Can nature tourism help finance protected areas in the Congo Basin?

In the debt-ridden, high-population-growth, resource-mining states of the C ongo Basin, conservation of biodiversity is seldom the primary concern of n ational policy makers or of local resource users. Moreover, the recurring c osts of managing protected areas and the opportunity costs of forgoing logg ing and farming to maintain protected areas are a substantial net drain on national and local economies. Consequently, it is becoming increasingly imp ortant that protected areas generate, from user fees or donor contributions , sufficient funds to offset the costs of maintaining them. Government and donor investment currently meet less than 30 per cent of the estimated recu rring costs required to manage the protected -area network within central A frican countries effectively, and cover none of the growing opportunity cos ts. Nature tourism, the fastest growing sector of the $US3 trillion (3 mill ion million) a year global tourism industry, may offer a source of revenue to help fill this gap in funds. Congo Basin national parks and reserves har bour many charismatic animals (okapi, lowland gorilla, mandrills, bongo, fo rest elephant) that are likely to attract tourists, and as a result many pr otected-area managers are sinking capital into the development of tourist i nfrastructure. This paper reviews the evidence for ecotourism's capacity to generate revenue for protected-area management and appraises the financial viability of nature tourism in the Congo Basin.