LAS NUEVAS FRONTERAS DEL TURISMO
(d) training and capacity building programs for local leaders, entrepreneurs and community members, (e) extension services, (f) mechanisms to encourage collaboration and communication, (g) environmental and interpretive programs, (h) new resource management technology solutions, and/or (i) marketing and promotional support (Epler Wood; France; Gould; Hall and Lew; Honey,1999, 2002; Jeffreys; Langholz; Lindberg and Hawkins; Long; Machlis and Field; Middleton and Hawkins; Mowforth and Munt; Rundel and Palma; Schaeffer and Loveridge; Sharpley and Telfer; Vanasselt; Wahab and Pigram; Wallace; Wells; Wells and Brandon). These same researchers (Epler Wood; France; Gould; Hall and Lew; Honey,1999, 2002; Jeffreys; Langholz; Lindberg and Hawkins; Long; Machlis and Field; Middleton and Hawkins; Mowforth and Munt; Rundel and Palma; Schaeffer and Loveridge; Sharpley and Telfer; Vanasselt; Wahab and Pigram; Wallace; Wells; Wells and Brandon) reveal a mixture of experimentation, potential, small-scale success and marketing hype, disparate practices, and continuing policy struggles within the case studies they present. When principles of sustainability are not adhered to or become disrupted tourism can become a destructive force, like any other form of development, causing harm to environmental factors, individual and community quality of life, and economic livelihood. Like most means for development, tourism and protected area researchers, policy makers and practitioners, continue to grapple with how to influence public policy and business practices to encourage and maintain sustainability. Destinations continue to face issues of environmental degradation, social marginalization and unequal distribution of costs and benefits from tourism; even those that are developed in alternative ways. The scorecard on the ability of these alternative forms of tourism development to contribute to sustainable development is clearly mixed. An increased understanding of tourism as a livelihood strategy for rural populations could assist planners, protected area managers, and local communities with planning and policy development. By shifting the perspective of sustainability from one which measures the impacts and outcomes of an initiative, to one that measures “impacts on” and “outcomes of” a livelihood, new insights may arise that can guide the feasibility and meaning of future work (Bebbington, 1999a; Bebbington, 1999b). Livelihoods Studies Livelihoods research originates within an Institute of Development Studies (IDS) discussion paper published in 1991, by Chambers and Conway. Chambers and Conway (1991) defined a livelihood as being comprised of the assets, capabilities and activities required for a meaningful method of living. They proposed that in pursuit of their livelihood, people make choices, or strategies, for how to access, use, and transform their assets. If these strategies result in a livelihood that can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks and maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, both now and in the future, while not
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