Using tourism as a mechanism to reduce poaching and hunting: a case study of the Tidong community Sabah

Abstract

[Extract] Despite the growing popularity of studies on aspects of sustainable tourism development the issue of poaching, a major enemy of sustainability has been largely ignored in the tourism literature. As this paper argues poaching is a major and growing problem in many areas. The paper also demonstrates that while successful tourism development has some capacity to engender change that will result in a reduction of poaching activity the failure of tourism projects may reignite a return to poaching. The paper has two objectives. Firstly, the paper reports on local community attitudes to wildlife utilization in Tabin Wildlife Reserve, one of Sabah's most remote areas. Secondly, the paper examines how the success of tourism activities is related to increases and decreases in poaching and hunting.