Ecotourism for Community Empowerment and Social Inclusion: The Case of Abindu Sacred site in Kisumu County, Kenya

Abstract

Ecotourism, which is currently the fastest growing form of global tourism in the world, is more prevalent today than ever before. Communities that once had very little industry and misguided management systems have now been able to flourish with the employment of local people. By involving the local people in these programs and when a direct stimulus is returned to the community, rather than having the profits sent elsewhere, programs have been proven to be much more successful. When discussing ecotourism, it is also important to realize that these programs are not always beneficial to the local communities and many ecotourism ventures are controlled by outside operators. A useful way to discern responsible community-based ecotourism is to approach it from a development perspective, which considers social, environmental and economic goals, and questions how ecotourism can meet the needs of the host community in terms of improved living standards both in the short and long term. This perspective differs somewhat from those approaching ecotourism predominantly from an environmental perspective.The achievement of sustainable tourism development through community based ecotourism initiatives, require the building of community capacities to understand the importance of the resources they own. Most communities are unaware of the potential their cultural and natural natural resources offer. This study will focus on the potential of an ecotourism site, namely, Abindu in Nyahera, in Kisumu County, where there is possibility of organizing the community to run ecotourism ventures.The general objective of the study was to ascertain livelihood enhancement opportunities brought in the wake of ecotourism development in host communities, whilst the specific objectives are to: assess the likely identify key stakeholders in the ecotourism site; assess the level of female empowerment in the development of ecotourism in the community; examine the impacts of ecotourism ventures in the community. The Study examined this community in terms of an empowerment framework as a suitable mechanism for aiding analysis of the social, economic, psychological and political impacts of ecotourism on local communities.The study used qualitative methods to collect the data, namely,participant observation, key informant Interviews, and focused group discussions.

Keywords: Ecotourism, Community based Ecotourism, Empowerment, Abindu, Kisumu.