Prospects for agro-tourism where primates inhabit agricultural ecotones

There are many examples of the successful use of transitional zones by primates: Colobus guereza, which can subsist off non-native plants, in Entebbe, Uganda; Alouatta palliata finding refuge in shade coffee plantations in Nicaragua; Macaca silenus consuming tea berries in the Anaimalai Hills, India; and Procolobus kirkii pruning coconuts in plantations on Zanzibar. Financial losses accrued by farmers as a result of crop-raiding by these species could be countered with agro-tourism, the expansion of ecotourism to rural communities where visitors are exposed to regional farming and fishing practices. Agro-tourism probably has greater appeal where visitors can see monkeys.

The initiation of agro-tourism in these areas would have several benefits, including (1) initially discouraging primates from crops as people would be present more often, (2) eventually habituating primates to visitors, and (3) generating revenue that funds a tourism scheme with (4) some of the profit used for planting fast-growing food trees for monkeys.

A query pending further investigation is if the success of agro-tourism depends more on the region's proximity to a national park or to a major city? It is more likely that monkeys are present where there is a nearby forest and, if monkeys are indeed of appeal to visitors, then agro-tourism will have more success in an agricultural ecotone adjacent to monkey habitat. Where forest is close, monkeys have forest food and will therefore visit farms occasionally rather than using them as their chief foraging ground. Agro-tourism is likely to aid in the resolution of human-wildlife conflicts taking place at the borders of protected forested areas exploited by these 'fluid ecotypes'.