Introduction to the special issues on ecotourism in Africa over the past 30 years

Tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of the global economy. At 4.1% growth rate, tourism is expected to generate 1.6 billion tourists by the year 2020 (Christie, Fernandes, Messerli, & Twining-Ward, 2014). As Weaver and Lawton (2007) state, the term Ecotourism began to appear in the tourism journals in the late 1980s. Ecotourism was in the beginning seen to have the goals of ecological and economic impact for all stakeholders in this type of tourism, but it was questioned whether these goals are being achieved (Lawrence, Wickins, & Phillips, 1997; Lindberg & McKercher, 1997). In conjunction with this was the United Nations agreement on the establishment of the Millennium Development Goals that focused on rural development that reduced poverty, improved health and empowered women and children (Butcher, 2011). One of the main catalysts for achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and rural development was seen to be ecotourism (Butcher, 2011; Das & Chatterjee, 2015). Thus the purpose of this special issue of the Journal of Ecotourism is to report on how ecotourism is doing with the achievement of its goals in sub-Saharan Africa.

Africa's share of tourism growth is modest at 2%, based on year 2014 statistics (UNWTO, 2015). Since its introduction over 30 years ago, ecotourism has been central to tourism growth in Africa. As Gössling (2000) suggests, ecotourism is the fastest growing component of tourism industry. Ecotourism growth in Africa is particularly exceptional because of wildlife diversity and abundance of charismatic wildlife species (Lindsey, Alexander, Mills, Woodroffe, & Romanach, 2007). Over the last 30 years, Africa has experienced significant success in ecotourism application. Such success is manifested through significant revenue generation, foreign investment and other socio-economic benefits, which have led to significant appeal of ecotourism in Africa (Boyd & Butler, 1996). In fact, such economic opportunities of ecotourism have also generated support for wildlife conservation from non-traditional actors in public and private sector institutions. In addition, ecotourism has tremendously enhanced community wellbeing, development and support for wildlife conservation in communities coexisting with wildlife in Africa (Scheyvens, 1999). Multiple community conservation and community-based initiatives have emerged from ecotourism with both ecological and socio-economic benefits to many rural communities and nations in Africa.

In spite of tremendous success, ecotourism in Africa has experienced a number of constraints and limitations over the past 30 years. For example, most countries in the east and central part of Africa have been ravaged with civil wars, which have undermined ecotourism growth trajectory and potential. Poor infrastructure has rendered many countries with diverse wildlife and abundant charismatic species inaccessible, affecting their ecotourism potential. Institutional and human capacity has been a significant impediment to effective management of ecotourism in Africa. Capacity limitations have hindered the ability of practitioners in Africa to effectively monitor and mitigate potential negative impacts of ecotourism. Shortages of financial capital and entrepreneurship skills among local communities coexisting with wildlife have also constrained the potential of ecotourism practitioners in Africa to take full advantage of a growing ecotourism market. Corruption and top down governance approach to wildlife and protected area management has also been a limitation to the success of ecotourism in some African countries with tremendous ecotourism potential.

This issue is intended to put the success and constraints of ecotourism in Africa over the past 30 years into perspective. Through experiences of practitioners and scholars, this issue presents lessons learned over the years. Such rich experience will allow us to learn, adapt and continue to shape ecotourism as a tool for sustainable development in Africa.

The articles that are contained in this special issue are all reflections of what ecotourism is or has accomplished in various countries in sub-Saharan Africa only, and then just a sample of the countries it comprises. The first articles are an assessment of some of the many stakeholders involved in ecotourism in Africa. Kline and Slocum's (2015) ‘Neoliberalism in ecotourism? The New Development Paradigm of Multinational Projects in Africa,' identifies four overarching organisational values required for successful ecotourism development these being: sensitivity to local needs/culture; organisational partnerships; capacity building and monitoring. In the second article Adiyia, Stoffelen, Jannes, Vanneste, and Ahebwa (2015) ‘Analyzing governance in tourism values claims to reshape the tourist bubble in developing countries: The Case of Cultural Tourism in Uganda,' this article assesses the effect governance has on the tourism value chain with establishing local linkages to reshape the social and spatial boundaries of the tourist bubble in Uganda. Their results show that cultural activities can reshape the social boundaries of the tourist bubble and can act as a catalyst for development, but this tends to be less successful.

