What can be the role of People-First Tourism in the conservation of tropical forests?
A longstanding goal of conservation initiatives has been for the development of projects that exhibit long-term sustainability without dependence on foreign funding. Additionally, recent research has shown that conservation initiatives with a traditional ‘command and control’ approach tend to undermine the livelihoods of local populations and the economic sustainability of forest-dependent communities, therefore failing to succeed in the “triple bottom line” approach to sustainability. We propose that Forest-based tourism micro-entrepreneurship through People-First Tourism may provide a suitable alternative to large-scale top down approaches. People-First Tourism provides dignified and sustainable livelihood alternatives to small-scale entrepreneurs in tropical forest communities by empowering them to support their livelihoods through innovative tourism opportunities. For example, in the context of the Caatinga forests of Brazil, it hopes to accomplish three ma...