Gender and ecotourism

Transcription

1 Gender and ecotourism Findings following fieldwork in Central District, Botswana Claudia Towne Hirtenfelder Researcher, HSRC

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3 Tourism in Botswana Contributes to over 8% of GDP Okavango Delta Tourism Master Plan National Ecotourism Strategy

4 Ecotourism???

5 UNWTO All nature-based forms of tourism in which the main motivator of the tourists is the observation and appreciation of nature as well as the traditional cultures prevailing in natural areas. It contains educational and interpretational features. It is general, but not exclusively, organised for small groups by specialised and small locally owned business. Foreign operators of varying sizes also organise, operate and/or market ecotourism tours, generally for small groups. It minimizes the impacts on the natural and socio-cultural environment. It supports protection of natural areas by: Generating economic benefits for host communities, organisations and authorities that are responsible for conserving natural areas Creating jobs and income opportunities for local communities, and Increasing awareness both amongst locals and tourists of the need to conserve natural and cultural assets

6 National Ecotourism Strategy Explicitly states that the impacts of (eco)tourism are financial, social and environmental Positive and negative host-social and cultural impacts tourism development can lead to changes in family structure and gender roles - resulting in new opportunities for women and young people/ leading to tensions and loss of self-esteem for men and older generations

7 How does the labour at an ecotourism lodge form part of the total social organisation of labour in a rural village in Botswana? Furthermore, how are these gendered and articulated in and through difference both in the camp and village?

8 The place in which people work does not exist in isolation from the homes and communities from which they come. If, as both the UNWTO, SADC Protocol on Tourism, and the NES state, tourism leads to new opportunities for women (meaning in the work place) then there is a need to understand what this means in terms of their private livelihoods.

9 Methodology Feminist methodology Validity of personal experiences and highly contextual knowledge Reality as socially constructed and practiced History, Experience, Structure Reflexivity: Cognisant of power relationships between researcher and participants Collaboration, importance of voice Intersectionality Gender not in isolation from other axes of difference but a large organiser of social life Through expectations, practice, history, structure

10 Theory Gluckmann s Total Social Organisation of Labour (TSOL) All labour (paid and unpaid) tend to shape one another and are highly gendered. Understanding one form of labour in isolation from others may provide skwed views of reality and priorities. Acker s Inequality regime All organisations operate as inequality regimes. Who works, when, where, and how are based on notions of difference which have varying degrees of visibility and legitimacy Intersectionality/Articulated categories (Crenshaw, McClintock) Axes of difference (gender, race, class, age, etc) are informed by and shape one another contextually, historically, and through practice

11 Going to the field: Locating the research Meno A Kwena Central District Cattle and wildlife

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17 Method 40 Semi-structured interviews Notes, recordings At camp and in village Participant observations Family tree drawings Dissemination Confirmation of validity

18 Amogelong

19 Kealaboga Kealaboga

20 Insert family tree

21 Week 1: Orientation and rapport building with staff at Meno A Kwena. Interviews and observations were carried out only from within the camp Week 2: Interviews and observations were carried out in the neighboring village, Moreomaoto, to help understand the relationship between the community and the camp and the ways in which these were gendered. Interviews carried out in week 1 were listened to again to help identify possible questions for further interviews. With the help of an assistant, employees at the camp also set about creating family trees to aid the research process Week 3: Interviews and observations at both the camp and the village including follow up interviews. 6 months: Return for feedback and validation of findings

22 Challenges Language and translation Anonymity Accessibility/Availability Reflexivity and power dynamics Time

23 Broad Findings Inequality regime Meno A Kwena s organisation is itself gendered and racialized Gendered spaces Most polarised: Housekeeping and Maintenance Meno A Kwena is part of a broader organisation of labour Most NB being: Cattle care, Child care, Government labour, Mobility for work and family Extent of influence of an ecotourism camp?

24 TSOL Cattle care Child care Marriage Reduced provisions Mobility Government jobs Limited jobs Meno A Kwena only part of a much more complex picture of labour organisation, which is gendered

25 Cattle and the Bank of Motswana BMC Pula (R3000-R9500) Key Provision Threats: Wildlife, drought, reduced grazing Conflict: Enter national parks; the fence Mismatch between conservation and livelihood needs but neither party wishes the other away Cultural symbols: Marriage, funerals, masculinity

26 NE: I wont be afraid for looking for my cattles because I am eating from my cattle and the cattle are my bank. It s the bank of Motswana. So even if David can say No, we don t need you here. I know that I have my bank at home. Even if I can leave my cows going away I [will] even have a hunger at home.

