Global
Resource
Management
Journal for Information, Study and Discussion of Global Resource Management, Doshisha University
同志社大学リーディング大学院

グローバル・リソース・マネジメント ジャーナル

Vol.6

Table of ContentsVol. 6 issued March 2020
I. Preface .................................................................................................... 1
II. Research Note ........................................................................................ 2
Carada, Miriam Caryl
Assistant Professor, University of the Philippines Los Baños
III. Course Reports .................................................................................... 19
1. On-site Training in India (2019.3.9 – 3.17) .................................... 19- Ahmad, Marwa .................................................................... 19- Alashgar, Deeb Elian........................................................... 24- Hajjaj, Mohammed Awad.................................................... 30- Hernandez, James Edward II Aquino.................................. 37
2. On-site Training in Hiroshima (2019.8.18 – 8.25).......................... 47- Hajjaj, Mohammed Awad.................................................... 47
3. Group Work Practice V (Fall Semester 2019) ................................ 54- Ahmad, Marwa .................................................................... 54- Shimabukuro, Yuji ............................................................... 61

Preface1

Editor’s Preface
Eiji Oyamada
Chief Editor, GRM Journal
Professor, Graduate School of Global Studies, Doshisha University
As another year passes, the time has come to issue this 6th volume of the Global Resource
Management (GRM) Journal compiled through the immense hard work of all involved.
As the 7-year Leading Graduate School Program financially supported by the Japanese
government comes to a close with successful completion in 2019, it is with greatest pleasure
to announce that our institution commits to continuously run the GRM Program with the same
dedication, spirit and objectives under the full support, management and operation of theDoshisha University.
The world is continuously facing many challenges with global threats including the recent
outbreak of the Covid19 virus, and we aim to learn through the GRM Program to successfully
tackle the issues as global leaders.
This journal is composed of a research note which have undergone the peer review process andseveral reports on topics and activities of GRM over the past year.
I am highly grateful for all the hard work, cooperation and valuable support in preparing thisjournal, and wish all audience an enjoyable read.

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
2

Analyzing Climate Change and Disaster Management Policies in theDevelopment of the Ecotourism Industry in the Philippines
Miriam Caryl Carada
Assistant Professor, University of the Philippines Los Baños
Abstract
The Philippines is unique in terms of its geographic location. The country lies on the Pacificplate, typhoon belt, and the ring of fire. This implies high vulnerability of the country tonatural disasters, thus earning its place as one of the most natural disaster vulnerable
countries in the world. Apart from the frequent natural disasters in the country, thegeographical location positions the Philippines as one of the most mega diverse countries
in the world harboring a vast diversity of flora and fauna in its 7,107 islands. Being
ecologically and mega diverse, the country is inevitably driving the development of its
tourism industry showcasing its natural beauty, despite the frequent natural disasters. This
study focuses on the Philippine policies in disaster risk reduction and management(DRRM), climate change, and tourism. Specifically, the study discusses how a niche of
tourism, the ecological tourism, commonly called ecotourism is factored into the disastermanagement strategies and policies of the country and vice versa during the period from1990 to 2015.
As early as the 1970s the Philippine government has been conscious of its vulnerability tomultiple disasters. Policies have been developed since then, but it was only from the 1990s
that more emphasis was placed on policy development in disaster management. Thisdevelopment is influenced by the increasing interest of the global community in global
warming and climate change that is causing the increased intensity and frequency ofdisasters worldwide. Ecotourism on the other hand has been cited in a policy of the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as early as 1992 with regards
to the management of protected areas. Nevertheless, the Philippine government only
published a formal definition of the term ecotourism in 1999 that set the precedent for
ecotourism policies in the country.
Despite the increasing popularity of tourism in the Philippines and the increased intensityand frequency of natural disasters, there is limited reference to and involvement of tourism
in disaster management and climate change policies and vice versa. One of the main reasonsis the parallel development of disaster management and climate change policies andtourism policies. Nonetheless, for future policies relating to tourism, especially ecotourism
in highly disaster-vulnerable areas, it is recommended to include a disaster management
component. Furthermore, disaster management policies should pay attention to the valueof the ecosystem as a tool for DRRM, particularly the role that ecotourism could play insuch policies.
Keywords: Climate Change, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, Policy Review, Ecotourism,
Philippines

Contents
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.

