Ecotourism as a Means of Conservation of the Landscape of Rodrigues Island

Abstract

The Indian Ocean island of Rodrigues provides an interesting landscape case study. It offers a characteristic example of a small island territory whose natural and environmental resources have been overexploited by human activity and whose inhabitants are now clinging to the remains of its symbolic heritage in an attempt to implement conservation and sustainable reconstruction. From this perspective, rurality, with its attendant agricultural practices, its traditional gardens and its natural or humanized landscapes, has become an essential asset; one which the island is trying to promote by means of a tourist strategy based on the enhancement of economic and identity-focused parameters.