test
Search publications, data, projects and authors

Thesis

French

ID: <

10670/1.7jmpci

>

Where these data come from
People face a forest ecotourism : incentives, reservations and experience current French Guiana

Abstract

A fashionable concept for some decades, « ecotourism » has been selected as the leading product for National Parks and large forests areas. With the opening, in 2007, of the “Amazonian park of Guyana “, the “Wayana”, like other local traditional communities, have not escaped from theories related to sustainable development as well as the “ecotourism”. But what reality stands behind such a concept in the southern part of Guyana, geographically isolated, and under the influence of strong cultural identities and a clandestine and criminal gold extraction activity. The current study tries to understand the cultural movement and their ambition to maintain a cultural identity, in a society in complete transition. In order to study the social and cultural changes, the author has observed the Indians way of life in the heart of Guyana today, as opposed as to how it was yesterday. Our study points out that, although very interested by the modern world, Indians still depend on natural resources and are concerned with the preservation of their identity. Their ways of using resources have certainly evolved, but they remain basically respectful of the environment and biodiversity because these societies function in order to minimize any negative impacts on their environment. These societies are therefore concerned with the management of their resources in a durable way. It’s easily perceivable in the itinerant agriculture, also in the fishing “à la nivrée”, where the area is left unexploited for regeneration after resources have been used. The search for an endogen compromise between a traditional way of life and a modern one is quite significant when one observes and analyzes the evolution of the Amerindian habitat. Opting more and more for buildings with partitions and separations, not just covered with basic vegetable roofs but with metallic material, the “Wayana” have not abandoned the use of “carbet-hamoc”, nor of open air toilets where the population live. Indians, traditionally, use streams as toilets. Our study shows that this custom is the same for all Indians living in the interior territories of Guyana, because it goes beyond a simple hygienic and physiological concern. In their cultural system, this rule is not systematically imposed by the natural environment. It’s governed above all by an ecological logic, pertinent to these micro societies, followed by the necessity to clearly identify two different worlds: the animal world and the human world. According to internal “Wayana” logic, it is only wild animals that use the ground for their excretions, whilst human beings, in order to distinguish themselves, use streams. But, facing changes brought about by the external world (sedentary life, demographic expansion, social care…), the internal coherence of the social and cultural model of the “Wayana” is in jeopardy. Installing a culture of “ecotourism” therefore seems to confront logics: one set of exogenous logics brought on by its promoters and another set of endogenous logics maintained by the autochthon traditional populations fitting with their holistic vision of the universe, leading either to some form of compromise or to antagonist attitudes opposed to any type of negotiation.

Your Feedback

Please give us your feedback and help us make GoTriple better.
Fill in our satisfaction questionnaire and tell us what you like about GoTriple!