This report tells how to ensure that tourism follows a sustainable path and that it contributes to the sustainable management of protected areas. Guidelines are presented to help readers understand protected area tourism and its management, and practical suggestions are based on theory and practice from around the world. Coverage includes biodiversity and conservation, planning for protected area tourism, culturally sensitive design and operation, visitor management, and human resources. There is no subject index. Eagles teaches at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

From its late nineteenth century origins, the concept of protected areas has increased in scope and complexity. It now has to come to terms with the twenty first century world of neo-liberal politics, performance metrics and the growing and complex demands of tourism. This international collection of papers explores how this might be done, detailing the issues involved, and the value and values that protected areas have for economies, peoples and environments. Special attention is given to World Heritage Sites, tourism planning and their communities, to the growth of private protected areas, and to the health values of protected areas. Other subjects include private sector business involvement in protected areas, concessions policy experiments, and how the work of the world’s largest protected area agency, the US National Park Service, is adapting to changing political and market demands, and to the challenges of sustainable development. It concludes with a searching interview with a member of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee. The chapters were originally published in a special issue in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism.

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.

This book examines the need for a new way of describing sustainable tourism and also looks at the frameworks needed to rethink how to apply this to communities, private operators and protected area managers. It makes it clear that tourism is just one of many human activities that affects host communities. The work includes informative and provocative case studies with realistic applications. References included in the book will help graduate students formulate new hypotheses and suggest literature for them. Tools and techniques useful to tourism practitioners suggest innovative approaches to marketing, management and community development.

Bringing together the diverse experiences of park agencies and managers, conservation NGO's and international agencies this book examines the role of tourism in protected area management. Using case studies from around the world it provides examples of successful partnerships between community, public and private sectors. It also explores how tourism can be used as a management tool for financing protected areas. It concludes by summarizing the lessons learnt and the challenges facing protected areas in the future.

Tourism has an essential role in terms of contributing to the financial sustainability of protected areas. In addition, through effective and efficient benefit-sharing, tourism can positively impact numerous stakeholders within and beyond the protected area. Living on the Edge: Benefit-Sharing from Protected Area Tourism highlights the complexity of benefit-sharing, the importance of identifying all relevant stakeholders, the challenges of ensuring equity and sustainability, and the critical importance of good governance. The evolution of benefit-sharing mechanisms over time also emphasizes a continuing need to evolve and adapt to each unique situation as much evidence indicates that little has changed for those living on the edge. Although this book focuses on benefit-sharing from protected area tourism, it is essential to acknowledge that along with these benefits are costs associated with tourism, including possible increased local prices, loss of access to land, human–wildlife conflict, and other related costs. The contributing authors agree that benefit-sharing must include good governance, accountability, equity, transparency, a broad reach of stakeholder engagement, and a robust combination of tangible and intangible benefits – with recognition that benefit-sharing systems need to be adaptive and evolve, as needed, according to the relevant situation. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism.

This book describes the state of the art of tourism planning and management in national parks and protected areas. It also provides guidelines for best practice in tourism operations.

"This manual, based on interviews with tourism companies, provides practical guidance on better ways of understanding the toursim industry. It also details what can be expected from the tourism industry in terms of support for conservation"--Page 4 of cover