Sustainability of ecotourism and traditional agricultural practices in Chiapas, Mexico

Issues of sustainability of development alternatives, ecotourism, land tenure, land conversion, and household productive activities (shifting cultivation, cattle grazing and palm extraction) were evaluated using emergy and financial indicators in the Lacandon Forest area in Chiapas, Mexico. Indices and ratios such as emergy investment (purchased emergy to indigenous emergy), financial net-revenue/cost, total emergy/total revenue, and labor emergy/net-revenue were used.; The area's population was grouped as founders and sons households, and then regrouped as those involved and not involved in tourism. Land conversion data showed households involved in ecotourism activities did not conserve more land in forest than uninvolved households. Households averaged 59 hectares of land with sixty percent in forest with deforestation rates decreasing since 1975.; A total emergy flow/total revenue ratio indicated that traditional productive activities required 20E12 to 570E12 sej/US{dollar} while ecotourism had a ratio of 0.84E12 sej/US{dollar}. The tourism resort had an emergy investment ratio (8.7/1), 300 times as intense as the local economy, questioning its long term viability.; Ecotourism activities (boat transportation and resort work) had the lowest labor ernergy/net-revenue (0.33E12 and 1.15E12 sej/{dollar}, respectively) indicating the large fuel and purchased resources necessary. However, with few purchased inputs, traditional productive activities had larger ratios (8.9E12 to 177E12 sej/{dollar}). Net revenue per dollar cost indicated that the highest investment returns were obtained from traditional productive activities (2.32 to 5.75), with ecotourism activities returning 0.3/1 to 1.4/1.; Overall, the study results indicate that: (1) ecotourism activities were not among the most profitable activities studied, did not promote forest conservation, were highly subsidized and had a minimum of community involvement making households vulnerable to external pressures because of subsidies and material inputs; (2) cattle grazing activities were highly profitable but inefficient in human resource and land allocation; (3) corn cultivation with chemicals was 7.7 times as intense as shifting cultivation with an investment ratio of 5.68/1 and had lower net revenue per dollar cost, and (4) households involved in tourism activities doubled their investment ratio over those involved only in subsistence agriculture.