Lecture responsible tourism unit 15 responsible tourism good practices for protected areas in vietnam

UNIT 15 RESPONSIBLE TOURISM GOOD PRACTICES FOR PROTECTED AREAS IN VIETNAM Picture source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_a_Douc.jpg Unit outline Objectives Topics By the end of this unit, participants will be able to: • Understand the impacts of tourism in protected areas and the importance of responsible tourism • Explain how to integrate responsible tourism principles into protected area planning • Explain how responsible tourism principles should be considered in protected area infrastructure and services • Describe responsible tourism principles in visitor impact management in protected areas • Identify financing mechanisms for economic sustainability in protected areas • Explain how to communicate and interpret natural heritage responsibly • Identify how to involve local communities in protected area planning and management • Explain how to monitor and evaluate protected areas for sustainability Overview of protected areas and tourism in Vietnam Integrating responsible tourism into planning Responsible tourism considerations in infrastructure & services Responsible tourism approach to visitor impact management Responsible financing of protected areas Responsible communication & interpretation Protected area monitoring & evaluation for sustainability RESPONSIBLE TOURISM GOOD PRACTICES FOR PROTECTED AREAS IN VIETNAM TOPIC OVERVIEW OF PROTECTED AREAS AND TOURISM IN VIETNAM Picture source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Van_Long_natural_reserve_03.jpg Defining protected areas A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values Source: Dudley, N (ed.) 2008, Guidelines for Appling Protected Areas Management Categories, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland The six IUCN categories of protected areas A Protect significant areas characterised by the interaction of people and nature Strict Nature Reserve (a) & Wilderness Area (b) National Park Natural Monument or Feature Habitat / Species Management Area Protected Landscape / Seascape Protected Area with Sustainable Use of Natural Resources ? B Protect large scale-ecological processes, species and ecosystems C Protect a particular species or habitats D Protect ecosystems, habitats and associated cultural values and traditional natural resource management systems E Protect biodiversity and geological / geomorphical features or natural condition F Protect a specific natural monument The six IUCN categories of protected areas A Protect significant areas characterised by the interaction of people and nature Strict Nature Reserve (a) & Wilderness Area (b) National Park Natural Monument or Feature Habitat / Species Management Area Protected Landscape / Seascape Protected Area with Sustainable Use of Natural Resources ! B Protect large scale-ecological processes, species and ecosystems C Protect a particular species or habitats D Protect ecosystems, habitats and associated cultural values and traditional natural resource management systems E Protect biodiversity and geological / geomorphical features or natural condition F Protect a specific natural monument Vietnam’s natural environment at a glance More than 128 68 wetlands of national importance about 15 18% forested protected areas of the land under some form of environmental protection marine protected areas 10% of the world’s species The benefits of protected areas Biodiversity & ecology Fresh water & food security Natural barriers Poverty reduction Medicines & genetics Regulates climate change Traditional lifestyles Recreation al, spiritual Social capital & solidarity The key administrators of Vietnam’s protected areas Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Ministry of Fisheries (MOFI) Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) Ministry of Culture & Information Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) Provincial People’s Committees (PPCs) The growing importance of tourism in protected areas Protected areas play an important role in tourism by offering visitors places for: • Outdoor recreational • Education and learning • Solace, spiritualism, healing and renewal FINDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL ECOTOURISM SOCIETY • Ecotourism has been growing 20%34% per year since the 1990s • In the international market naturebased tourism has been growing at 10-12% per annum • Indications that tourism is expanding most in and around the word’s remaining natural areas • Eco-resorts and hotels are expected to boom faster than traditional forms of accommodation Source: The International Ecotourism Society 2006, Fact Sheet: Global Ecotourism, Available [online]: http://mekongtourism.org/website/wpcontent/uploads/downloads/2011/02/Fact-Sheet-GlobalEcotourism-IETS.pdf (accessed May 2013) Impact type vs Indicator type Environmental impacts Quantitative indicators Raw data Ratio Percentage Social impacts Economic impacts IMPACT Qualitative indicators Category indices Normative indicators Nominal indicators Opinion-based indicators TYPE OF INDICATOR TYPE OF MEASURE ISSUE COMPONENT A SUSTAINABILITY ISSUE ISSUE COMPONENT C Dissection of an sustainability issue into indicators ISSUE COMPONENT G ISSUE COMPONENT E ISSUE COMPONENT INDICATOR E1 ISSUE COMPONENT INDICATOR E2 ISSUE COMPONENT INDICATOR E3 … Example of tourism indicator development process for sustainability KEY SUSTAINABILITY ISSUE COMPONENTS OF ISSUE INDICATORS Waste management Number hotels with a recycling programme Environmental protection Biodiversity protection Number of threatened or extinct species as percentage of all known species Perceived value of forest resources to tourism Don’t reinvent the wheel! Use and / or