Rural communities surrounding protected natural
areas have little or no influence on decision making
or the institutions of wildlife conservation and tourist
management. 2~ Their social and environmental
values contrast dramatically with those held by conservation
officials and western tourists. Local people,
preoccupied by meeting their subsistence needs,
confront poverty and famine compounded by wildlife's
destruction of their property. 2f They therefore
cannot afford to grant aesthetic value and the goals
of long-term nature conservation a high priority. As
the following statement shows, the perceptions of
the local people are at variance with those of conservation
managers and tourists: