Systematic Review on Ecosystem Services (ES) of Ecotourism in South-East Asia (ASEAN)

Ecotourism ecosystem services can rarely been identified specifically in detail. Hence, little is known about interactions and relationship between ecotourism and its services. We have chosen South-East Asia (ASEAN) as our case studies because of its multi-diverse ecotourism ecosystem. We conducted a systematic review of studies that aim to understand the relationship and interaction between the ecotourism ecosystem and its services to summarize research from this emerging topic and to identify the patterns for ecotourism ecosystem services in ASEAN from different case studies. The results show that 7 out 10 ASEAN countries have studied on ecotourism ecosystem services. Most studies indicated the importance of the services provided by the ecotourism sector as cultural (aesthetic, scientific research and recreational) and supporting (habitat conservation). Our review also found some limitations of this study: first, no data gathered from 3 countries (Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam and Myanmar) and second, the study only focused on monetary methods (WTP etc.) and third, calls for more studies and comparative studies to identify services provided by ecotourism sector in ASEAN. Finally, we discuss how our review fits into the Pakse Declaration 2016 and policy development to address climate change.