to tourism. While tourism has not been inherently positive or negative, the ability of local households to negotiate the boom and obtain the full benefits out of it is questionable. Many fishers have switched their primary livelihood activity to tourism, including the construction of tourist boats, working as tour guides or providing accommodation. However, the growth of tourism has prompted several attempts to evict the community, including from local elites who aimed to develop resorts on the coast and a recent push by the national administration to ‘clean up’ tourist sites around the country. I argue that land tenure in coastal communities should be more of a focus for researchers working in small-scale fisheries, as well as for researchers working on land rights. Keywords Tourism . Fisheries . Livelihoods . Transition . Philippines . Land tenure
Introduction Tourism is growing globally (UNWTO 2019), including in coastal communities once dominated by fishing livelihoods (Cheong 2005; Fabinyi 2010; Papageorgiou 2016; Su et al. 2016). Coastal tourism has been supported by the growth of middle-class tourism markets, promoted by governments who regard it as an important avenue for economic growth and backed by environmental organisations who regard it as an alternative, more environmentally sustainable livelihood than fishing (UNWTO 2019; White and Rosales 2003). Coastal tourism forms a key component of many incarnations of the ‘blue economy’, which aims to link economic growth to environmental conservation (Dwyer 2018; European Commission 2014; Silver et al. 2015; Voyer et al. 2018). In
* Michael Fabinyi [email protected] 1
University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, New South Wales 2007, Australia
contrast, fishing livelihoods are less popular. In many cases they have been declining due to a combination of widespread overfishing and environmental degradation that has reduced the profitability and sustainability of fisheries livelihoods, as well as intensified forms of fisheries governance that have reduced fishing effort and
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