adapt existing indicators World Tourism Organisation Indicator Guidebook Many organisations have already developed and refined useful indicators for monitoring tourism impacts on sustainability Pressure, State, Response Indicators UNEP Environmental Indicators IUCN Indicators of Resources Management Example of environmental and economic sustainability indicators in tourism ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMIC Number of threatened or extinct species as percentage of all known species Perceived value of forest resources to tourism Number of days tourists spend on nature tourism activities out of total number of days Number of hotels with environmental policy Environmental awareness campaigns conducted Number hotels recycling 25% or more of their waste products Demand/supply ratio for water Number of hotels with 50% or more of total toilets as dual flush % of energy consumption from renewable resources Average wage rates in tourism jobs rural/ urban Number of local people employed in tourism (men and women) Revenues generated by tourism as % of all revenues generated in the community % of visitors who overnight in local tourist accommodation % of hotels with a majority local staff % of GDP provided by tourism Change in number of visitor arrivals Average tourist length of stay New tourism businesses as a percentage of all new businesses Example of social and project / business sustainability indicators in tourism SOCIAL % of tourism operators who provide day care to employees with children % of tourism operators who have commitments regarding equal gender opportunity Women/men as a % of all tourism employment % women/men employees sent on training programmes Satisfaction with volume of tourists visiting the destination PROJECT / BUSINESS PERFORMANCE PA Management Plan exists All personnel receive periodic tourism impact management training % of purchases of services and goods from local providers % of purchases that are fair trade purchases Number of facilities built using local material Code of conduct developed with local community % of women and local minority employees Good practice in setting effective tourism indicators Ensure you start with only a few key variables Ensure indicators identify conditions or outputs of tourism development Ensure indicators are easy to measure Ensure indicators are descriptive rather than evaluative Principle 2: Evaluate indicators using baselines, benchmarks and limits of acceptable change Effective monitoring systems often incorporate at a number of different tools to assist in the analysis of results: BENCHMARKS • The first “foundation” study from which future studies follow BASELINES • Comparison of data against baseline • Can also use industry averages • Helps establish if results are positive or negative in local situation LIMITS OF ACCEPTABLE CHANGE (THRESHOLDS) Examples of baselines, benchmarks and thresholds Establishing a baseline Using a benchmark • A survey was conducted in 2014 which established that 15% of households in a village had running water • This forms the baseline for household access to running water in the destination • In 2015 a repeat survey was conducted which recorded that 25% of households had running water • This shows a positive change of 10% against the Year baseline Comparing to thresholds • In terms of access to running water, anything less than 100% requires action • If however, the study was of the amount of protected forest in a community, 40% might be an acceptable target depending on the year benchmark Limits of acceptable change process and guidelines 1/2 STEPS Identify special values, issues, and concerns attributed to the area GUIDELINES Citizens and managers: • Identify special features or qualities that require attention • Identify existing management problems and concerns • Identify public issues: economic, social, environmental • Identify role the area plays in a regional and national context and political/institutional constraints COMMENT ON PURPOSE Encourages a better understanding of the natural resource base, a general concept of how the resource could be managed, and a focus on principal management issues Identify and describe recreation opportunity classes or zones Opportunity classes describe subdivisions or zones of the natural resource where different social, resource, or managerial conditions will be maintained • Identify opportunity classes for the natural resources • Describe different conditions to be maintained (Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex case study, Box 6.2 below illustrates the opportunity classes used there) Indicators are specific elements of the resource or social setting selected to be indicative of the conditions deemed appropriate and acceptable in each opportunity class • Select a few indicators as indicative measures of overall health • Use economic, social, environmental, political indicators • Ensure indicators are easy to measure, relate to conditions in opportunity classes, and reflect changes in recreational use • Use chosen indicators to guide the inventory of resource and social conditions • Use inventory data to provide a better understanding of area constraints and opportunities • Map inventories to establish status (location and condition) of indicators By placing the inventory as step 4, rather than the first step as is often done, planners avoid unnecessary data collection and ensure that the data collected is useful Developing classes (or zones) provides a way of defining a range of diverse conditions within the protected area Select indicators of resource and social conditions Inventory existing resource and social conditions Indicators are essential to LAC because their condition as a group reflects the overall