Tactical Tourism

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Abstract
This article examines the strategic development of nature-based tourism as a means by which to generate sustainable economies in the rainforests of Ecuador and Belize as an alternative to more socially and ecologically destructive extractive industry and export agri-culture. These efforts to generate economic exchange value from relatively intact ecosystems are the primary strategies of rainforest communities threatened by other schemes for converting “jungle wasteland” into a source of national capital accumulation. The success of rainforest communities’ efforts at preserving their ecosystems while establishing a viable local and regional economy is largely dependent on the relative short-run economic potential of less sustainable alternatives, the relative position of nature tourism in specific national economies, and the capacity of these communities to mobilize the support of politically powerful private capital investors and the state. In delineating the relationship between the transnational economy, the orientation of national states, and the aspirations of local communities, the strategic use of nature tourism development as a bulwark against unsustainable economic alternatives is far more likely to meet with success in Belize than in Ecuador.

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