Ecotourism and indigenous communities: The Lower Kinabatangan experience

Protected areas represent the heart of the world's political and economic commitment to conserve biodiversity and other natural and cultural resources (Borrini-Feyerabend et al. 2004). Covering more than 10 per cent of the world's land surface, their success is a tool for conservation largely depends on whether they are effectively managed to protect the values they contain (Hockings et al. 2006). The management of protected areas has been predominantly the responsibility of various local, state and/or national government agencies, often with influence from other interested parties, including ecologists, social scientists, conservation and human-rights advocates, legislators, policy makers and NGOs.