The Benefits Of Wildlife

Wildlife watching tourist activities can make an important contribution to community development and conservation, especially in developing countries, but it needs to be carefully planned and managed in order to ensure its long-term sustainability and to avoid potential adverse effects on wildlife and local communities. This report, published by UNEP and the Secretariat of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), considers the socio-economic and environmental benefits that can be derived from watching wildlife tourism, including case studies from Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, the United States, Australia, Indonesia and Tanzania.

Not everybody cares about the fate of wild animals or the state of the natural environment. I met a lady who said it wouldn't worry her if all the wild animals in the world disappeared overnight. She was a city person~ she said. There are also people who would prefer to let animals become extinct than to have them kept in captivity - no matter how progressive the zoo. There are those who, on principle, will not eat meat, let alone do the killing, and there are those who enjoy nothing so much as shooting birds. People in the last two camps may oppose each other in claiming to be con servationists. Extremists are unlikely to find their opinions being reversed by this book but, because of the scope of the subject, I believe there is a good chance that anybody with an interest in wildlife will find in it something new to think about. It may not be too much to hope that a few disagreements might also be settled because I suspect there is more common ground than is generally realized among those with opposing views.

This research book is a landmark contribution to the rapidly growing field of wildlife tourism, especially in regard to its underpinning foundations of science and conservation. Written by a number of environmental and biological scientists it explains the synergy between wildlife and tourism by drawing on their global experiences.