Linking National Parks with its gateway communities for tourism development in Central America: Nindiri, Nicaragua. Bagazit, Costa Rica and Portobelo, Panama

Juan

Description

Resumen
Los parques nacionales y las áreas protegidas se han convertido en una de las formas de uso de la tierra más importantes en la America Central en anos recientes. Si las proyecciones de crecimiento del turismo de la Organización Mundial de Turismo son correctas, para el ano 2010, la America Central estaria recibiendo entre 8 y 10 millones de turistas, numero que representa el doble de lo que la region recibe en la actualidad. El estudio que se reporta en este trabajo consistio de 390 encuestas en tres comunidades aledanas a tres importante parques nacionales de la region. Bagazit, aledaña al Parque Nacional Palo Verde en Costa Rica, Portobelo comunidad aledaña al Parque Nacional Portobelo en Panamá y Nindiri comunidad aledaña al Parque Nacional Volcán Masaya en Nicaragua. El estudio encontró que no había diferencias significativas al nivel de 95% entre las variables socio-demográficas: edad, sexo, educación, e ingreso mensual entre las tres comunidades. El nivel educativo del entrevistado fue identificado como las variables que al parecer mas afectaba, la opinión sobre el estado de las relaciones al tercer presente en dos de los tres modelos estandarizados estimados. Las variables que median, si el trabajo desempeñado por el entrevistado estaba relacionado o no con el turismo y si en la comunidad había suficientes negocios o no que podían servir a los turistas parecen ser elemento claves, en la determinación del nivel de percepción sobre el estado de las relaciones. El turismo y las actividades económicas relacionadas a esta actividad será en el futuro inmediato elementos esenciales en el desarrollo de las relaciones comunidades / parque en la región, en la medida que la actividad se convierta en elemento clave del desarrollo económico de la América Central.
Abstract
Protected areas and national parks are becoming one of the most important forms of land use in Central America. All the projections made by the World Tourism Organization seems to agree that by 2010 Central America, maybe receiving between eight and ten millions tourists, a figure that is almost twice what the region is receiving today. A study was conducted base on 369 direct field surveys conducted in three Central American communities: Bagazit gateway community to Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica, Nindiri, gateway community to Volcan Masaya National Park, Nicaragua and Portobelo, gateway community to Portobelo National Park, Panama. The study found that relative to the socio-demographic variables, that there were no significance differences at the 95% probability level in all four variables, age, sex, education and monthly income of the family. Educational level seems to be the socio-demographic variables affecting more the state of relations. The perception variable being has taken into account in the decision that affects the communities and responsibility to help with community problems are present in two of the three models. The perception variables related to tourism, feel trained to take care of the tourist and existence of businesses that can caters to tourist seem to be key elements in the community perception about the state of relation. Tourism related economic activities and community participation in park decisions are today and will be in the future essential elements in the shaping of community/park relations in Central America as tourism becomes a major economic sector in the region economy.

Sujets

• National park
• Participation
• Tourism
• Costa Rica
• Panamá
• Nicaragua
• Central America
• Parque nacional
• Comunidades
• Participación
• Turismo
• América Central

Informations

• Publié par: erevistas
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 12
• Langue: English

Extrait

Vol. 4 Nº 3 págs. 351-371. 2006

www.pasosonline.org


Linking National Parks with its gateway communities for tourism
development in Central America: Nindiri, Nicaragua, Bagazit, Costa
Rica and Portobelo, Panama

†
Juan Antonio Aguirre G.
Center for Sustainable Development (Costa Rica)


Abstract: Protected areas and national parks are becoming one of the most important forms of land use in
Central America. All the projections made by the World Tourism Organization seems to agree that by 2010
Central America, maybe receiving between eight and ten millions tourists, a figure that is almost twice what
the region is receiving today. A study was conducted base on 369 direct field surveys conducted in three
Central American communities: Bagazit gateway community to Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica, Nindiri,
gateway community to Volcan Masaya National Park, Nicaragua and Portobelo, gateway community to
Portobelo National Park, Panama. The study found that relative to the socio-demographic variables, that there
were no significance differences at the 95% probability level in all four variables, age, sex, education and
monthly income of the family. Educational level seems to be the socio-demographic variables affecting more
the state of relations. The perception variable being has taken into account in the decision that affects the
communities and responsibility to help with community problems are present in two of the three models. The
perception variables related to tourism, feel trained to take care of the tourist and existence of businesses that
can caters to tourist seem to be key elements in the community perception about the state of relation. Tourism
related economic activities and community participation in park decisions are today and will be in the future
essential elements in the shaping of community/park relations in Central America as tourism becomes a major
economic sector in the region economy.
Keywords: National Parks; Communities; Participation; Tourism; Costa Rica; Panama; Nicaragua; Central
America.


