Although there isn´t a single agreed worldwide figure, it can be safely estimated from compiling regional studies that wildlife watching generates annual global revenues in the order of tens of billions of dollars, and European trade agencies estimate that people take about 12 million trips a year to undertake it, with an annual growth estimated at 10%. Most likely, this growth can be realized in developing countries, with an immense potential to generate much-needed jobs and income and dire challenges to be addressed as regards sustainability and equity. 

Marine wildlife – from seahorses to whales, from corals to sharks – has been subject to varying degrees of scrutiny as regards its potential for non-extractive use and income generation around the globe. Non-extractive uses of these animals have often been underestimated in their potential to prevent, restrict or otherwise eliminate unsustainable extractive uses and other environmentally degrading activities in the sea and along coastal areas. Further, policymakers from different levels of governance, in particular at the international level, have been either slow or utterly reactionary when it comes to acknowledging, giving a seat at the negotiating table and ultimately protecting non-extractive use stakeholders and “assets” – the very species and habitats targeted - from unsustainable competing uses.

In fact, many of the “impacts” attributed to non-extractive uses of marine wildlife both in scientific/technical literature and policy documents from governmental agencies and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), often addressed under a precautionary, as opposed to a fact-based, approach, are brandished against this biodiversity use sector with undue frequency, while other, more impacting uses receive a much more tolerant treatment. Yet non-extractive use “impacts” are often negligible when compared to the alternative: poorly regulated - or fully unregulated - extractive uses.

This book is a rare attempt to provide a global perspective on non-extractive uses of marine wildlife, its histories, successes, challenges and threats to its sustainable fruition by coastal communities around the world. Drawing not from academic theory but from real-life cases instead, mostly from developing countries, and helped by real-life experts - local pioneers and participants in activities involving a myriad of species and local settings providing their first-hand accounts and impressions - the author dwells into what it takes to develop environmentally sustainable and socially beneficial non-extractive uses of marine wildlife; which factors in government bureaucracies help or hinder such operations; which impacts in the natural environment and local societies are real and how they are solved or mitigated. 

There´s also an attempt to understand which reasons command the apparent snubbing of non-extractive uses of marine wildlife by most MEAs up to this day. This unorthodox quest concludes by proposing a veritable global uprising against this neglect and in favour of harmonious, sustainable and equitable ways of profiting from the presence of these unique species and ecosystems in our lives without causing them harm.

The book can be purchased from Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/LivingWtr