Conservation implications: Perceptions of separation and lack of education to engage in economic opportunities are major issues. Intrinsic appreciation of parks is an important platform for building future opportunities. Accrual of future benefits for local communities from park tourism depends on developing diverse economic opportunities, building community capacity and managing expectations and addressing economic disadvantage.

Increasingly, protected area tourism is being recognised as a complex social-ecological system, with interactions characterised by dynamism, complexity, uncertainty, unpredictability and multi-scalar connections (McCool 2009; Strickland-Munro, Allison & Moore 2010) (Figure 1). Local communities are an integral part of this system, as described by Strickland-Munro et al. (2010) using a resilience approach. Unpredictable and susceptible to external influences beyond local control, a number of barriers can obstruct the delivery of benefits to local communities and confound interactions between protected areas, tourism and local communities.

A resilience approach, which acknowledges the importance of understanding interactions between system components, provides a promising alternative to reductionist analyses. A broader, interdisciplinary approach cognisant of multiple interacting variables and perspectives allows exploration of the complex relationships amongst system components (Farrell & Twining-Ward 2005). Resilience thinking offers one such framework and is particularly suited to protected area tourism’s inherently ‘messy’ environment of complexity, change and uncertainty (McCool 2009; Plummer & Fennell 2009). Resilience perspectives focus on understanding the dynamics of systems interactions and explicitly acknowledge system uncertainty, complexity and dynamism (Resilience Alliance 2007a, 2007b; Walker et al. 2006). Published applications of resilience perspectives to protected area tourism however have been limited to date.

This article applies a conceptual framework based on resilience thinking to an exploration of the impacts of tourism associated with protected areas on local communities. The framework was used for local communities adjacent to Kruger National Park in South Africa and Purnululu National Park in Australia. Specifically, the study sought to ascertain key socio-economic impacts of protected area tourism on the local communities. Local perspectives were privileged, whilst the broader context was accommodated through the framework’s attention to multi-scalar influences and interactions (Figure 1).

We first outline the role of protected area tourism in South Africa and Australia, followed by a brief synopsis of the tourism impact literature and the growing demand for park tourism to address social equity and deliver benefits to local communities. The research design and methods follows, with the first part of this section devoted to an overview of the resilience framework guiding this research. The two case study areas are then described as part of the comprehensive description of the case studies as protected area–tourism systems. The article’s conclusion includes implications for park and tourism managers. Here we present one of the first published applications of resilience perspectives to protected area tourism and the investigation of such impacts on local communities. The combination of resilience perspectives with ethnographic research provides a synthesised, coherent approach facilitating in-depth insights into local impacts.

FIGURE 1: Multi-scalar nature of protected area–tourism systems.

Beyond this broad economic impact, protected area tourism is further valued for its touted ability to foster smaller scale socio-economic development and employment (Telfer & Sharpley 2008). However, these socio-economic benefits often co-exist alongside negative impacts for the communities adjoining protected areas (Wall & Mathieson 2006). Given links between benefit delivery and positive local perceptions of protected areas and tourism (e.g. Brockington, Duffy & Igoe 2008), research into the impacts of park tourism on local communities is of considerable interest. Kruger National Park and Purnululu National Park offered promising case studies as they are both iconic, with communities living adjacent to them which have opportunities to engage in tourism but continue to face entrenched economic disadvantage.

Tourism can also have negative economic impacts. These include dependency and stifling of economic diversification (Telfer & Sharpley 2008), as well as inequality in benefits (Simpson 2009; Trau & Bushell 2008). Inequity of benefit distribution is heightened by ‘enclave’ tourism, where tourists and local communities are separated by boundaries (e.g. park fences), with community interactions typically limited to transient hawking at park entrances. Enclave tourism restricts local access to tourism markets and can also contribute to financial leakage (Mill & Morrison 2006). Novelli and Scarth (2007), for example, report that tourists to Malawi’s Liwonde National Park remain within park boundaries, limiting opportunities for interactions with locals. This distancing was linked to a lack of ownership for the Park. Furthermore, tourism’s financial benefits are often overstated, leading to false expectations (Simpson 2008). Other negative economic impacts include lost opportunity costs, where tourism dominates resources that could have been more profitably used in other sectors (Mill & Morrison 2006) such as agriculture.