condition of the opportunity class and guides the inventory Inventory data are mapped so both the condition and location of the indicators are known Helps managers establish realistic standards, and used later to evaluate the consequences of alternatives Limits of acceptable change process and guidelines 2/2 STEPS GUIDELINES COMMENT ON PURPOSE Specify standards for resource and social conditions in each opportunity class • Identify the range of conditions for each indicator considered desirable or acceptable for each opportunity class • Define conditions in measurable terms, to represent the maximum permissible conditions allowed (limits) • Ensure conditions are attainable and realistic Provides the basis for establishing a distinctive and diverse range of protected area settings, serving to define the “limits of acceptable change.” Identify alternative opportunity class allocations Identify management actions for each alternative This stage identifies alternative allocations of opportunities • Identify different types/location/timing of alternatives, using steps and to explore how well the different opportunity classes meet the various interests and values Provides alternative ways of managing the area to best meet the needs, interests, and concerns • Analyse broad costs and benefits of each alternative • Identify the kinds of management actions needed to achieve the desired conditions (direct or indirect) This step involves an analysis of the costs and benefits of each alternative Evaluation and selection of a preferred alternative • • • • Implement actions and monitor conditions • Develop implementation plan with actions, costs, timetable, and responsibilities • Develop a monitoring programme, focusing on the indicators developed in step • Compare indicator conditions with standards to evaluate the success of actions If conditions not correspond with standards the intensity of the management effort might need to be increased or new actions implemented Review costs vs benefits of alternatives with managers, stakeholders and public Examine the responsiveness of each alternative to the issues Explicitly state the factors considered, and their weight in decision-making Select a preferred alternative Builds consensus and selects the best alternative Ensures timely implementation and adjustment of management strategies Monitoring ensures that effectiveness of implementation is known If monitoring shows problems, actions can be taken SOCIAL ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENTAL Example: Acceptable thresholds of change for a national sustainable tourism programme in Samoa INDICATOR % of new hotels undertaking environmental impact assessments % of hotels using secondary or tertiary sewage treatment % of tourists participating in nature tourism % of tourist sites passing water quality tests % of hotels composting their biodegradable waste Water usage per guest night in hotels (in litres) Contribution of direct tourism businesses to GDP Proportion of new businesses focused on tourism Proportion of hotel jobs in rural areas Hotel staff participating in training courses Villages included in tourism awareness programmes Proportion of traditional events in Tourism Festivals Proportion of handicraft stalls out of all stalls in markets Tourism operators informing visitors of village protocol RESULT THRESHOLD PERFORMANCE 33% 90-100% V.POOR 8% 30-50% V.POOR 8% 20-40% V.POOR 50% 70-90% POOR 76% 60-80% ACCEPTABLE 928 500-1000 ACCEPTABLE 4% 10-20% POOR 4% 10-20% POOR 48% 40-60% ACCEPTABLE 27% 25-50% ACCEPTABLE 28% 25-50% ACCEPTABLE 50% 50-70% ACCEPTABLE 21% 20-40% ACCEPTABLE 72% 50-70% GOOD Source: SNV Vietnam & the University of Hawaii, School of Travel Industry Management 2007, A Toolkit for Monitoring and Managing Community-based Tourism, SNV Vietnam & the University of Hawaii, USA Principle 3: Ensure results are clearly communicated • There is no point in doing a monitoring programme if no one finds out about the results • Stakeholders and decision makers need to hear about the results so they can take action • Results should presented to help stakeholders reinforce positive actions or remedy problem situations PRINCIPLES IN COMMUNICATING RESULTS Consider the needs of the potential user Portray the results as simply as possible Options for getting the message out Website Create a section on the organisation’s website that provides details of the progress being made in sustainability performance Meetings and workshops Provide an analysis of the monitoring programme results in a practical and “hands-on” workshop or meeting It also in-depth analysis and detailed clarification of issues Email Deliver information about the sustainability monitoring program directly into the mailbox of the stakeholders Coming from senior management can add a level of authority Quick and direct Newsletters & reports Provide details of the results within the organisation newsletter or alternatively create a newsletter specifically for communicating the results Include results in the organisation’s annual report Picture sources: Pixabay, http://pixabay.com/ Xin trân trọng cảm ơn! Thank you! ... particularly in regard to more difficult issues TYPE OF INVOLVEMENT Informing Informing Informing Informing Consulting Deciding together Consulting Deciding together Consulting Deciding together Deciding... management Responsible financing of protected areas Responsible communication & interpretation Protected area monitoring & evaluation for sustainability RESPONSIBLE TOURISM GOOD PRACTICES FOR PROTECTED. .. sustainability Overview of protected areas and tourism in Vietnam Integrating responsible tourism into planning Responsible tourism considerations in infrastructure & services Responsible tourism approach