The book is an important volume about islands in Malaysia, particularly in Sabah. It is a useful collection about tourism and small business development with special focus on islands. This volume has discussed extensively the potential prospects and challenges related to the islands that the research team has visited. It shares valuable insights, knowledge and experiences that offer essential references and guidance for various stakeholders as well as future research. The research team is thankful and express the utmost appreciation for the support received from the Universiti Malaysia Sabah particularly the Research and Innovation Management Centre to make the study possible. Hence, the publication of this humble volume that may well benefit the wider audience.

First Published in 2008. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Globally rainforests are under threat on numerous fronts, including clearing for agriculture, harvesting for timber and urban expansion. Yet they have a crucial role in biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and providing other ecosystem services. As the term is used in this book, rainforests include both temperate and tropical, although the emphasis is on tropical rainforests. Rainforests are also attractive tourist spaces and where they have been used as a tourism resource have generated significant income for local communities. However not all use of rainforests as a tourism resource has been sustainable. This book argues that sustainability must be the foundation on which tourism use of this complex but ultimately fragile ecosystem must be built upon. It provides a multi-disciplinary perspective, incorporating rainforest science, management and tourism issues. The book is organized into four sections commencing with Rainforest Ecology and Management followed by People and Rainforests, Opportunities for Rainforest Tourism Development and finally Threats to Rainforests. Each major rainforest region is covered, including the Amazon, Central America, Africa, Australia and south-east Asia, in the context of a specific issue. For example rainforests in Papua New Guinea are examined in the context of community-based ecotourism development, while the rainforests in Borneo are discussed in an examination of wildlife issues. Other issues covered in this manner include governance, empowerment issues for rainforest peoples and climate change.

As a pluralistic nation, Malaysia consists of diverse ethnic groups of people with various cultures that integrate harmonious and peaceful living in a politically stable and wonderfully rich environmental setting. Due to such unique features, people from abroad become largely attracted to this land and thus frequently arrive here as visitors and tourists. There are tremendous amounts of attractions for the visitors and tourists, and people from various backgrounds arrive to stay here temporarily, generating around RM65 billion in foreign earnings, adding to its national coffer every year. Nevertheless, tourism also causes a major negative effect in which the local culture may be assimilated into the alien norms and behaviors through the continuous process of acculturation. Due to day-to-day interactions with the tourists and visitors, many sociocultural impacts have affected local values, which contextually require to be redefined. This book analyzes critically the sociocultural and environmental impacts of tourism in Malaysia, having collected both qualitative and quantitative data at the empirical level of investigation.