Socio-cultural impacts include changes to individual behaviour, value systems, cultural practices and community organisations (Andereck et al. 2005). Tourism can enhance ethnic identity, increase understanding between cultures, challenge stereotypes and perceptions and revitalise cultural values and traditions (Telfer & Sharpley 2008), including the use of natural resources. Changes to decision-making structures and involvement in park management are further positive impacts (Scherl & Edwards 2007). Enrichment of local skills, local and institutional capacity building, investments in community infrastructures, such as schools and health care, and improved access to information and external environments are further positive impacts. Negative socio-cultural impacts include the loss or misuse of cultural resources, perceptions of cultural commoditisation and exploitation, ‘demonstration effects’ where locals adopt tourist behaviours and the marginalisation of locals to jobs of lesser importance (Telfer & Sharpley 2008). Tourism may also cause culture shock, communication difficulties, tension, suspicion and hostility, segregation and perceptions of superiority or inferiority (Robinson 1999).

In recent years, social equity and the delivery of benefits to local communities have assumed a greater role in protected areas (Phillips 2003; Worboys et al. 2005). This is certainly true for park managers in the two protected areas of interest to this study, where official attention is directed towards redressing social and economic inequities facing previously disadvantaged communities. South Africa’s Kruger National Park emphasises park–people relations and benefit sharing and seeks to increase the Park’s legitimacy amongst neighbouring communities. Tourism, and the benefits it can engender, is a key means of achieving these goals (SANParks 2008). Similarly, managers of Australia’s Purnululu National Park are guided by an official commitment to ensure Indigenous engagement and benefit from Park and tourism operations (Department of Environment and Conservation [DEC] 2008). However, both Parks evidence a dearth of social research, with research on the impacts of Park tourism on local communities scarce, despite calls for such from Park managers and other interested parties (e.g. SANParks 2008; UNESCO 2010). The study reported in this article addresses this deficit.

Phase 1 (Figure 2) concerns defining the system of interest – interactions between the National Parks, their tourism and associated local communities. Investigation prioritised local perspectives, given that the study’s central interest was impacts on local communities. We focused on the local scale, geographically defined ‘community’ and prioritised social over ecological interactions. The views of other stakeholders at local, sub-national and national scales were included, however, to incorporate interests beyond the local (Strickland-Munro et al. 2010), with such a multi-scalar approach being central to resilience analyses (Resilience Alliance 2007a, 2007b).

Phase 2 (Figure 2) explores past system change, focusing on system drivers and historical influences affecting current conditions. Understanding these drivers and underlying processes influencing system change is necessary to develop appropriate management responses and is central to resilience analyses (Resilience Alliance 2007a, 2007b). Typically, drivers are grouped into categories, including socio-political, demographic, economic and biophysical, and classified as either ‘slow’ or ‘fast’ depending on the rate at which they influence change. Slow variables play an important role in controlling the protected area–tourism system (Strickland-Munro et al. 2010) and influence well-being and governance (Kofinas & Chapin 2009), whereas fast variables tend to operate at smaller spatio-temporal scales and influence system interactions at a faster rate. Although the adaptive cycle heuristic is integral to this phase it was not considered further in this article, given its focus on the dynamics amongst fast and slow variables over time and scale, rather than giving explicit attention to impacts.

Phase 3 (Figure 2) focuses on the state of the current system and explored key issues, such as those relating to values, benefits, conflicts, challenges and governance. Phase 4 (Figure 2) rests on monitoring changes in how protected areas, tourism and local communities interact. The final phase presented in this article differs from Strickland-Munro et al. (2010), as a lack of empirical information from the case studies on interactions meant that the threshold development advocated could not be undertaken. For this reason, this final phase was modified to recommend exploring future scenarios and developing indicators, both with the ultimate objective of further understanding interactions and eventually developing thresholds.

Information was obtained in this ethnographic study through semi-structured interviews with local community members, Park and tourism managers and staff, as well as government and non-government operatives. This wide range of people was selected to obtain the broadest possible worldview of how these local communities are experiencing tourism associated with their adjacent national park. New individuals were interviewed until ‘theoretical saturation’ (Bowen 2008) was reached, meaning that the particular interview did not add any new information. In this study, theoretical saturation was reached at 110 interviews (92 at Kruger, 18 at Purnululu). The interview questions covered perceived benefits, barriers to participation and other factors influencing the engagement of local communities with protected area tourism. These questions were asked to populate the conceptual framework in Figure 1 with information. Interviews were recorded where possible and transcribed verbatim, with trained local translators used in the South African study.

