Goa: Tourism, migrations, and ecosystem transformations

Abstract

This article is based on a larger case study that investigated the role of tourist induced and other population movements in causing coastal ecosystem change in Goa, India. It focuses especially upon agro-ecosystems locally known as khazan lands, and sand dunes, and how they are transformed to accommodate the needs of tourists and tourism. The effects of different forms of tourism upon land cover and land-use change is assessed. The research findings suggest that it is not population movements alone that cause ecosystem changes, but the changes in relations between people and ecosystems. This means that in some cases land cover has not changed as much as land use, and in other cases land cover has changed dramatically. Intermediary influences upon land use and land-cover change are also legal, political, and economic factors, particularly changes in property rights.