Drivers of local communities’ behaviour toward biodiversity conservation around ecotouristical sites in North-Western Bénin: Implications for ecotourism sustainability

Understanding the determinants of local communities’ behaviour toward biodiversity conservation in touristic areas is important for ecotourism sustainability especially in the global context of rapid population growth and climate change. In the study, an expanded form of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was developed to investigate the drivers of local communities’ behaviour toward the conservation of biodiversity around the touristic waterfalls of the Atacora region in North-Western Bénin. We randomly surveyed 300 households in the main localities (Kota, Tanongou, Tanguiéta, and Boukoumbé) surrounding the waterfalls. The data collected included sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents (gender, age, ethnicity, level of education or literacy), their perception of biodiversity status (PBS) around the waterfalls, attitude toward natural resources conservation (ACRN), social norms (SN), perceived behavioural control (PBC), intention toward conservation (IC) and behaviour toward conservation (BC). A structural equation model was performed to test the direct and indirect relationships between IC, BC and their predictors. Results show that ACRN, SN and PBC had a positive direct effect (β= 0.19 to 1.16; p=0.000 to 0.008) on IC and explained 72% of households' intention to conserve the waterfall’s natural resources. IC was positively correlated with BC (β= 1.16, p=0.000) and explained 53% of households' behaviour. However, PBS had a negative direct effect on ACRN, SN, and PBC (β= -0.27 to -0.13; p=0.000), and a negative indirect effect on IC (β =-0.18 to -0.30; p=0.006 to 0.025) due to an exclusive governance system. Our results suggest the development of a management policy that effectively includes local population and promote fair distribution of ecotourism benefits. This is important to motivate and commit local communities to develop positive conservation behaviours of natural resources.