Part 2: Protected areas and development
8.2 Key issues for tourism and protected areas
8.2.1 Building capacity to manage and benefit from sustainable tourism
Each community and local government should be equipped to determine their own tourism development goals and aspirations. For this to occur, they must have funding and access to information and
professionally trained individuals.
8.2.1.1 Building capacity of PA managers to manage tourism development
A significant constraint to effective management is that most PAs in the region have inadequate staff numbers, technical abilities, and funding. Emerging responsibilities for tourism management and the growing complexity of relationships with local communities are placing additional demands on PA staff for which they are not equipped. In Lao PDR, Vietnam and Cambodia overall levels of staff training are rudimentary.
PA managers tend to have insufficient status and authority to influence development activities that may be incompatible with PA objectives. Low skill levels and lack of exposure to appropriate development options compound their limited influence as do low budgets and salaries. Reform of government salaries is a critical component of institutional capacity building and the achievement of sustainable tourism development goals.
Training of PA managers needs to be one of the highest priorities for governments seeking to explore the development potentials of PAs while maintaining conservation goals. Tourism development and facilitation should be a key component of such training.15 Enhanced capacity needs to be accompanied by increased resource and authority to apply new skills.
8.2.1.2 Clarifying roles and responsibilities
Many tourism developments have met with problems through lack of consultation. Early identification and inclusion of stakeholders in the process is necessary to establish a shared vision, minimise delays in implementation, avoid negative consequences, and ensure an equitable sharing of benefits. Most important at an early stage is to define roles and responsibilities of the various parties.
The sharing of tourism management and development responsibilities between PA and tourism authorities should be clarified to promote effective cooperation between the two sectors. In protected areas, PA management agencies should take the lead and coordinate the planning process to ensure PA
15 A number of training materials have been developed internationally and are freely available. For example www.sustainabletourism.org identifies materials ranging from short technical courses to postgraduate degrees.
conservation objectives and regulations are met. Their ability to do so will depend on available funding and staff capacity.
Appropriate activities for tourism authorities can include marketing and promotion, pricing, market research and facilitating product development, private sector management, facilitating community involvement, training and certifying guides (in cooperation with the private sector), developing and disseminating codes of conduct, monitoring socio-economic and cultural impacts and the provision of visitor information and booking services.
Other public sector agencies, such as road and electricity authorities also make an important contribution to tourism development and conservation and should be included in participatory planning.
The relative contributions of private and public sectors must be clarified to avoid situations where
government staff become closely involved in implementing tourism operations and are unable to perform their core duties, or where a conflict of interest could arise between PA staff who monitor the impacts of tourist activity but also rely on tourism revenue. Mechanisms are needed such as concession systems, for separating the management of tourism development from park management functions while maintaining the flow of financial benefits to PAs.
The private sector has a major role to play in the development and implementation of tourism products and to facilitate the involvement of local communities.
8.2.1.3 Community participation
Community participation in the planning process will support the development of products that are sensitive to the needs and vulnerabilities of the destination. Bringing together all stakeholders, including managers, community residents, private sector partners and tourists allows ideas to be exchanged and increases the level of knowledge of tourism in the community. These interested parties should be kept involved throughout the process. Local cultures and communities are also important to the tourist experience (Box 8.2).
Box 8.2: Revaluing Culture: A tourist guide manual about the Tampuen people
The rapidly disappearing indigenous culture is a growing concern among hill tribe people in Northern Cambodia.
As part of the DRIVE project trainee guides undertake research into their culture by gathering legends, customs and songs from village elders and family members. This provides a rich source of information for tourists and presents the community with an opportunity to teach the younger generation about their traditions.
One of the more challenging aspects of community participation is involving a balanced representation of a community. Consultation often focuses on the views of the more visible decision makers, usually males from leading families. By contrast, women and children provide many of the tourist services in and around PAs. Women are also the primary producers of handicrafts often sold to tourists.
8.2.1.4 Assessing feasibility of individual communities to participate in tourism
In protected areas there are often many communities that may be interested in participating in tourism development. However, careful assessments are necessary to ensure communities are ready, willing and able to develop viable tourism products, and that limited tourism development resources are optimally targeted to meet community priorities and conservation objectives.
Local PA and tourism management authorities need clear criteria for assessing a community’s suitability for tourism development. Criteria used should reflect the conservation objectives of the zone in which the community is located, socio-cultural considerations and community development and tourism
sustainability objectives.
