Producing science and global citizenship? Volunteer tourism and conservation in Belize

Abstract

Many volunteer tourism programmes in the Global South involve volunteers in the collection of biological data for the purpose of environmental conservation and monitoring. By participating as lay people in the collection of scientific data, volunteer tourists are similar to citizen scientists in the Global North. Both activities are part of a neoliberal science and conservation regime. Building on insights from citizen science and analyses of global citizenship in tourism, this paper argues that global citizenship and scientific knowledge are co-produced through volunteer tourism. Drawing on the results of a case study of a volunteer tourism and marine conservation programme in Belize, including 48 interviews and 4 focus groups with a range of actors (foreign volunteers, staff of government agencies and non-governmental organisations, and local residents), this paper illustrates both the opportunities and limitations for producing critical global citizenship and democratised science through such programmes.