Ecotourism may deter hunters, but also keeps wildlife away, Laos study suggests

Clouded leopards, sun bears, and other medium to large mammals living in a protected but intensively hunted landscape in northern Laos might be selecting their forest hangouts based on the chatter of hikers and splashes of kayakers, according to new research. The study, published in Global Ecology and Conservation, used camera-trap data from between 2013 and 2019 to investigate whether an award-winning community-based ecotourism initiative that has operated tours in Nam Ha National Protected Area since 1999 brings any benefits to local wildlife populations by creating a safe haven from hunting pressure. “Hunting is a really integral part of the local culture, some of it legal, some of it illegal,” William Bleisch, lead author of the study and former program director at the Hong Kong-based China Exploration and Research Society, told Mongabay in an interview. Bleisch said he and his colleagues were curious to find out whether tourism created “a kind of refuge” where people would forgo hunting either because they could see the economic and social benefits of wildlife tourism or because they were afraid of being reported by guides or tourists. To test their theory, the team set up camera traps at 59 sites across the landscape, both within tourism hotspots and at more remote locations in the forest reserve. They recorded a total 45 species of medium to large mammals across the whole landscape, including 15 globally threatened species. They found an average 4.58 species at sites close to trekking trails and kayaking routes, and almost twice…This article was originally published on

Mongabay