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4 - Proboscis monkey tourism

Can we make it “ecotourism”?

from Part II - Asian primates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2014

By
Heather C. Leasor  and
Oliver J. Macgregor
Edited by
Anne E. Russon  and
Janette Wallis
Heather C. Leasor
Affiliation:
Australian National University
Oliver J. Macgregor
Affiliation:
Australian National University
Anne E. Russon
Affiliation:
Glendon College, York University
Janette Wallis
Affiliation:
University of Oklahoma
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Summary

Introduction

Since the 1970s, organizations working for nonhuman primate conservation have emphasized the importance of working with the people in closest contact with nonhuman primates and their forests by attempting to give them a stakeholder share in the benefits of primate preservation and protection (Wetlands, 2001; WWF, 2001). One method for encouraging local protection of nonhuman primates, while maintaining economic balance in the community, is making primates in natural settings a focus for “ecotourism.”

This chapter discusses a case study of primate tourism that focuses on visiting proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatus) along the Lower Kinabatangan River in Sabah, Malaysia. The proboscis monkey is an endangered species and a focal species for conservation and tourism in Borneo. The Lower Kinabatangan area is home to proboscis monkeys that have been studied through four PhD projects: Boonratana in 1992, Tadahiro in 2000, Leasor in 2003, and Matsuda in 2005. Tourism has been developing in the area since the mid-1990s. If tourism in this area is to contribute to conserving the area’s natural habitat, proboscis monkeys, and other resident wildlife, then it should operate as ecotourism. It is often promoted as such by the Malaysian Tourism Board. However, numerous signs suggest that much of this tourism does not qualify as legitimate ecotourism.

Type
Chapter
Information
Primate Tourism
A Tool for Conservation?
 , pp. 56 - 75
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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