Sustainable tourism can directly contribute to biodiversity conservation by:-

• Offering less destructive livelihood alternatives to local communities and landowners in buffer zones and conservation corridors, away from unregulated logging, intensive cattle-ranching, monoculture, hunting, and unsustainable tourism
• Providing an incentive for public and private landowners in critical ecosystems to permanently conserve biodiversity-rich properties, by offering revenue-producing, low-impact economic use
• Providing protected area managers with additional financial resources from visitation and donations
• Raising visitor awareness, promoting community involvement and interest in conservation issues and generating political support for conservation through environmental education during travel.

Christ, C; Hillel, O; Matus, S; Sweeting, J; (2003) Tourism and Biodiversity -- Mapping Tourism’s Global Footprint. Conservation International, Washington, DC; United Nations Environment Programme, Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, France.

Mader, Ron (2008) Tourism and Biodiversity, Planeta.com

Do you know of any other examples, good and bad, of tourism's impacts on biodiversity? If so, share them with us here. 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity.

See sub-menu to the left for pages added so far, including:-

• Rainforest Alliance: Case Studies
• Thailand's Responsible Travel Tips
• WWF and the Greater Mekong Subregion