ABSTRACT
It has been established that ecotourism is advocated as having the potential to constitute exemplary sustainable development in the rural developing world. An important part of this advocacy is that other forms of development are deemed to be less sustainable with regard to their impact on the environment. Projects implicitly and explicitly base development upon the non-consumption of natural resources, or natural capital, rather than through the transformation of nature in the course of economic development (Fennell 2003; Boo 1990; Ziffer 1989). Hence, they advocate as sustainable development a type of development in marked contrast to the experience of the developed world.
