Economics of Wildlife Conservation and Protected Area Tourism

Traditionally, Protected Areas (PAs) were used as an effective tool for achieving conservation goals. But in the present day scenario, a significant role is being played by them in supporting local, national, and international biodiversity policies. The PAs also play crucial roles in providing places for scientific research, wilderness protection and maintenance of environmental services, education, tourism and recreation, and sustainable use of biological resources. This book brings together the issues of wilderness conservation and economics of environment for sustainable development. 

The present volume is an empirical attempt to show wildlife conservation as an economic tool for sustainable tourism development in North East India in general and Assam in Particular which have a number of National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries. The volume also proves that conservation of forest and wildlife is not an economic burden to the government but can become an economic boon if planned and regulated tourism is developed there.

In the course of structuring the present volume, two important valuation methods for environmental goods namely; the Travel Cost Method (TCM) and Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) are applied. 

The book will essentially be an important source of information for the environmental economists, policy makers, researchers and more particularly students of environment and resource economics of Indian Universities.