Presents papers (.doc) from a conference that explored of the effects of tourism on ecology, community, and development. Participants and papers cover aspects of ecotourism and forestry in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal, and Pakistan.

Drawing on case studies from Pacific Islands, Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, this book examines ecotourism enterprises controlled by indigenous people in tribal reserves or protected areas. It compares indigenous ecotourism in developed and developing counties and covers cultural ecotours, ecolodges, and bungalows, hunting and fishing tours, cultural attractions and other nature-based facilities or services.

Community-based forest management (CBFM) is a model of forest management in which a community takes part in decision making and implementation, and monitoring of activities affecting the natural resources around them. CBFM provides a framework for a community members to secure access to the products and services that flow from the landscape in which they live and has become an essential component of any comprehensive approach to forest management. In this volume, Nicholas K. Menzies looks at communities in China, Zanzibar, Brazil, and India where, despite differences in landscape, climate, politics, and culture, common challenges and themes arise in making a transition from forest management by government agencies to CBFM. The stories of these four distinct places highlight the difficulties communities face when trying to manage their forests and negotiate partnerships with others interested in forest management, such as the commercial forest sector or conservation and environmental organizations. These issues are then considered against a growing body of research concerning what constitutes successful CBFM. Drawing on published and unpublished case studies, project reports, and his own rich experience, Menzies analyzes how CBFM fits into the broader picture of the management of natural resources, highlighting the conditions that bring about effective practices and the most just and equitable stewardship of resources. A critical companion for students, researchers, and practitioners, Our Forest, Your Ecosystem, Their Timber provides a singular resource on the emergence and evolution of CBFM.

Tourism is the most rapidly growing and biggest civilian industry in the world and ecotourism forms the largest proportion of the present tourism. Since ecotourism involves maximum number of stakeholders, from local communities to the corporate world, proper capacity building of the major stakeholders for effective planning and management of ecotourism has become a prerequisite for the sustainable ecotourism development. This book attempts to fill in this gap. The book addresses the key issues concerning ecotourism management, with special focus on community participation. It deals with a range of topics including the basic concept, forms, potential assessment, planning and case studies of ecotourism. At the same time, it discusses the new concepts and techniques of ecotourism, viz. carrying capacity, community participation and auditing. The book will be useful for practitioners, researchers and other stakeholders in planning and implementation of ecotourism.

Throughout the world, local, natural wonders are being overrun by hordes of destination seekers intent on capturing nature’s majesty. Though the flood of tourists brings economic stability to these regions, the environmental and local community concerns must be taken into consideration. Ecotourism and Community Intervention: Emerging Research and Opportunities examines community intervention strategies and their causal relationship with destination sustainability and destination quality. The book calls for more proactive measures to enhance destination sustainability through ecotourism initiatives in destinations across the globe. The content within this publication examines global business, mass tourism, and resource management. It is designed for conservationists, environmentalists, tour developers, travel agents, policymakers, administrators, managers, and university students.

The book uses a multi-disciplinary approach to address lessons learned and challenges encountered over the years in different ecological, economic, political and cultural contexts. Protected areas were originally established as recreational spaces and to protect some components of nature; however, today they are also expected to provide an increasing range of benefits to an array of people. Protected areas no longer simply “protect” but they also provide ecosystem services and facilitate poverty reduction via local development, ecotourism, and sustainable resource use. Integrating tourism and conservation with existing local historical, socio-economic, and institutional landscapes is associated with the promotion of local community participation in resource management. The book adopts an interdisciplinary approach to understand social-ecological systems that explain the relationship between protected areas, tourism, and community livelihoods linkages. The book provides a platform for dialogue to develop a better understanding of the complex relationships between protected areas, tourism, and community livelihoods linkages. Due to the role tourism plays in poverty alleviation, conservation, empowerment and addressing other environmental and social challenges, the book also connects tourism with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars and policymakers of tourism, conservation, natural resource management, sustainable development as well as professionals and policymakers involved in conservation policy. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Journal of Sustainable Tourism.