Exploring Agritourism to Increase Agricultural Sustainability and Resilience in the Municipality of Utuado, Puerto Rico

The overall objective of this collaborative research project is to determine whether and how agritourism can increase agricultural sustainability and resilience of the municipality of Utuado, Puerto Rico. 

To accomplish the seven objectives, we draw on the “transformative sustainability research approach” developed by Wiek et al. (2012). This approach involves four major research steps. All four steps are conducted through collaborative and participatory research activities, involving the participating farmers and—depending on the research objective—other local experts including community entrepreneurs, community members, representatives of COSSAO's initiatives, and representatives of government and non-governmental organizations.  The participatory research approach will be designed in a way that it allows for peer-learning and capacity building throughout the project.

The first step conducts a systematic analysis of the current state of the system to identify the key drivers of the agricultural system in relation to  ongoing local tourism and community development efforts and their current outcomes. A sustainability assessment allows determination to what extent the agricultural system and related tourism and community initiatives are meeting sustainable development objectives, including those related to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are a framework to achieve a better and more sustainable future that were set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and intended to be achieved by the year 2030. For example, “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all” (SDG #8), “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.” (SDG #15), and SDG #3 “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all and at all ages.” (SDG#3).  

The second step develops a systematic and sustainable vision for agritourism in the community. This vision is informed by guiding sustainable development principles. The outcomes of these two research steps provide the reference points for the third step. 

This third step conducts research on strategies that have the potential to transform the current state towards the sustainable vision for agritourism in the community. 

The fourth research steps encompasses implementation of the key elements of the strategy prototypes as pilot projects to test and evaluate their effectiveness.  

To focus each of the four steps on the themes related to agritourism (including sustainable farming and agroecology, eco-friendly and socially responsible tourism, as well as community development and well-being) we incorporate two additional concepts in each step. These concepts are complementary. The first is a set of methods that allow to evaluate and design sustainable agricultural systems. It is called the Framework for the Evaluation of Natural Resource Management Systems Incorporating Sustainability Indicators (in Spanish: Marco para la Evaluación de Sistemas de Manejo de recursos naturales incorporando Indicadores de Sustentabilidad, MESMIS). MESMIS was developed specifically for sustainable development projects for small farmers and local contexts, ranging from the farm level to the village level in Latin America as has been successfully tested over recent years. It helps to build an integral understanding of the opportunities and constraints for the sustainability of the socio-ecological systems that are forged by the intersection of environmental processes and socio-economic conditions. Second, it is a flexible concept that can be adapted to the different levels of information and technical skills that are available locally. Lastly, it proposes a process of participatory evaluation that emphasizes group dynamics and continuous feedback from the evaluating team. (http://www.mesmis.unam.mx/)

The second additional concept is the “One Health” concept, a worldwide strategy for fostering collaborations and integrated considerations of all aspects of health care for humans, animals and the environment. Individual and community health depends on healthy ecosystems and management of hazards as well as animal health. The concept of “One  Health” clarifies the relationship between agritourism and community development (http://www.onehealthinitiative.com).

Step 1: Current State Analysis and Sustainability Assessment  

Contributes to: 

Research objective #1: To clarify how agritourism contributes to agricultural sustainability and resilience. 

Research objective #2: To determine available farmer support for agritourism.  

Methods to achieve objective #1 and #2: 

• Systems-analysis using stakeholder interviews and focus groups will be employed to identify drivers and effects of the agricultural system in relation to tourism and community development initiatives.  Special attention will be given to determine available farmer support for agritourism, in particular support for minority and limited-income farmers. The MESMIS concept provides useful resources to carry out this step in a participatory manner. It suggests five general attributes to analyze socio-ecological systems from a farmer and community perspective (productivity, stability, reliability and resilience, adaptability, equity, and self-reliance). For each of these attributes it offers a set of system strengths and weaknesses and related indicators that have been used in previous case studies and can be adapted to analyze the interlinked environmental, social and economic aspects. Examples of these groups of indicators include e.g., returns efficiency, biodiversity, distribution of cost-benefit, participation, capability for change and innovation, and self-organizing behaviors. The resulting community-based current-state systems map will be further detailed using evidence generated from accompanying desk research. 
• We will use a survey-based questionnaire administered to community residents to assess community resilience through a Confirmatory Factor Analysis. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis helps assess the fit between observed data and an a priori conceptualized, theoretically grounded model that specifies the hypothesized causal relations between latent factors and their observed indicator variables. This Confirmatory Factor Analysis will use a scale to measure community resilience. This scale was developed by the PI of this project and tested in similar projects in the Commonwealth of Dominica, Sarapiqui River watershed in Costa Rica, Dana Biosphere Reserve in Jordan, Dong Van Karst Plateau Geopark in northern Vietnam and DaNang in central Vietnam (e.g. Holladay & Powell, 2013; Powell, et al., 2018).
• A sustainability assessment will appraise to what extent key sustainable development goals are being developed. To facilitate this, the research team will create an initial appraisal and discuss and refine it using community-based focus groups. 

