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University of Southampton Research Repository ePrints Soton Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF SOCIAL AND HUMAN SCIENCES Geography and Environment An Evaluation of Participatory Ecotourism Planning Approaches in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq by Sarook Sarky Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April_2016 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF SOCIAL AND HUMAN SCIENCES Geography and Environment Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy AN EVALUATION OF PARTICIPATORY ECOTOURISM PLANNING APPROACHES IN THE KURDISTAN REGION OF IRAQ Sarook Sarky This thesis aimed to evaluate stakeholder attitudes towards, and tools for, participatory planning in the ecotourism sector in Kurdistan. Ecotourism has been adopted widely to promote conservation and community development. Ecotourism has the potential to support post-conflict recovery as it requires multi-stakeholder involvement, and has the capacity to unite different community sectors and the government. Ecotourism development may, however, encounter a range of challenges in post-conflict areas and areas lacking democratic governance, an area which has been relatively under-researched (Nianyong and Zhuge, 2001; Fletcher, 2009; Altinay et al., 2007). Research is needed to underpin ecotourism development, especially in places where it is newly introduced. By evaluating participatory approaches to ecotourism development in Kurdistan, this study addressed the following research gaps: limited understanding of the needs of local communities in participatory planning; barriers and enablers to participatory planning and the potential of ecotourism in such post-conflict settings. In addition, the literature cites use of GIS-based Multiple Criteria Evaluation (MCE) for site selection, but generally with limited stakeholder consultation and a lack of critical appraisal of stakeholder input. Thirty-eight participants from different stakeholder groups, including civil society, private bodies, government agencies and academia, were consulted to gain an understanding of their perspectives on ecotourism development and potential ecotourism sites. The initial consultation used a participatory workshop adapted from the Ketso toolkit, followed by complementary semi- structured interviews with additional stakeholders selected via chain-referral sampling. After two years, the same stakeholders were consulted again about their preferences for potential ecotourism sites and the sites’ suitability using a new, iterative GIS-based MCE approach. Local community attitudes and intentions towards conservation and a proposed ecotourism project were examined using questionnaire-based interviews with 70 respondents and RRA, adapted from a conceptual framework developed by Lai and Nepal (2006) in Taiwan. The workshop and survey suggested stakeholders lacked interest in participatory planning, and held ambiguous attitudes towards ecotourism development, particularly local community members, who were marginalised by other stakeholders. Several approaches could move Kurdish ecotourism forward. NGO participation should be encouraged, as NGOs are likely to be more trusted than government. Greater environmental education and awareness among stakeholders is essential to strengthen decision-making. Critically, local communities need to be empowered and engaged. Insight into the degree of consensus among different stakeholders was gained using a novel MCE and GIS approach, which developed suitability scores for proposed destinations based on stakeholder assessment of site criteria, followed by a comparison of suitability scores for destinations proposed by stakeholders versus ‘control’ locations chosen without reference to stakeholders. 78 destinations nominated by participants had significantly higher MCE scores than ‘control’ locations (58), suggesting consistency in stakeholder input. The application of existing techniques (questionnaires and a Ketso-derived stakeholder workshop) in a post-conflict setting forms part of the methodological contribution. The principal methodological contribution was to devise a GIS-based technique for assessing consistency in stakeholder input to participatory suitability mapping. The technique has potential application in ecotourism as well as other forms of participatory suitability mapping, and could be transferable to settings outside of Kurdistan. Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ iii List of Tables .................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures ................................................................................................................... xi DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP......................................................................................xv Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... xvii Definitions and Abbreviations ....................................................................................... xix Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................... 1 1.1 Researcher Positionality .............................................................................................1 1.1.1 Researcher Background ...............................................................................1 1.1.2 Researcher Bias .............................................................................................2 1.1.3 Research Expectations .................................................................................3 1.2 Aim and Objectives of the Research .........................................................................3 1.3 Justification for Choice of Case Study Area and the Study Objectives .................3 1.4 The Evolving Political Situation in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region ........................6 1.5 Thesis outline ................................................................................................................7 Chapter 2: Literature Review ................................................................................. 9 2.1 Tourism ..........................................................................................................................9 2.2 Ecotourism ................................................................................................................. 12 2.2.1 History of Ecotourism ............................................................................... 12 2.2.2 Ecotourism Definition and Principles...................................................... 12 2.2.3 Ecotourism Development and Growth ................................................... 15 2.2.4 Problems Associated with Ecotourism ................................................... 16 2.2.5 Ecotourism and Conservation .................................................................. 18 2.3 Participatory Planning .............................................................................................. 19 2.3.1 Participatory Planning for Ecotourism Development ........................... 19 2.3.2 Participatory Planning in Post-Conflict and Politically Unstable Settings ...................................................................................................................... 25 2.4 Tourism Planning in Post-conflict Areas – Case Studies ...................................... 28 2.5 Summary .................................................................................................................... 29 iii Chapter 3: Overview of Methodologies for Evaluating Potential Ecotourism Development ..................................................................................................33 3.1 Overall approach and positionality ......................................................................... 33 3.1.1 Social Surveys in Conservation and Ecotourism .................................... 34 3.1.2 Potential Ecotourism Survey in Kurdistan .............................................. 35 3.2 Terminology for Thesis ............................................................................................. 36 3.3 Relationship between analysis chapters and research objectives ..................... 38 3.4 Justification of Methodology ................................................................................... 39 3.4.1 Justification of Approach to Initial Stakeholder Consultation ............. 42 3.4.2 Justification of Approach to Local Community Consultation ............... 45 3.4.3 Justification of Approach to Ecotourism Site Selection .......................