2017 Volume 2017 Issue 92 Pages 83-94
Because of abundant wildlife and the scenic view of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Amboseli area in southern Kenya has been the major destination of international tourists in Africa, and numbers of “community-based” projects have been implemented for the past half a century. In 2000s, an international NGO started the “tourism conservation enterprise” project, and several scholars studied it as a type of neoliberal “conservation-development-tourism nexus.” Based on field researches, this article reveals the fact that as the preceding studies focused on an institutional dimension of the project, they discussed the issue from the assumption that every project would aim to realize the goal of “conservation-development-tourism nexus,” tourism facilities would be constructed in every protected area, and local people would observe to a contract. Consequently, they overlooked the discrepancy between the discourse and the practice of the aid project, and the attitude of the local people which went against the neoliberal institution. The local people regard tourism as one choice of livelihoods, and whether they adopt it or not depends on the situation and the needs. In other words, tourism is not a panacea but a “supplement” to the local people. It does not solve all problems at once, but by pick and choose from among various alternatives with consideration, it supports their healthy condition.
