Inside the commons of ecotourism development in Ethiopia: Strategic communal empowerment or marginalization? Evidence from Wenchi community based ecotourism

Abstract

This paper examines the quest of empowerment and disempowerment, the way community based ecotourism created the marginalized community throughout its development phase in Ethiopia with evidence from Wenchi Ecotourism development. Descriptive research design was employed where as random sampling and purposive sampling techniques were used to determine the sample size. The sample representative for the study was 221 samples (196 for local community, 12 guides, 3 experts and 10 community representatives). Interview, focused group discussion, questionnaire and participant observation were used as a data collection instruments. In order to collect the data, community, government officials, and community representatives were a source of data where the sample size was determined by simple random sampling for local community and purposive sampling for the rest. Despite its significant contribution to livelihood augmentation, the finding indicated that Wenchi community based ecotourism created a two group of community: the empowered and the marginalized on the commonly owned resources. Even though the lake is a common pool resource, those members of the community who are beneficiary from ecotourism were the key player and powerful in decision making concerning the lake and its surroundings. Besides, out of 400 households around the lake, only 334 households were incorporated to the ecotourism association which was the reason for the formation for empowerment or disempowerment and resulted in formation of minority on commonly owned resources. Moreover, social network, norms and social trust that facilitates coordination and mutual benefits for environmental conservation and protection is being eroded.

Review on ecotourism potentials, challenges and opportunities in Ethiopia

“…Fast growing construction, weak formal institution, weak environmental protection law, socio-economic, cultural, legal and environmental and institutional problems are constraints for community based development in Ethiopia (Tesfaye, 2017a;Bantider et al, 2023). Teressa (2015) study revealed that there is lack of social network, norms and social trust in the Wenchi community based ecotourism. Instability, terrorism in the Horn Africa, drought and famine incompatibility of interest among stakeholders, challenges related to cultural sustainability, lack of security and safety were the main challenges for community based ecotourism development (Asmare, 2016;Abdel-Latif and Mokkadem, 2016;Shaw, 2016;Gottert, 2016;Wondirad et al, 2020).…”

Review on the Impacts of Community-Based Ecotourism on Household Financial Asset Improvement and Its Determinants in Ethiopia

“…In Ethiopia, tourism has a vital role to play in the development of the nation and continues to grow continuously in recent years [19]. In 2017, tourism's contribution to GDP represents 6.8% of total GDP, 6.1% of total employment, and 2.4% of total investment, respectively [8].…”

“…In 2017, tourism's contribution to GDP represents 6.8% of total GDP, 6.1% of total employment, and 2.4% of total investment, respectively [8]. Tourism is therefore becoming one of the major economic activities in Ethiopia [19].…”

“…For that matter, there are few studies conducted in Ethiopia on CBET such as the work of [18] in Meket CBET who conducted his study on identifying the practices, challenges, and opportunities of CBET development focused on investigating the major challenges and shortcomings faced in developing CBET. Ketema [19] conducted his study on the livelihood strategies adopted by local people and ecotourism contribution. Similarly, Gebeyaw [18] also conducted his study about the potential, challenges of CBET development, and its prospects mainly focused on analyzing the local community and tourists' perception towards ecotourism.…”