The Buhatan River Ecoadventure A Case Study

This explanatory study focused on the ecotourism project in Buhatan, Sorsogon, Philippines. It highlighted the potentials of ecotourism as a developmental tool for biodiversity conservation, economic, and social development. It sought to determine the implications of having ecotourism, who or what sector(s) would best benefit from ecotourism and what are the things needed to be done to maximize the potentials of ecotourism. While qualitative design was employed, triangulation was used to reduce the risk of bias and inaccuracies the analysis of data. Findings revealed the common implications of ecotourism in Buhatan such as job opportunities, fostering cooperation, balanced economic and environmental activities, discipline and inter-sector linkages which profits most the boatmen, culinary group members and cooperative. The study concluded that the ecotourism in Buhatan has a potential in promoting economic and social development, and environmental conservation could benefit the community as a whole if private-public sector linkages and active participation of the community members are improved. It was recommended to include the tourists‟ perception about the ecotourism project in the data gathering procedure since it would provide useful insights on the implications of ecotourism to its target clients

Keywords: ecotourism, establishment, sustainability, economic and social development, ecoadventure