Over 1,000 mammal species are red-listed by IUCN, as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable. Conservation of many threatened mammal species, even inside protected areas, depends on costly active day-to-day defence against poaching, bushmeat hunting, invasive species and habitat encroachment. Many parks agencies worldwide now rely heavily on tourism for routine operational funding: >50% in some cases. This puts rare mammals at a new risk, from downturns in tourism driven by external socioeconomic factors. Using the survival of individual animals as a metric or currency of successful conservation, we calculate here what proportions of remaining populations of IUCN-redlisted mammal species are currently supported by funds from tourism. This proportion is ≥5% for over half of the species where relevant data exist, ≥15% for one fifth, and up to 66% in a few cases. Many of these species, especially the most endangered, survive only in one single remaining subpopulation. These proportions are not correlated either with global population sizes or recognition as wildlife tourism icons. Most of the more heavily tourism-dependent species, however, are medium sized (>7.5 kg) or larger. Historically, biological concern over the growth of tourism in protected areas has centered on direct disturbance to wildlife. These results show that conservation of threatened mammal species has become reliant on revenue from tourism to a previously unsuspected degree. On the one hand, this provides new opportunities for conservation funding; but on the other, dependence on such an uncertain source of funding is a new, large and growing threat to red-listed species.

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ResumoO presente artigo analisa a questão do turismo de base comunitária (TBC) como metodologia de trabalho que almeja a melhora das condições de vida das comunidades que optam por esta atividade como estratégia. A medida em que o objetivo é discutir questões metodológicas do processo em desenvolvimento de projetos, como acesso a mercado, governança e monitoramento o trabalho apresenta estudos de caso brasileiros onde processo de cooperação e institucionalização de iniciativas através de associações e cooperativas de turismo foram vitais à sustentabilidade em todos os níveis. Em função da complexidade e das inúmeras variáveis que estão implícitas que estão atraladas à atividade turística em comunidades, o artigo também aponta possibilidades de avanço na adoção de estratégias locais ao envolvimento comunitário, onde o trabalho com a cadeia de valor do turismo no que tange a produção associada ao turismo pode mostrar melhores resultados.Palavras-chave: turismo de base comunitária; desenvolvimento; governança; monitoramento. Abstract This article analyses community-based tourism (CBT) as a methodology of work that aims to improve the livelihood of the communities that choose this activity as an economic development strategy. Using examples from Brazil, the objective is to address methodological questions about the development stages as well as issues pertaining to access to markets