27 Men: Cattle care Less of an event for women, only in absence of men Tied to masculinity Moving into paid employment impacts men s ability to carry out cattle care Strength (very rigid gendered construction) Herd boy: younger men Cattle care chain (wage chain) Little to disrupt gender roles

28 Women: Domestic and child care Women clean cattle posts and milk cattle but are rarely the core care takers Tend to crops, weed fields, ensure compounds are clean Fewer financial returns and less status that cattle care Child care The intersection of age Importance of grandmothers (particularly matrilinieal) Access to child labour and eases burdens on mothers Gives women the mobility to move into paid employment Not paid for like Herd Boys Care chain Particularly important in tourism

29 Cattle care and child care emerge as two key forms of labour in the total organisation of labour in Moreomaoto Availability of paid employment is limited Government jobs Mobility central to the organisation of life Child mobility, marriage mobility, work mobility, education mobility Meno A Kwena and jobs in it part of a much bigger social organisation

30 Provisions Changing financial provisions and needs Maintenance Life is more expensive (reduced rain, money, modern life, fewer natural provisions, changes in marriage) tied to capitalist system More constrictions on natural provisions Wildlife conflict Drought Changing laws (hunting) Cattle (milk, meat, money) Crops (Food, money)

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32 BP: Because I think this fence --. I think they put this fence so that they can protect that camp with the animals. This fence it took the land where the animal is supposed to graze. Then now there is a lot of animals which is affected by drought because there is no grass. There is grass that side which is disadvantaging a lot of people but them they are getting profits

33 NE: Nowadays they are doing ploughing. The problem is the animals they can even eat. And the other problem it can be rain. Yah and even the water which just flowing from the river it can stop for five years so they just plough they don t know if they can even have a lot of food like --.

34 Salary Used to buy day to day items Prior to working at camp would have relied on other family members and cattle Now cattle kept for large purchases: increase opportunity to generate wealth Inadvertently contributing to more cattle

35 Meno A Kwena 27 Permanent jobs (on average salary used for at least three other people) In a village of 1000 the impact of such jobs in NES and camp owner might be overstated But nature of ecotourism is that it must be small but fewer tourists = fewer jobs Not to say it is not critical for those who have them Gendered and racialised hierarchy

36 Entire composition Position grouping Male Female Management and Permanent 3 Permanent Decision (1 year contract or more) (1 year contract or more) Temporary 0 Temporary (3 month contract or less) (3 month contract or less) 3 0 Front of house Total 3 3 Permanent 6 Permanent 4 (1 year contract or more) (1 year contract or more) Temporary (3 month contract or less) 4* Temporary (3 month contract or less) 4* Maintenance Total 10 8 Permanent 4 Permanent 0 (1 year contract or more) (1 year contract or more) Temporary (3 month contract or less) 2 Temporary (3 month contract or less) 0 Housekeeping Total 6 Total 0 Permanent 0 Permanent 7 (1 year contract or more) (1 year contract or more) Temporary (3 month contract or less) 0 Temporary (3 month contract or less) 1 Total 0 Total 8 % interviewed N/A % interviewed 75% Total % interviewed 59% % interviewed 63%

37 Maintenance men and housekeeping women Most polarised in terms of gender Gendered space Diversity in jobs Variance in pay scale Women motivated by few provisions, absent fathers, and family responsibilities (proximity and wages) Disparity in access to training Domestic women and strong men! (Persistent discourse) Tentative positions and legitimacy of inequality (upward mobility)

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41 Skills from home often determining factor in the positions one will be able to access in an (eco)tourism lodge Little to suggest Meno A Kwena does anything to challenge gender roles and stereotypes, may actually reinforce them Limited interaction with tourists Static displays of culture Importance of extended family (nonresponsibility of state and organisations) Increased responsibility once you have a paid job High death rate Social impact assessment

42 Move beyond zero-sum static conceptions of the pros and cons of (eco)tourism which pit men and women against one another in a simple way Both experience anxiety and opportunities but how they are felt and the explanations for them are gendered Need for a social impact assessment which is cognizant of familial and social relations so as to have better more effective reactions to conflicts and to not brush off resistance as traditional or backward but understand it within it s given context

43 KA: Ya, we were having some quarrels when I was working here. We were having some quarrels thinking that he [her husband at the time] will tell the managers that I have to be out from the job and last time he came here

44 Let s look at complexity and nuance!

45 Way forward Further comparisons: Case studies within Botswana Case studies outside of Botswana Ecotourism policy and discourse Thank you!