The third article focusing on governance and organisation is Pellis, Lamers, and Van Der Duim (2015) Conservation Tourism and Landscape Governance in Kenya: The interdependency of three conservation NGOs. In this article they assess organisational strategies and practices between 2007 and 2013 to demonstrate how conservation NGOs worked as intermediators of various forms of conservation tourism are subjected to multi-actor interdependencies. They found that mismatched scale-making hampers organisational objectives and contributes the reshaping of conservation tourism landscapes. The authors do show how their approach to governance has been successful using multiple conservation NGOs.

The fourth article focusing on governance strategies by Pasape, Anderson, and Lindi (2015) ‘Good Governance Strategies for Sustainable Ecotourism in Tanzania,' identify that the factors most likely to jeopardise ecotourism are inadequate transparency, poor accountability practices and weak integration mechanisms between ecotourism operations and the country's development plans. This results in ecotourism development that has had unproductive planning and mismanaged ecotourism resources.

The next group of articles focus on community-based ecotourism within the African context. The fifth article by Stone (2015) ‘Community-based Ecotourism: A Collaborative Partnership Perspective,' reveals in this study that in Botswana ecotourism has brought mixed results regarding biodiversity conservation and community livelihoods due to the involvement of too many stakeholders in designing, planning, and implementing ecotourism projects. But, even with mixed findings the article offers a progressive example of how stakeholders approach to natural resource management is evolving to be more successful.

The sixth article by Chirozva (2015) ‘Community Agency and Entrepreneurship in Ecotourism Planning and Development in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area,' this article demonstrates that even in the transfrontier conservation areas, innovative community leaders have demonstrated imagination, have embraced and to some extent exploited ecotourism opportunities and are successful when they engage in social networking to promote local cultural tourism development.

The next group of articles in this special issue focuses on ecotourism development in a sample of African countries and provides an assessment of the success and problems in those countries. The seventh article is by Mbaiwa (2015) ‘Ecotourism in Botswana: 30 years later.' This article describes that where ecotourism has succeeded, it generated economic benefits which had produced positive attitudes of residents toward ecotourism and conservation. Where ecotourism failed, the reason for failure was due to lack of entrepreneurship and managerial and marketing skills of local communities. With the results suggesting ecotourism can be a ‘tool' to improve livelihoods and conservation if communities have the right socio-economic and political dynamics.

The eighth article by Cobbinah, Black, and Thwaites (2015) ‘Ecotourism Implementation in the Kakum Conservation Area, Ghana: Administrative Framework and Local Community Experiences,' this article describes that due to the implementation of ecotourism without acknowledging community involvement and participation as relevant to successful ecotourism development, the Kakum Conservation Area has generated mixed experiences for local residents.

The ninth article by Moswete and Thapa (2015) ‘Factors that Influence Support for Community-based Ecotourism in the Rural Communities Adjacent to the Kgalagardi Transfrontier Park, Botswana,' highlights the diverse array of factors that likely influence resident perceptions and their support for community-based ecotourism. The findings reveal that the factors that most influence residents are environment, economic, socio-cultural, and their knowledge of ecotourism.

The tenth article by Mgonja, Sirima, and Mkumbo (2015) ‘A Review of Ecotourism in Tanzania: Magnitude, Challenges and Prospects for Sustainability,' identifies that ecotourism is highly localised and relatively minimal because of accessibility problems in some protected areas, inadequate infrastructure, and insufficient marketing and promotion. The fix for these problems is for more regulatory authorities to articulate clear policies, regulations, and guidelines that delineate strategies on the positive implementation of ecotourism.

The eleventh article which focuses on one type of ecotourism activity becoming more popular in Africa by Ogucha et al. (2015) ‘The Influence of Homestay Facilities on Tourist Satisfaction in the Lake Victoria, Kenya Tourist Circuit,' assessed homestay facilities and found visitors tended to not be satisfied with their homestay experience. This was mostly due to inadequate facilities to meet the expectations of this type of visitor to this area of Kenya. This suggests that before implementation of a new tourism product into the marketplace, first ensure that the infrastructure to meet these wants and needs is in place.

My co-editor, Ian Munanura and I want to complement and thank all the authors of the articles in this special issue for their contribution to our better understanding of what the state of ecotourism development is in each of the countries in Africa studied. It can be seen that ecotourism and the principals behind ecotourism are in various stages of refinement with some successes, but many failures; how ecotourism can be brought to the point where its use as a tool for conservation and livelihood improvement has not yet been achieved in Africa, but the path to success for all stakeholders in ecotourism development to succeed is a little clearer due to the information in the articles found in this special issue.