Visual Narratives: Exploring the Impacts of Tourism Development in Placencia, Belize

Abstract

Visualizing environmental change is one way people experience ecological degradation and changes in land-use practices. In Placencia, located in Belize, the intensity and scale of development has been increasing without participation by local populations. Through interviews and photovoice, we document the ways residents have encountered changing environments, in order to explore how global and local processes of uneven development intersect. Areas of concern included coastal erosion, dredging, and impacts to marine environments. Participants asserted the need for greater enforcement of environmental regulations and more equitable decision-making practices related to land and resource ownership in the context of rapid development.