Ecotourism as an Environmental Management Instrument: Reassessing Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Rural Development in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Abstract

Ecotourism is increasingly suggested as a way of balancing biodiversity conservation with socio-economic development, but the effectiveness of ecotourism is disputed, especially in biodiverse but economically disadvantaged areas like the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. This study employed a conceptual integrative literature review, guided by Stakeholder Theory, to reassess the conservation–development nexus by synthesising evidence from 58 purposively selected peer-reviewed journal articles, books, policy documents, and institutional reports based on their relevance to ecotourism, biodiversity conservation, community participation, and sustainable rural development in the Eastern Cape. The review focused on the role of ecotourism in the conservation of biodiversity, livelihoods, governance, benefit-sharing, and sustainable development in the province's key conservation landscapes. The synthesis shows that ecotourism has provided significant conservation and development outcomes such as protected-area management, employment, local enterprise development, environmental awareness, and tourism-based livelihoods. But progress is limited by inequities in benefit distribution, low community engagement, poor institutional coordination, governance gaps, and lingering issues of land rights and access to resources. The review adopts a stakeholder-based approach to conceptualize it as a multi-source evidence-based analysis of the institutional and governance context underpinning ecotourism outcomes across multiple conservation landscapes in the Eastern Cape. It concludes that ecotourism can contribute significantly to biodiversity conservation and sustainable rural development when supported by participatory governance, transparent institutions, and equitable socio-economic outcomes, thereby advancing Sustainable Development Goals 8, 15, and 17 and the African Union's Agenda 2063.