Ecotourism and conservation : a review of key issues

This review of some of the key issues of ecotourism and nature-based tourism highlights the complexity of using tourism as a tool for conservation. Five key benefits for conservation which can be appropriately targeted in the context of most ecotourism and nature-based initiatives are: 1) a source of financing for parks and conservation; 2) economic justification for park protection; 3) economic alternatives for local people to reduce exploitation of conservation areas and resources; 4) constituency building which promotes conservation; and 5) an impetus for private conservation efforts. This paper reviews experiences with ecotourism across the globe, with selected case studies taken from Australia, Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Indonesia, Nepal, Niger, and Uganda. Despite tremendous differences in size and management of protected areas, cultures, types of ecotourism enterprises, and government involvement, in most cases, ecotourism and nature-based tourism have not lived up to expectations. Nevertheless, they remain a potential avenue for conservation. To generate benefits for biodiversity conservation, a number of conditions have to be met, among them, competitive sites; ability of authorities to design, implement, and mandate sustainable ecotourism consistent with protected area objectives; tourist fees collected must reflect management costs; and revenues collected must first be directed to the parks where collected, with the rest applied to national conservation.