Ecotourism Development in the Nature Isle: Navigating the Politics of Eco-Cultural Sovereignty in Dominica

• In Event: Disaster, Conservation, and Sovereignty

Description for Program

For the Commonwealth of Dominica, its small size, rugged topography, fragile ecology, and marginalization from global markets, posed challenges to development and its capacity for diversification. One extreme natural disaster can impact the entire landscape, causing disproportionate loss of GDP. In 2017, category 5 Hurricane Maria decimated Dominica’s sectors, estimating damages of $1.3 billion, 65 deaths, and hundreds displaced. Afterward, Dominica pledged it would become the “world’s first climate-resilient country” with ecotourism integral to that sustainable development strategy. Ecotourism growth on the lush island has since surpassed pre-storm levels, even rebounding during the pandemic. Additionally, cultural production from Dominica’s Indigenous Kalinago is crucial to Dominica’s resiliency. Whether ecotourism is a pathway toward strengthening rural, coastal Afro-Dominican and Indigenous livelihoods during socio-ecological risks, or reproduces patterns of environmental disruption, sociocultural inequality, and exclusion, this research builds on critical ecotourism scholarship in the Global South. Ecotourism as alternative routes of development for Small Island States expected to be earliest and most affected by climate change this century, poses how a region considered “ground-zero” for the global climate crisis navigate an industry that remains a key driver in climate change. Moreover, I explore how eco-destination marketing may depart from or reproduce Caribbean representations rooted in the colonial imaginary.

Author

• Kimberly D. Miller