Thesis title: “The development of community-based ecotourism - lumes

25occupation of the local residents or just a supplementary activity (Eagles & McCool,2002). After the potential consequences of tourism development have been identified,the tourism development plan should focus on introducing measures and policies thatwill maximize the positive impacts and minimize the negative ones (WWF-International, 2001). This, though, does not imply that all the potential impacts oftourism development in an area are fully predictable already in the planning process;it rather means that every possible effort should be made in order to come up with anin-depth tourism development strategy that has examined all different sides andaspects of the issue. This is of even greater significance if one takes into account thattourism development in a community located within or close to a protected area willnot only affect the community itself, but probably the protected area as well. If this isnot adequately considered during tourism planning, then tourism development islikely to alter the original character of the protected area, degrade its environment oreven damage it irreversibly (Eagles & McCool, 2002).In any case, increased involvement of local residents in ecotourismdevelopment does not mean that national agencies and regional authorities should notprovide them adequate support in terms of organizational skills, funding and technicalexpertise (King & Stewart, 1996 as cited in Walsh et al., 2001). After all, theresponsibility for the preservation of an area’s natural environment should not onlyconcern the local inhabitants; it ought to be an issue of general interest and a field forconstructive collaboration between the local community with all the differentstakeholders involved, namely the State, the tourism industry and the visitors (Gurung& De Coursey, 1994 as cited in Diamantis, 2004). In fact, Ceballos – Lascuráin(1993) contends that the goals of ecotourism can only be reached through activeparticipation and cooperation of all stakeholders, since they all play decisive roles inthe successful development of ecotourism. Hence, although the State is, beyond anydoubt, a significant stakeholder in the development of ecotourism, it should leaveenough room for the community to become an equal partner when it comes todecision-making and control over local resources (Joppe, 1996).Finally, it should be noted that communities which are located either within orclose to national parks or protected areas constitute special cases when it comes totourism development and require extremely careful planning and managementstrategies (WWF-International, 2001). Such communities are, in many cases, isolatedfrom the decision-making process that takes place on national level and they are oftenconfronted with decisions that are made with top-down procedures, thus exacerbatingthe discontent of the local people. Tourism can then appear as the easiest source ofrevenue generation for the community, but the sustainability level of the tourismdevelopment path that is followed might not always be profoundly considered by thelocal people (Eagles & McCool, 2002).6. THE CASE STUDY OF ZAGORIThe case study that will be presented in this chapter is an example of a rural,mountainous area which is located within the borders of a national park and, in thesame time, is one of the most popular tourism destinations in Greece. These twoseemingly contradictory features make the area of Zagori a case of particular interest.Additionally, examining possible ways of achieving long-term tourism sustainabilityin Zagori in order to reconcile the purposes of nature conservation and socio-