, while producing economic opportunities to make the conservation of natural resources beneficial to local people’ (ibid.). USAID support projects that claim to integrate conservation and development activities in many Third World countries. These, they claim, provide alternatives to encroaching into protected areas to hunt, log and farm. Furthermore, ‘a new group of stakeholders with a vested interest in protecting parks’ is created. It is clearly important for them to offer benefits to host communities, as ‘potential local resistance to setting aside forest and fishing areas for conservation can often be softened by employment and income producing opportunities ecotourism can generate’ (USAID, 1996: 1)