Ecotourism Impact Monitoring: A Review of Methodologies and Recommendations for Developing Monitoring Programs in Latin America

Ecotourism is one strategy for supporting conservation and providing income for communities in and around protected areas. While envisioned as a positive approach towards sustainable development, unplanned or poorly planned and implemented tourism can have serious negative effects on the environment and on communities, offsetting the benefits it was designed to provide. In order to anticipate negative impacts and to prevent or mitigate them, ecotourism impacts monitoring is required. While visitor impacts management methodologies have been developed and applied in the United States and other developed countries, little such work has been done in the developing world. And, few monitoring programs have assessed socio-cultural impacts on nearby communities. A methodology which is easy to implement on limited budgets and with limited technical expertise is needed for Latin America.
This report offers a summary of some existing visitor impacts measurement methodologies for protected areas and provides recommendations for how to establish ecotourism monitoring programs in Latin America. It is designed for use by The Nature Conservancy partner organizations but is also applicable for others involved in ecotourism throughout the world.