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      A Global Perspective on Trends in Nature-Based Tourism

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          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Falling attendance at United States and Japanese national parks has led to claims of a pervasive shift away from nature-based recreation. A global analysis, however, now suggests that while visit rates are declining slightly in some richer countries, elsewhere nature tourism is booming.

          Abstract

          Reports of rapid growth in nature-based tourism and recreation add significant weight to the economic case for biodiversity conservation but seem to contradict widely voiced concerns that people are becoming increasingly isolated from nature. This apparent paradox has been highlighted by a recent study showing that on a per capita basis, visits to natural areas in the United States and Japan have declined over the last two decades. These results have been cited as evidence of “a fundamental and pervasive shift away from nature-based recreation”—but how widespread is this phenomenon? We address this question by looking at temporal trends in visitor numbers at 280 protected areas (PAs) from 20 countries. This more geographically representative dataset shows that while PA visitation (whether measured as total or per capita visit numbers) is indeed declining in the United States and Japan, it is generally increasing elsewhere. Total visit numbers are growing in 15 of the 20 countries for which we could get data, with the median national rate of change unrelated to the national rate of population growth but negatively associated with wealth. Reasons for this reversal of growth in the richest countries are difficult to pin down with existing data, but the pattern is mirrored by trends in international tourist arrivals as a whole and so may not necessarily be caused by disaffection with nature. Irrespective of the explanation, it is clear that despite important downturns in some countries, nature-related tourism is far from declining everywhere, and may still have considerable potential both to generate funds for conservation and to shape people's attitudes to the environment.

          Author Summary

          Nature-based tourism is frequently described as one of the fastest growing sectors of the world's largest industry, and a very important justification for conservation. However, a recent, high profile report has interpreted declining visit rates to US and Japanese national parks as evidence of a pervasive shift away from nature tourism. Here we use the largest database so far compiled on trends in visits to Protected Areas around the world to resolve this apparent paradox. We find that, while visit rates—measured in two different ways—are indeed declining in some wealthy countries, in roughly three-quarters of the nations where data are available, visits to Protected Areas are increasing. Internationally, rates of growth in the number of visits to such areas show a clear negative association with per capita income, which interestingly is matched by trends in foreign arrivals as a whole. Our results therefore suggest that, despite worrying local downturns, nature-related tourism is far from declining everywhere, and may still have considerable potential to generate funds for conservation and engage people with the environment.

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          Is community-based ecotourism a good use of biodiversity conservation funds?

          Agnes Kiss (2004)
          Community-based ecotourism (CBET) has become a popular tool for biodiversity conservation, based on the principle that biodiversity must pay for itself by generating economic benefits, particularly for local people. There are many examples of projects that produce revenues for local communities and improve local attitudes towards conservation, but the contribution of CBET to conservation and local economic development is limited by factors such as the small areas and few people involved, limited earnings, weak linkages between biodiversity gains and commercial success, and the competitive and specialized nature of the tourism industry. Many CBET projects cited as success stories actually involve little change in existing local land and resource-use practices, provide only a modest supplement to local livelihoods, and remain dependent on external support for long periods, if not indefinitely. Investment in CBET might be justified in cases where such small changes and benefits can yield significant conservation and social benefits, although it must still be recognized as requiring a long term funding commitment. Here, I aim to identify conditions under which CBET is, and is not, likely to be effective, efficient and sustainable compared with alternative approaches for conserving biodiversity. I also highlight the need for better data and more rigorous analysis of both conservation and economic impacts.
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            Fusion or failure? The future of conservation biology.

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              Why conservationists should heed Pokémon.

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Academic Editor
                Journal
                PLoS Biol
                plos
                plosbiol
                PLoS Biology
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )
                1544-9173
                1545-7885
                June 2009
                June 2009
                30 June 2009
                : 7
                : 6
                : e1000144
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
                [2 ]Conservation Science Program, World Wildlife Fund–US, Washington, DC, United States of America
                [3 ]Fauna and Flora International, Cambridge, United Kingdom
                The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, United States of America
                Author notes

                The author(s) have made the following declarations about their contributions: Conceived and designed the experiments: AB RN MW AM. Performed the experiments: AB JB JG RN MW AM. Analyzed the data: AB JB JG AM. Wrote the paper: AB RN AM. Obtained grant: AB.

                [¤]

                Current address: United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, United Kingdom

                Article
                09-PLBI-RA-0534R2
                10.1371/journal.pbio.1000144
                2694281
                19564896
                1a752b60-381a-4f81-809d-2e18add8ee3a
                Balmford et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
                History
                : 9 February 2009
                : 20 May 2009
                Page count
                Pages: 6
                Categories
                Research Article
                Ecology/Conservation and Restoration Ecology

                Life sciences
                Life sciences

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