Living on the Edge

<p>Tourism has an essential role in terms of contributing to the financial sustainability of protected areas. In addition through effective and efficient benefit-sharing tourism can positively impact numerous stakeholders within and beyond the protected area.</p><p>Living on the Edge: Benefit-Sharing from Protected Area Tourism highlights the complexity of benefit-sharing the importance of identifying all relevant stakeholders the challenges of ensuring equity and sustainability and the critical importance of good governance. The evolution of benefit-sharing mechanisms over time also emphasizes a continuing need to evolve and adapt to each unique situation as much evidence indicates that little has changed for those living on the edge. Although this book focuses on benefit-sharing from protected area tourism it is essential to acknowledge that along with these benefits are costs associated with tourism including possible increased local prices loss of access to land human–wildlife conflict and other related costs. The contributing authors agree that benefit-sharing must include good governance accountability equity transparency a broad reach of stakeholder engagement and a robust combination of tangible and intangible benefits – with recognition that benefit-sharing systems need to be adaptive and evolve as needed according to the relevant situation.</p><p>The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the <i>Journal of Sustainable Tourism.</i></p>