Analysis was undertaken using grounded theory, an inductive technique that generates theory from constant comparison of themes and patterns in interview transcripts. The code-based theory development software NVivo (QSR International 2008) facilitated analysis and assisted in the iterative refinement of conceptual codes. These codes, together with information gathered from document review and participant observation, informed the following results. Interview excerpts are provided to help describe these codes in the following section, a standard practice in reporting the results of grounded theory research. Review of historical and current literature regarding protected areas, tourism and local communities also contributed information.

FIGURE 2: Conceptual framework for investigating the relationship between protected area tourism and local communities.

Both Parks are accessible via road and air links and cater to self-drive visitors and group tours. However, Kruger’s accessibility is far superior to Purnululu, particularly for road access, with Purnululu’s unsealed 52 km entrance track requiring considerable skill and a suitable four-wheel drive vehicle to navigate. Additionally, Purnululu is affected by limited seasonal accessibility, with its open period restricted to April–December on account of the East Kimberley wet season (CALM 1995). Kruger remains open for business year round.

In terms of local communities, the Parks offer significant disparity as well as surprising analogies. Kruger is surrounded by densely populated ex-Bantustan communities, with the Park’s southern and western borders¹ home to over two million people (Department of Water Affairs and Forestry [DWAF] 2008). This research focused on two villages, Cork and Belfast, located closest to one of Kruger’s busiest entrance gates. With a combined population of approximately 15 000 residents, their location close to the Park offers opportunities for interactions with passing tourists. Purnululu, in contrast, is located in Australia’s sparsely populated East Kimberley region, with a population density of 0.08 people/km² (Kimberley Development Commission n.d.). The Indigenous community of Warmun, with a population around 300 (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006), is the Park’s closest neighbour despite being located 50 km north-west of the Park. It was included in this study on account of this geographic proximity, as well as status at the time of research as ‘gateway’ community providing the last service facilities (e.g. petrol station, tourist accommodation and general store) available before entering the Park. In addition, many Indigenous residents retain strong cultural ties to the Purnululu landscape.

Whilst populations and locations of the Parks differ, their neighbouring communities are characterised by a number of similarities that can be linked to entrenched disadvantage: in South Africa, the legacies of apartheid (Sartorius et al. 2009) and, in Australia, legacies of socio-political and economic marginalisation of Indigenous people (Altman 2009). These legacies are evidenced by limited educational attainment, widespread poverty and unemployment. Warmun is characterised by welfare dependency (Doohan 2008), with 20.0% of the community receiving government benefits in 2007 (Warmun Community 2007). In the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality, which includes Cork and Belfast, unemployment often exceeds 90.0% and 84.0% of the population is classified as ‘indigent’, earning less than R1300 ($169) per household per month (DWAF 2008). Educational statistics further illustrate community disadvantage. In Warmun, 22.0% of adults have never attended school (Taylor 2003). Similarly, only 1.7% of people residing in Bushbuckridge have received an education beyond high school level (Statistics South Africa 2007).

These drivers are largely beyond the control of local decision-makers, as they represent fundamental, higher-scale processes not easily amenable to change by Park managers. The study communities are clearly characterised by disadvantage and underdevelopment. Poverty and poor (Western) education, for instance, reflect the legacies of past policies and practices of discrimination. Their influence is evident in the high incidence of unemployment in both study communities, as well as the entrenched welfare dependence in Warmun. In the communities around Kruger, there have been grant systems (e.g. for child support), a focus on education and economic development initiatives; however, poverty and disadvantage are still evident. Together, these two slow drivers were described by respondents as significant barriers to the ability of local communities to engage with Park tourism.

The third slow variable, cultural norms and values based on a respect for nature, was particularly evident in the Purnululu study. Indigenous respondents continually referenced enduring links between traditional culture and the physical landscape, emphasising the fundamental influence of such cultural norms on Indigenous worldviews. In the Kruger study, the influence of cultural norms on local interactions with Park tourism was unexpected yet clearly manifest in community responses. Respondents expressed a distinct respect for, and appreciation of, the natural environment and suggested that caring for such was integral to their way of life.

