Connecting landscape-scale ecological restoration and tourism: stakeholder perspectives in the great plains of North America

Abstract

This grounded theory research seeks to understand stakeholder attitudes towards tourism development and ecological restoration around a landscape-scale ecological restoration project in Montana, USA. Due to the limited number of landscape-scale ecological restoration projects across the globe, research on stakeholder attitudes and the relationship of tourism with such projects is missing. Only recently have researchers begun to take an interest in the relationship between tourism and rewilding, a subfield of ecological restoration that involves the restoration of wildlife. The results derived from interviews with various stakeholder groups, including nonprofit conservation groups, a national wildlife refuge, the local ranching community, a county commission, and local residents working in the tourism industry demonstrate important, emerging themes, such as contrasting worldviews, ecological paradigm, landscape-scale land management, and lack of shared community vision. As local ranchers are particularly threatened by landscape-scale ecological restoration efforts, integrated threat theory is used to describe intergroup conflict in a tourism and ecological context. A revised tourism area life cycle (TALC) model using a tourismscape framework and core-periphery concept is proposed to understand the interrelationships between regional tourism and landscape-scale ecological restoration areas. The importance of bottom-up solutions, community-driven initiatives, and stakeholder engagement in the planning process is emphasized.

Keywords:

• Tourism development
• sustainable tourism
• ecological restoration
• tourismscape
• grounded theory
• rewilding

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Connor Clark

Connor Clark is a third-year PhD student at Arizona State University. His principle research focus is on how communities can create social, cultural, health, and economic benefits through protecting natural and cultural resources. His research interests include sustainable tourism development, natural resource management, nature-based tourism, economic empowerment, and community resilience.

Gyan P. Nyaupane

Gyan Nyaupane is a professor at Arizona State University. He has extensive research experience in the fields of parks and public lands, planning and policy, and sustainable tourism, and heritage tourism. Dr. Nyaupane’s research interests include understanding human-environment interactions, sustainable communities, resilience, indigeneity, nature-based tourism, and policy and planning.