Tourism as a conservation tool

Abstract

Tourism and conservation interact principally through public visitation to public protected areas. In addition, however, tourism can generate funding and political support for conservation in multiple-use areas, community conservancies or private reserves. These tenures are likely to prove increasingly important for conservation under growing pressure from human population growth and anthropogenic climate change. The most successful model seems to be through up-market wildlife-watching lodges in private reserves adjacent to larger public protected areas in developing countries. Private companies such as Conservation Corporation Africa and Wilderness Safaris, operating principally in sub-Saharan Africa, have developed successful business models which do also make significant net contributions to conservation of biological diversity.