| Summary: | Ecotourism is big business. It can provide foreign exchange and economic reward for the preservation of natural systems and wildlife. But ecotourism also threatens to destroy the resources on which it depends. Tour boats dump garbage in the waters off Antarctica, shutterbugs harass wildlife in National Parks, hordes of us trample fragile areas. This frenzied activity threatens the viability of natural systems. At times we seem to be loving nature to death (Berle, 1990). This quotation, from an editorial in the American nature conservation journal Audubon, at once expresses the hopes and fears many people hold for nature-based tourism. Is it the ideal, low impact, high value, dream tourism sought by host communities the world over? Is it ecologically sustainable development? Can it form the basis for community tourism in developing countries? Will it further destroy the ailing conservation programs by adding internal pressures to parks already under assault from external forces? Can we live with it? Can we live without it? In this chapter the essential elements of nature-based tourism are explored and examples from around the world help illustrate its diversity of form. Existing literature is reviewed and an assessment made on the present state of knowledge about ecotourism and some of the most pressing issues awaiting research. An overall management perspective reflects the intimate link between nature-based tourism and nature conservation.
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