An Environmental Justice Framework for Indigenous Tourism
Journal of Environmental Philosophy, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 75-92, 2010
18 Pages Posted: 11 Mar 2011 Last revised: 8 Aug 2013
Date Written: 2010
Abstract
Environmental tourism is a growing practice in indigenous communities worldwide. As members of indigenous communities, what environmental justice framework should we use to evaluate these practices? I argue that, while some of the most relevant and commonly discussed norms are fair compensation and participative justice, we should also follow Robert Figueroa’s claim that “recognition justice” is relevant for environmental justice. I claim that from Figueroa’s analysis there is a “norm of direct participation,” which requires all environmental tourism practices to feature a forum for meaningful representation and consideration. This claim motivates a distinction between practices that should be termed “mutually advantageous exploitation” and those that should be termed “environmental coalition development.” We need to ask ourselves whether we should continue to tolerate mutually advantageous exploitation and how we can increase the number of practices that develop coalitions.
Keywords: Environmental Justice, Indigenous Tourism, Recognition Justice, Reality Tourism, Justice Tourism, Direct Participation
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