Recreational services in tourism dominated coastal ecosystems: Bringing the non-economic values into focus

Recreation-based ecosystem services can bring possibilities for protection and sustainable use of coastal ecosystems. This paper analyzes how recreational services influence coastal ecosystem management by studying the south-west part of the Sundarbans mangroves in Bangladesh. The paper argues that a single ecosystem service, recreation based on natural environments, is perceived differently by two different stakeholders; tourists and local resource users. Such variations emerge due to the dynamics of recreation seeking activities of the tourists and the livelihood-based activities of the local resource users. The paper takes a qualitative research framework with a narrative approach and analyzes these relationships through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The results reveal that perceptions of recreational services by local resource harvesters can give important and new opportunities for coastal biodiversity management and conservation. Management implications: This study has highlighted some key issues regarding future management of the Sundarbans mangroves in Bangladesh. These management implications can be grounded through four interlinked recommendations, which are: • Increasing awareness on the local culture and the associated local ecological knowledge pool that ensures sustainable resource harvesting. • Consideration of non-economic valuation of recreation related to lifestyles of indigenous and local people for a fuller appreciation of socio-ecological relations in tourism-dominated areas in the Sundarbans. • Better the understanding of ecosystem service trade-offs which tourism brings to minimize the recreational service guided conservation at the expense of other ecosystem services. • Combine local people's recreational values and tourism to experience full gamut of recreational ecosystem services available from the landscape.