Participating cooperating partners will be involved in these objectives. This step will involve the participating farmers in order to understand their farm operations within the local and broader regional context. It will also involve the participating project partners, i.e., representatives of COSSAO as and representatives from the University of Puerto Rico-Utuado’s Sustainable Agriculture Department. Additionally, experts from local and regional tourism and agricultural organizations will be invited to participate in the focus groups. 

Step 2: Systemic and sustainable vision for agritourism in the community 

Research objective # 1: To clarify how agritourism could contribute to agricultural sustainability and resilience. 

Research objective # 2: To determine how farmers can best access available farmer support for agritourism. 

Methods to achieve objective #1 and #2: 

• Community-based visioning exercise using focus groups. There are two inputs for the community-based visioning exercise. First, the research team will research case studies of agritourism and community resilience in the South of the USA and the Caribbean to identify evidence-supported practices for and outcomes of sustainable agritourism for farmers and the community. An example of peer-reviewed case study is “Bright Spots: Seeds of a Good Anthropocene,” featuring sustainability solutions emerging from agroecology and tourism (Bennett et al., 2016) 
• Special attention will be given to review successful practices for minority and limited-income farmers accessing available support for agritourism, especially considering the barriers and discrimination which these farmers have endured in the past. Second, we will look at the results from the sustainability assessment (above). The sustainability assessment provides value judgment of the current management systems and thus provides suggestions for a future-oriented improvement of the socio-environmental state of the system. The latter will also inform the visioning exercise. The resulting community-based future systems map will be further detailed using evidence generated from accompanying desk research. 
• Against the backdrop of this community-based vision, we will work with participating farmers one-on-one using a narrative method, helping them craft a vision for their farms.

Step 3: Strategies to towards sustainable agritourism in the community 

Research objective #3: To provide strategies for creating an agritourism destination.

Research objective # 4: To define the potential of agritourism to create value-added products and services. 

Methods to achieve objective #3 and #4: 

• To identify strategies for objectives #3 and #4 we combine stakeholder interviews and desk research to carry out the following activities: 
• Tourism asset mapping to identify tourism assets appropriate for local sustainable agritourism development; we will conduct a survey and semi-structured interviews with local, regional, state-wide and international experts.
  
• Market analysis of value-added products and services, conducting a survey and semi-structured interviews with farmers and experts along the food value chain (e.g., suppliers, producers, distributors, retailers, consumers).
  

Research objective #5: To identify the ways in which these agritourism products and services can contribute to the sustainability of the community and vice-versa, as well as how existing community assets, such as the Primary School Educational Farm and the Health Clinic, can contribute to farmers' agritourism endeavors.   

• Define a agritourism pilot project for each participating farm. Planning backward from the vision for their farms (developed in step 2), we will use a series of workshops involving participating farmers to identify a pilot project for their farm and determine the steps to implement this pilot project for years 2 and 3 as well as a way to monitor and evaluate the processes. We will use desk research from successful case studies to inform the development of the pilots. The deliverable of this step is a strategy for the development of businesses, operations and management.

Research objective #6: To conduct outreach activities and provide educational materials to share the insights gained from the research project with other farmers and collaborating community organizations in order to inform practical and evidence-supported action towards sustainability and resilience. 

Methods to achieve objective #6:

• Co-create educational materials (e.g. videos/films, audio, manuals, guides) 
• Conduct small focused educational sessions using the materials to verify how successful they are, improve the approach and determine participation rates.  
• Define how many will be educated and the makeup of the audience to be educated 

Research objective #7: To co-create benefits for the local community, specifically for vulnerable populations including children and the elderly, when researching approaches towards these primary objectives.  

Method to achieve objective #7:

• Establish advisory committee that represents the interests and needs of the most vulnerable people in the region, including the children younger than eight years and the elderly older than 80 years. Members of the advisory committee participate in the formative evaluation and advise the research team on specifying the research strategies so that they account for determining the feasibility of the agritourism in the region and its impact/contribution to the well-being on the whole community.