Conservation threats from tourism land grabs and greenwash

We report a new threat to conservation, namely land grabs by large tourism developers inside public protected areas. Locally, these tourism land grabs damage national parks through building footprints and access corridors, bringing habitat fragmentation, noise, light, roadkill, fire risk, and invasive plant and animal species and pathogens. They also create negative impacts on social equity and regional economies. The global tourism industry now perceives private development in public national parks as a mechanism to profit from land speculation, rather than merely monopoly provision of visitor services. Investment funds now use tourism, often with socialwashing components, as a political lever for land grabs. International “nature positive” marketing by tourism industry associations and multilateral tourism advocacy organisations is greenwash: it lacks substance, and aims to coopt conservation organisations. • Large-scale property investors now use tourism for land grabs inside protected areas. • This creates significant negative impacts on conservation of biodiversity and habitat. • Tourism developers and government advocates use socialwashing for political leverage. • International tourism industry associations have started global greenwash campaigns. • This is a change from monopoly provision of visitor services, to land speculation.