Tourism is a fragile industry with multiple stakeholders. Globally, the desire of its stakeholders is to gain more benefits and eliminate negative impacts on resources that support the industry, particularly in protected areas (PAs) such as national parks and game reserves. Hence, sustainability is at the core of tourism development. However, in most developing regions, body of knowledge on sustainability has not been fully transferred to operational levels. Negative impacts of tourism and conflicts of interest among stakeholders are skyrocketing. Previous studies in tourism management reveal that it is difficult to achieve sustainability goals when stakeholders work in divergence.

This concept paper will problematize the situation, using the African context that has inadequate literature reflecting stakeholder management in protected areas. The intention is to enhance stakeholders' participation for sustainable management of protected areas. Justification for using the concept of protected areas is grounded in the fact that they offer a good platform for studying stakeholders. Moreover, protected areas are impacted by human activities such as, unsustainable tourism development. To get deeper insight on the concepts, the author conducted a critical literature review and made use of his working experience of more than eight years in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT) Tanzania, dealing with tourism stakeholders in the industry. The paper hopes to reveal substantial findings that   explore concepts of stakeholders’ management as well as fostering sustainability in protected areas.