Governance issues related to power inequities and conflict over resources such as cultural sites, park access and natural resources were also a central concern for respondents in discussing Park-tourism-community interactions. Importantly, these governance elements were not fundamental determinants of interactions. Rather, they were themselves influenced by underlying drivers, such as a lack of the Western skills or education necessary for operating in a formal management environment, as identified in the Purnululu study. This vulnerability to drivers beyond the control of Park managers means that governance is considered a system characteristic rather than a driver.

In contrast, respondents in the Purnululu study emphasised spiritual significance, although bequest values were also noted in relation to the transmission of cultural knowledge:

‘Traditional country ... culturally … gives people their identity, their family’s identity, the connections, the stories, the beliefs ... country is very important ... [it] helps to define you as a person and to an extent your lifestyle and our values.’ (Community member 8, female) (see Strickland-Munro & Moore 2013:32)

This intrinsic appreciation of nature derives from, as well as contributes to, the identified slow driver of underlying cultural norms and values based on respect for nature.

The conservation of nature provided further (contested) benefits. These included the use and sale of natural resources such as fuel wood and medicinal plants. Respondents associated with Kruger linked this benefit to the ever-present demands of poverty and subsistence lifestyles: ‘People see Kruger as a resource centre, where they can tap in for anything they want’ (Park staff 5, female).

Community members were resentful of restrictions placed upon resource use by Park managers. A further contestation relevant to Kruger only was animals ‘escaping’ from the Park. This key Park tourism resource can cause significant destruction and sometimes deaths in local villages, negative impacts which can decisively influence local views of the Park and tourism associated with it. These negative impacts are compounded by complex, multi-stakeholder governance arrangements that restrict locals from dealing with escapee animals themselves: ‘Villagers are not allowed to defend their property or commercial interests from the animals’ (Tour operator 7, male).

In many instances, however, community members appeared unwilling to discuss such animals in negative terms. Instead, they highlighted their appreciation of the Park and nature. Benefits derived from the meat from escaped animals provide another explanation: ‘Elephants and the other animals, they are not a problem because we get meat when [Kruger] kills them’ (Community member 23, male).

Park access and visitation was a second key issue. Typically, community members lacked the physical and financial ability to visit their respective Parks. In the Kruger study, locals rarely visited the Park for pleasure. Most repeat visits were attributed to past or current employment or Park outreach programmes. In the Purnululu study, all community respondents had visited the Park previously but described significant difficulties in doing so. Poverty was central to these difficulties. Transport issues were the key limitation in both case studies, whereas Kruger respondents additionally cited the requirement to pay entrance fees.² Community members described these barriers in the following ways: ‘I do like to go to Purnululu, but how am I going to get there?’ (Community member 5, female). ‘I’ve never been inside Kruger. I’ve got no money to go in the gate’ (Community member 17, female).

In both studies, access difficulties were linked to perceptions of disconnect from the Parks and tourism: ‘The main purpose of Kruger is to conserve nature for the tourist to come and experience’ (Community member 52, female).

Employment in Park tourism posed a third key issue and one directly related to the driver of ‘economic opportunities associated with tourist arrivals’. Employment occurred in two ways: direct jobs in Park management or tourism operations and indirect employment involving the derivation of income from business or activities based on the Parks. Direct employment was limited in both studies. In the Purnululu study, only one local community member was employed in Park operations at the time of research. No community members were employed in tourism operations. In Kruger, nine community members were directly employed in varied Park and tourism operations. Such employment was highly valued by all community members on account of its ability to provide for family dependants and educational needs. However, a lack of skills required to successfully engage in formal Park and tourism roles precluded widespread benefit accrual, with benefits typically limited to those community members with the requisite skills and knowledge: ‘It takes a fair bit of experience, knowledge and intent … perhaps there aren’t those people in Warmun’ (Community member 10, male).

Indirect employment associated with Park tourism was more prominent than direct employment in both studies. At Purnululu, one community member was employed at the Warmun roadhouse and a further four received income by selling Indigenous art. Home to a major art movement, a growing number of locals produce art for the Warmun Art Gallery. Although intermittent, income derived from sales can be substantial, often reaching tens of thousands of dollars. Artists receive 60% of the sale price, with 40% retained by the Gallery. Art production also provided significant intrinsic cultural benefits relating to maintenance of cultural connections to the country. At Kruger, 11 community members were indirectly employed in Park tourism through the selling goods at roadside stalls. Economic benefits derived from this activity were tempered by variability in tourist patronage: ‘If tourists weren’t driving up and down the road, those curio sellers wouldn’t be there’ (Tour operator 4, female).

