ABSTRACT
The future of natural resources, tourism and community livelihoods relationships discourse is contemplated with optimism if adaptive natural resources management strategies are conceptualized or informed by social-ecological adaptive management systems that do not separate human beings from the natural environment. In pre-colonial times, local norms and institutions defined and regulated this relationship, with the result that there was practically no reasonable need for external intervention. More seemingly progressive ideas have been piloted and implemented in various settings, including various permutation of community-based conservation through tourism, inclusive and cross-border collaborative conservation as well as corporate social responsibility. The rationale behind this current wave of efforts has been to address the plight of local communities by somehow including them in the conservation undertaking or demonstrating responsiveness towards their conditions. Realisation of policy goals and practices related to the tourism, livelihood and conservation nexus is by no means without debates and controversy.