Once a community has been assessed as suitable for tourism development it is the responsibility of local authorities to ensure they are well informed as to the costs and benefits and that there is consensus within the community to participate.
8.2.1.5 Promoting equity in community based tourism
Tourism development can provide communities with an immediate and significant source of much needed income, education and skills, but these benefits do not automatically accrue to all members of the host community.
For example, Ban Nammat Mai, an Akha ethnic community in the Nam Ha PA of Lao PDR is estimated to be earning 40 per cent of its total village income from tourism (US$350 over a 3 month monitoring period) in the form of hosting trekking groups of up to eight people and limited to two visitations per week.
Income is sourced mainly from accommodation in a village guesthouse and from sale of food. Nearly half of the 33 village households have almost doubled their average quarterly income from tourism and most of this money is spent on medicines, hospital visits and food (UNESCO Nam Ha Ecotourism Project 2001).
In this situation tourism is making a tangible contribution to the social and economic welfare of the village.
Yet, a significant proportion of families in Ban Nammat Mai receives little or no benefit and remain very much on the poverty line. This is due to a lack of organisational capacity within the village, ineffective leadership and existing socio-economic inequities.
Generally the wealthier families that have sufficient labour, who are in relatively good health and who are able to communicate with the tour guides are those that benefit from tourism. In those situations, tourism can exacerbate inequities and precipitate conflict. It may also lead to the emergence of undesirable behaviour such as begging and aggressive selling of products and, in the process, ultimately threaten the viability of the tourism business.
The lesson learned from Ban Nammat Mai is that active intervention may be necessary to assist a
community to distribute benefits and manage impacts of tourism development. The supporting project is attempting to address these problems through facilitating organisational strengthening and developing alternative income sources for poorer families such as the sale of handicrafts.
Another example where the benefits of tourism are not equitably distributed is Cat Cat village in northern Vietnam, a community of 360 Hmong people and a staging point for many trekking operations from Sa Pa. In 1997, studies revealed that on average the village received over three times its population in tourists every day and benefited only from the sale of a few handicrafts and cold drinks. Most tourists arrive with non- local guides, carry their own food and water and generally do not require local goods or services.
8.2.1.6 Maintaining a balanced community development strategy
A balance must be found between tourism activity and other economic opportunities for communities living in and around protected areas. Communities that become highly dependent on tourism benefits may do so at the expense of maintaining other important subsistence and economic activities. Such communities are particularly vulnerable to the inherent instability and possible failure of the tourism market. Where possible, tourism should be developed in conjunction with other sectors consistent with conservation requirements such as health, education, natural resource management and agricultural food security (Box 8.3). This will help to diversify and strengthen a community’s economy and so reduce its dependency on tourism. It will also assist the community to build its social capacity to more effectively manage tourism development.
One option is the creation of a protected area or community development fund for those living in the vicinity of a PA whereby some of the income raised through tourism is used to assist other forms of economic development. It is important however that there is a transparent system for the collection and allocation of village development funds and clear criteria for governing the use of funds to ensure that activities are compatible with PA conservation objectives.
Box 8.3: Contributing to Sustainable Community Development, Chiang Rai, Thailand The Population and Community Development Association (PDA) is working with Ban Lorcha, a Phami-Akha ethnic village in Chiang Rai province Thailand, to develop a model for hill tribe based tourism that contributes to sustainable community development. A key component of the project is to strengthen the organisational capacity in the village to manage tourism and ensure that benefits are equitably distributed within the community and are used for development activities. This is achieved in various ways:
• A number of working groups have been set up in the village to manage the daily tasks associated with tourism including an Area Development Group, the Welcome and General Services Group, the Cultural Education Group, the Occupational and Product Development Group and the Finance and Bookkeeping Group.
• Income generated by tourism is deposited into a Village Bank in which all households are members.
• At the end of each year the funds in the Village Bank are divided into two parts. One part is invested for village development activities including the education of needy children, financial assistance to the elderly, orphans and villagers who have no means of supporting themselves and for reinvestment back into the development of tourist activities. A second portion of the annual fund is distributed equally among all households for personal use.
The funds for developing the tourism enterprise were advanced to the village as a ‘soft loan’ from the Revolving Loan Fund established by PDA. The Village Bank will have to repay the loan from income generated by tourism which will then be used to assist other villages to participate in sustainable tourism development initiatives.
Source: Adapted from a presentation by PDA at the Chiang Mai Regional Conference on Community-Based Ecotourism in Southeast Asia 2002
8.2.2 The need for an ecosystem approach to planning and zoning