Wildlife Tourism and Conservation: The Hidden Vale Project

Abstract

Wildlife tourism encompasses a wide range of tourism experiences that involve encounters for tourists with non-domesticated animals which are either free ranging or captive and includes zoos and nature parks. Wildlife tourism is a growing industry, which is reflected in the number and variety of activities on offer and the increase of tourism businesses offering them. Its growing popularity can contribute to local economies and have major impacts on wildlife and their habitats. It can thus benefit conservation by direct wildlife management, supporting research and educating visitors on conservation, while its revenue is considered to be a growing method of conserving wildlife, particularly for those species threatened or endangered, and particularly where government expenditure on conservation is limited or unavailable. However, while sustainability is a wildlife tourism goal which is widely accepted and adopted by governments and businesses, this requires management processes to identify negative effects, implement actions to correct them as well as conducting ongoing monitoring, ideally from the outset of the project. This chapter describes and discusses the Hidden Vale Project—a long term endeavour on private land which aims to combine wildlife conservation with a range of other activities including livestock production, wildlife tourism/ecotourism and adventure activities.