Hector Ceballos-Lascurain. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland, and Cambridge, UK, 1996.

Hector Ceballos-Lascurain, a Mexican architect and environmentalist, Director of the Programme of International Consultancy on Ecotourism and Special Adviser on Ecotourism to IUCN, based the representative, well organized book on papers presented at the tourism workshops held during the IV World Congress on National Parks and Protected Areas, Caracas, Venezuela, February 1992 with some of his own material and research added. It is an interesting work, primarily an essential guide for protected area planners and managers. Its task is to show how tourism as a positive force for conservation can be realized and the dangers avoided. Substantial contents are indicated by the titles of the main chapters: Tourism and the environment Negative tourism impacts Government policy in relation to tourism and protected areas Creating and managing tourism in protected areas Assessment, monitoring and management techniques Preparing protected areas for tourism.

All experiences, examples and case studies are carefully selected form all over the world-except Central and Eastern Europe. Thus the guidelines have virtually no direct relevance to the countries in that IUCN Statutory Region. By all means, however, it is thought-provoking reading for leaders and practitioners trying to reconcile tourism with nature conservation in the various transition stages of the post-communist economy.

The book is available from:

IUCN Publications Service Unit
219c Huntingdon Road
Cambridge CB3 ODL, UK