A significant contribution to ecotourism’s global following has been its

potential to deliver benefits to communities remote from centers of

commerce, benefits that do not involve widespread social or environmental

destruction.18 Too often in the past the only opportunities for many

communities remote from urban centers, particularly in the developing

world, were provided by the extractive industries – mining, logging, fishing or

slash and burn livestock production – all of which have detrimental impacts

on local communities and often leave an unacceptable legacy of long-term

environmental damage.