ABSTRACT

Globally rainforests are under threat on numerous fronts, including clearing for agriculture, harvesting for timber and urban expansion. Yet they have a crucial role in biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and providing other ecosystem services. As the term is used in this book, rainforests include both temperate and tropical, although the emphasis is on tropical rainforests. Rainforests are also attractive tourist spaces and where they have been used as a tourism resource have generated significant income for local communities. However not all use of rainforests as a tourism resource has been sustainable. This book argues that sustainability must be the foundation on which tourism use of this complex but ultimately fragile ecosystem must be built upon. It provides a multi-disciplinary perspective, incorporating rainforest science, management and tourism issues. The book is organized into four sections commencing with Rainforest Ecology and Management followed by People and Rainforests, Opportunities for Rainforest Tourism Development and finally Threats to Rainforests. Each major rainforest region is covered, including the Amazon, Central America, Africa, Australia and south-east Asia, in the context of a specific issue. For example rainforests in Papua New Guinea are examined in the context of community-based ecotourism development, while the rainforests in Borneo are discussed in an examination of wildlife issues. Other issues covered in this manner include governance, empowerment issues for rainforest peoples and climate change.

part I|51 pages

Tourism in rainforest regions

chapter 2|11 pages

Tropical rainforest ecology

Implications for tourism development

chapter 3|13 pages

National parks, rainforests and tourism in Australia

An historical perspective

part II|47 pages

Threats to rainforest tourism

chapter 6|14 pages

Trees, tourists and trade-offs

The political ecology of rainforest tourism, forest clearance and biodiversity conservation in Madagascar

part III|137 pages

The development and management of rainforest experiences

chapter 7|14 pages

The Lamington National Park

A contrasts approach to rainforest tourism research

chapter 8|17 pages

Visitor motivations, expectations and satisfaction in a rainforest context

Implications for tourism management

chapter 9|12 pages

Ecotourism

A new challenge for protected rainforest areas in Chile

chapter 10|17 pages

Enabling ecotourism

Principles, challenges and achievements from Tambopata, Peru

chapter 12|13 pages

The use of Mayan rainforests for ecotourism development

An empowerment approach for local communities

chapter 14|14 pages

Community-based ecotourism

Opportunities and difficulties for local communities and link to conservation

chapter 16|13 pages

Indigenous peoples and rainforest tourism

Canopy walkways as tourist attractions

part IV|71 pages

Wildlife and rainforest tourism

chapter 17|18 pages

Rainforest wildlife

A key element in Sabah's destination appeal

chapter 18|16 pages

Implications of invasive alien species for rainforest tourism

A case study on feral pigs in Australia's Wet Tropics World Heritage Area

chapter 19|14 pages

Rainforest primate tourism in Uganda

Successes, challenges and the future

chapter 20|15 pages

The complexities of community-based tourism

How external forces influence the sustainability of bird watching tourism in the remote Arfak Mountains of West Papua

chapter 21|7 pages

Findings and research issues