Neoliberalising Nature: global networks and ecotourism development in Madagascar

Abstract

This paper places the development of ecotourism in the wider debates about neoliberalism and the commodification of nature. It argues that ecotourism is one means by which nature is progressively neoliberalised. In order to explore these theoretical debates, it uses the case of ecotourism development in Madagascar, and it examines the power dynamics produced by the complex global networks involved in promoting and implementing ecotourism. It pays particular attention especially to the increasingly close relationship between international environmental non-government organisations(NGOs) and the World Bank, and what implications such power dynamics hold for meanings and practices of participation in community-based natural resource management.