Marine Protected Area-Based Tourism in Dauin, Negros Oriental, Philippines

Abstract

This paper argues that marine protected area-based tourism in Dauin, Negros Oriental in central Philippines as a nature-dependent enterprise is vulnerable to climate change impacts on coastal ecosystem as well as to touristic infrastructures and activities if not regulated or tempered by the actors of the tourism system composed of brokers, locals and tourists. But there are also problems within the tourism system due to conflicting priorities in MPA governance, the use of coastal and marine resources and the appropriation of tourism revenues that threaten the future quality of MPAs and the ecotourism industry as a whole. This paper recommends that, when feasible in certain coastal communities, policy makers and MPA managers should re-think the notion and goals of MPAs and realize that these can be designed from the beginning to address sustainable ecotourism goals as well as fishery and biodiversity goals.