Resumen: Los parques nacionales y las áreas protegidas se han convertido en una de las formas de uso de la
tierra más importantes en la America Central en anos recientes. Si las proyecciones de crecimiento del turismo
de la Organización Mundial de Turismo son correctas, para el ano 2010, la America Central estaria recibiendo
entre 8 y 10 millones de turistas, numero que representa el doble de lo que la region recibe en la actualidad. El
estudio que se reporta en este trabajo consistio de 390 encuestas en tres comunidades aledanas a tres
importante parques nacionales de la region. Bagazit, aledaña al Parque Nacional Palo Verde en Costa Rica, Portobelo
comunidad aledaña al Parque Nacional Portobelo en Panamá y Nindiri comunidad aledaña al Parque Nacional
Volcán Masaya en Nicaragua. El estudio encontró que no había diferencias significativas al nivel de 95%
entre las variables socio-demográficas: edad, sexo, educación, e ingreso mensual entre las tres comunidades.
El nivel educativo del entrevistado fue identificado como las variables que al parecer mas afectaba, la opinión
sobre el estado de las relaciones al tercer presente en dos de los tres modelos estandarizados estimados. Las
variables que median, si el trabajo desempeñado por el entrevistado estaba relacionado o no con el turismo y si
en la comunidad había suficientes negocios o no que podían servir a los turistas parecen ser elemento claves,
en la determinación del nivel de percepción sobre el estado de las relaciones. El turismo y las actividades
económicas relacionadas a esta actividad será en el futuro inmediato elementos esenciales en el desarrollo de
las relaciones comunidades / parque en la región, en la medida que la actividad se convierta en elemento clave
del desarrollo económico de la América Central.
Palabras clave: Parques Nacionales; Comunidades; Participación; Turismo; Costa Rica; Panamá; Nicaragua;
América Central.



† • Juan Antonio Aguirre G. Ph.D. Environmental Economics Professor. The School for Field Studies, Center for
Sustainable Development. Atenas, Costa Rica. E-mail: [e-mail]
© PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. ISSN 1695-7121 352 Linking National Parks with its Gateway Communities for Tourism Development ...

Introduction development of sustainable ecotourism in
the region.
Protected areas and national parks are The purpose of this paper is to compare
becoming one of the most important forms the state of relations among three national
of land use forms in Central America, as parks and its gateway communities in
Pacan be observed in table 0. This is without
nama, Nicaragua and Costa Rica and
idenquestion the result of what is normally
tify the issues and variables affecting, the accepted a combination of three forces.
condition of the relations, with the idea of One, the international pressures for more
providing protected areas administrators space covered by forest to better preserve
and policy makers with technical informa-the environment. Second, the agricultural
crisis of the region major exports crops. tion that maybe useful in the design of
Three, the growing interest particularly in strategies to maintain the best relations
the United States for destinations that are possible, between protected areas and the
near "home" and risk reduce, in comparison people surrounding the parks, a condition
with others part of the world. All the pro- necessary for sustainable management of
jections made by the World Tourism
Orecotourism in Central America.
ganization seems to agree that by 2010
Central America, maybe receiving between
eight and ten millions tourists, a figure
TPA TANP
Total Total Area
Protected National Country TA % %
Areas Parks Total Area TPA/TA TANP/TA
Costa Rica 50900 22514 4631 44 9
BBeelliizzee 2222996655 77997777 11111199 35 5
Guatemala 108889 17817 7684 16 7
Honduras 112088 24888 5948 22
Nicaragua 139000 26594 253 19 0
Panama 75517 30046 13596 40 18
Total 509359 129838 33233 25 7
Table 0. Protected Areas and National Parks Surface in Central America.Source: : IUCN N
that is almost twice what the region is re- Objectives of the Study.
ceiving today.
An additional element that brings, pro- The objectives of the study were:
tected areas to the forefront of world biodi- • To determine the socio-demographic and
versity conservation is the Mesoamerican perception variables that may be
affectBiological Corridor, a corridor of protected ing the state of the relations between
areas that will connects all the protected the national parks and the communities,
areas of the region, to guarantee the elimi- • To identify possible differences among
nation of many of the "biological" island the three countries and how those
difthat irresponsible human behavior have ferences maybe affecting the way the
created over the past 50 years. If tourism communities related to their
neighbourgrowth predicted materialize and the ing parks,
"Mesoamerican Biological Corridor" be- • To determine the possible role of tourist
comes a reality in the next two or three related economic activities in shaping
decades, "good" relations between protected the perceptions that community
memareas and its surrounding communities will bers may have currently, about the
conditions of the state of the relations and be essential for the preservation of the
rethe impact of tourism in the local com-gion biodiversity and particularly for the
PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural, 4(3). 2006 ISSN 1695-7121

Juan Antonio Aguirre 353

munities social organization. ducted, in Nindiri a total of 141 and for
Portobelo a total of 103. The questions used
General Working Hypotheses. as an answer, a "likert" type scale with five
levels that permitted gradation in the
anThe guiding hypotheses of the study swers, e.g., from total agreement to total
were: disagreement or from total satisfaction to
• Socio-economic differences among the total dissatisfaction, whatever the case may
three communities exist, differences be. The final set of questions used in all
that are impacting profoundly the state three locations is presented below:
of the relations currently,
• Community participation in park deci- Question 1: When was the last time you visited park?
Question 2: to what extent are you related to activities in sions or to be taken into account by the
the park? park in important decisions that affect
Question 3: To what extent is your job related to tour-the community, is the most important
ism? element shaping community/park
relaQuestion 4: To what extent do you feel capable of
attions currently. tending to visitors to the park?
• Tourism development is impacting simi- Question 5: In the last ten years, have improvements in
larly each of the communities. the community been related