In both studies, respondents described the interactions with tourists as limited. This limited interaction further contributed to a local disconnect from Park tourism.

Use of natural resources and damage-causing animals were more tangible, and highly contested, impacts arising from nature conservation (and hence indirectly related to tourism) in the Kruger study. The use of natural resources by local communities appeared influenced by two key slow variables. Poverty, in terms of enduring livelihood pressures was central, indicating the ongoing influence of historic legacies. Cultural norms associated with respecting nature was a second slow variable influencing natural resource use. Locals linked their ability to harvest medicinal plants to intrinsic and tangible benefits associated with the maintenance of cultural traditions and knowledge, although, again, poverty has fostered contestation and resource demands that Park managers are unable to meet without causing significant ecological damage (L. Swemmer [SANParks] pers. comm., 12 September 2010).

Impacts associated with damage-causing animals challenge the intrinsic values attributed by community members to Kruger, fostering negative views towards the Park and its tourism. These negative views accord with other research linking such animals with reduced local support for protected areas (e.g. Madden 2004). This issue clearly illustrates the complexity of interactions between Kruger National Park and local communities and the impact of this issue on benefit perceptions. The socio-political realities that characterise community members in terms of poverty and poor Western education levels challenge their ability to dispute existing institutional arrangements governing management of damage-causing animals, to the ongoing detriment of Park–people relations.

These findings contribute to the growing body of literature contesting views of protected areas and tourism as ‘money spinners’ generating widespread financial benefits for local communities (Brockington et al. 2008). Pervasive expressions of disconnect from Park tourism evident from the interviews provide further support. In contrast, employment in the Purnululu study (both direct and indirect) provided intrinsic cultural benefits relating to connections to country. Thus again, interactions between Park tourism and local communities are seen as contested and complex in terms of benefit provision and influenced by historic and ongoing legacies that fundamentally shape current conditions and benefit accrual.

An important opportunity for local communities to benefit from Park tourism clearly centres on tangible economic benefits from employment, as commonly reported in the literature. In both studies, constraints are evident and reflect the ongoing influence of historical legacies of discrimination and marginalisation, entrained in the underlying slow variables of poverty and poor Western education. As such, caution is needed in advocating benefit opportunities, so as not to stimulate unrealistic community expectations. Simultaneously, Park and tourism managers must recognise the influence of historic legacies on the ability of community members to engage with available opportunities, working with communities over extended periods of time to build local capacity for involvement.

Evidence of intrinsic socio-cultural benefits derived from opportunities to experience ‘nature’ is an important finding. Such benefits were anticipated in the Australian context, yet unexpected in the Kruger study, where their identification challenges common assumptions regarding non-pecuniary benefits. The often-undervalued presence of cultural norms and values respecting nature potentially offers Park and tourism managers a promising and enduring platform for beneficial interactions between Park tourism and local communities. The complex nature of the relationships between communities and nature conservation in the Parks is illustrated by contestations over benefits and impacts associated with the use of natural resources and damage-causing animals at Kruger.

A second important finding arising from the research was the feeling of disconnect between community members and the Parks and their tourism. This disconnect likely stems from negative impacts associated with Park tourism, such as access difficulties and associated views of Park tourism as an activity reserved for rich or white tourists rather than locals. Cross-scale influences again appear to contribute, in the form of entrenched poverty and poor Western education, which, in turn, represent the legacies of policies and practices in South Africa and Australia. Pragmatic policy responses that seek to foster connections between locals and Park tourism, for instance alternative methods of facilitating visitation and, in Kruger, opportunities to experience the Park as a ‘tourist’, provide one means of reducing local disconnect.

In closing, a few comments on the conceptual framework are warranted. The framework proved valuable in accessing both local perspectives and multi-scalar influences, allowing the development of nuanced insights into the complexity of Park tourism impacts on local communities. Using an ethnographic approach provided valuable insights to the local communities; however, its combination with document reviews and interviews with stakeholders at broader scales was essential given the location of drivers beyond the local focal system. Applying this novel methodology to two iconic national parks and their communities has revealed the opportunities and challenges in progressing the well-being of these communities and their parks. This resilience approach has importantly exposed the complexity of such systems and through such exposure made an enhanced understanding and well-informed actions possible.

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