Ecotourism aims at protecting the natural environment while at the
same time bringing benefits to the local population. Therefore, it is
often used as a conservation strategy in protected areas all over the
world. However, the ways ecotourism is implemented vary greatly
not only between different regions, even within one region there can
be a large range of different approaches. The kind of strategy used
subsequently determines its success regarding ecotourism’s central
goals of environmental conservation and development. Almost three
decades ago, ecotourism was introduced to the area of the Los
Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve in the Mexican state of Veracruz. This
was mainly driven by efforts of the public sector, which especially
promoted community-based ecotourism initiatives. On the other
hand, there have been several private attempts as well. Finally,
ecotourism companies in the region also tried to network among
each other – although to date with only little success. In this study,
the authors take a look at how ecotourism developed in the area
from its beginnings until now. This is carried out basically by indepth
interviews with local actors involved in ecotourism as well as
by direct observation. The main purpose of this research is to
analyse and evaluate the steps in the region’s ecotourism
development and the different strategies used by the ecotourism
companies. Furthermore, the authors try to identify ecotourism’s
effects in the region on the whole.