Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T02:17:17.919Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Can nature tourism help finance protected areas in the Congo Basin?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2009

Julia F. Carpenter
Affiliation:
Julia Carpenter 68 High Street, Winchester, MA 01890, USA. Tel.: + 1 781 729 6078; e-mail: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In the debt-ridden, high-population-growth, resource-mining states of the Congo Basin, conservation of biodiversity is seldom the primary concern of national policy makers or of local resource users. Moreover, the recurring costs of managing protected areas and the opportunity costs of forgoing logging and farming to maintain protected areas are a substantial net drain on national and local economies. Consequently, it is becoming increasingly important that protected areas generate, from user fees or donor contributions, sufficient funds to offset the costs of maintaining them. Government and donor investment currently meet less than 30 per cent of the estimated recurring costs required to manage the protected-area network within central African countries effectively, and cover none of the growing opportunity costs. Nature tourism, the fastest growing sector of the $US3 trillion (3 million million) a year global tourism industry, may offer a source of revenue to help fill this gap in funds. Congo Basin national parks and reserves harbour many charismatic animals (okapi, lowland gorilla, mandrills, bongo, forest elephant) that are likely to attract tourists, and as a result many protected- area managers are sinking capital into the development of tourist infrastructure. This paper reviews the evidence for ecotourism's capacity to generate revenue for protected-area management and appraises the financial viability of nature tourism in the Congo Basin.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna and Flora International 1999

References

ART (1998) Costs of Conserving State Protected Areas in Southern Africa. Africa Resources Trust, Harare.Google Scholar
Blom, A. (1998) The impact of tourism on protected area management and the local economy in Dzanga-Sangha (Central African Republic). Conservation Biology (in press).Google Scholar
Butynski, T.M. & Kalina, J. (1998) Gorilla tourism: a critical look. In Conservation of Biological Resources (eds Milner-Gulland, E. J. and Mace, R.), pp. 294313. Blackwell Science Ltd, Oxford, UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byrne, P.V., Staubo, C. & Grootenhuis, J.G. (1996) The economics of living with wildlife in Kenya. In The Economics of Wildlife: Case Studies from Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, and Zimbabwe (ed. Bojo, J.), pp. 3978. World Bank, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Culverwell, J. (1998) Long-term Recurrent Costs of Protected Area Management in Republic of Cameroon: Monitoring of Protected Areas, Donor Assistance and External Financing, Ecological and Management Priorities of Current and Potential Protected Area System. WWF Republic of Cameroon/MINEF, Yaounde.Google Scholar
IRG (1992) Ecotourism: a viable alternative for sustainable management of natural resources in Africa. International Resources Group, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
McNeely, J.A., Thorsell, J.W. & Ceballos-Lascurain, H. (1992) Guidelines: Development of National Parks and Protected Areas for Tourism. World Tourism Organization and United Nations Environment Programme, Madrid.Google Scholar
Norton-Griffiths, M. (1995) Property Rights and Wildlife Conservation Options in Kenya. CSERGE (Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment), East Anglia, UK.Google Scholar
Norton-Griffiths, M. (1997) Economic incentives to develop the rangelands of the Serengeti: implications for wildlife conservation. In Serengeti II: Research, Management and Conservation of an Ecosystem (eds Sinclair, A. R. E. and Arcese, P.), pp. 588604. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Norton-Griffiths, M. & Southey, C. (1995) The opportunity costs of biodiversity conservation in Kenya. Ecological Economics, 12, 125139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruitenbeek, H.J. (1992) The rainforest supply price: a tool for evaluating rainforest conservation expenditures. Ecological Economics, 6, 5778.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, G.N. (1993) Wildlands and ecotourism in Latin America: investing in protected areas. Journal of Forestry, 91, 3740.Google Scholar
Wallace, G.N. (1998) Toward a Principled Evaluation of Ecotourism Ventures. Colorado State University,Denver.Google Scholar
Weber, W. (1998) Conservation des Primates et Ecotourisme en Afrique. Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx.Google Scholar
Wilkie, D.S. & Carpenter, J.F. (1999) The potential role of safari hunting as a source of revenue for protected areas in the Congo Basin. Oryx, 33, 339345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkie, D.S. & Carpenter, J.F. (in press) The under-financing of protected areas in the Congo Basin: so many parks and so little willingness-to-pay. Biodiversity and Conservation.Google Scholar
Yates, D. (1996) The Rentier State in Africa: Oil Rent Dependency and Neocolonialism in the Republic of Gabon. Africa World Press, Trenton, NJ.Google Scholar