Introduction
Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Policies in the Philippines
Tourism Policies in the Philippines
Incorporation of CC and DRRM Policies in Tourism Policies in
the Philippines
Conclusion
References

Research Note
3

I.

Introduction
There is an increasing number of global threats that can potentially or deliberately cause significant

economic and social paralysis throughout the world. One such threat is climate change, or the increase in the
Earth’s geographic and oceanic temperature. The impact of this threat has been felt more in recent years aschanges in weather patterns, rising sea levels, and extreme weather are beginning to become more visible.
One of the risks influenced by climate change is the increasing frequency and effect of natural hazards thatcause economic losses and even loss of lives. According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk
Reduction (UNISDR), the economic and human impacts of natural disasters from 2005 to 2014 haveaccounted for the deaths of 700,000 people, and $1.4 trillion damages in total. These damages disrupt
sustainable development and their impacts are borne by the most vulnerable sectors of society affecting
livelihoods and compounding poverty.
With various organizations and governments recognizing the increasing threats from natural hazards,
interest in disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) initiatives has increased. This increased interest
among various stakeholders has resulted in the emergence of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) as asolution-oriented academic concept as well as a public policy orientation. DRM is defined by UNISDR as“the systematic process of using administrative directives, organizations, and operational skill andcapabilities to implement strategies, policies and improved coping capacities in order to lessen the adverse
impacts of hazards and the possibility of disaster” (UNISDR, 2009). DRM as per the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) aims to “avoid, lessen or transfer the adverse effects of hazards throughactivities and measures for prevention, mitigation and preparedness” (UNDP, 2015).
Among the many initiatives for DRM is the emergence of the concept of Ecosystems Disaster Risk
Reduction (Eco-DRR) wherein natural ecosystems are used as buffers to natural disasters. By premise,
healthy and well-managed ecosystems have been recognized to maximize the delivery of benefits from theecosystem services. As per the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2006, ecosystem services are services
derived from the ecosystems, which includes to DRR (Renaud et al. 2013). The ecosystem service in generalis delineated into four categories: provision, support, regulation, and cultural services. Provision is theservice that describes material and even energy output from the ecosystem (food, crops, raw materials, water,
medicinal, and ornamental resources). Supporting services are services/processes that enable the ecosystem
to provide services. The supporting services include nutrient recycling, primary production, and soil
formation. Regulating services pertain to services/ processes such as carbon sequestration, climate regulation,
waste decomposition, waste detoxification, water purification, air purification, pest control, and disease
control. The last service is cultural service that is divided into several services including recreation, mental
and physical health, tourism, aesthetic appreciation and inspiration for culture, art and design, and spiritualexperience and sense of place.
Ecosystems can buffer climate and reduce the risks and impacts of natural disasters as part of theirregulating services. Furthermore, ecosystems through their regulating services can reduce the risks andimpacts of storms, droughts, and sea-level rise that are becoming more severe and frequent due to climatechange. Ecosystems managed wisely reduce disaster risks, thus preventing, mitigating, and/or regulating

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
4
hazards. Ecosystems acting as natural buffers reduce people’s exposure to hazards, reducing vulnerability,and further supporting livelihoods and providing basic needs (PEDRR, 2013).
A more formal terminology for the use of ecosystems for DRR is Eco-DRR. In the works of Estrella andSaalismaa it is defined as “the sustainable management, conservation and restoration of ecosystems to reduce
disaster risk, with the aim of achieving sustainable and resilient development” (Estrella and Saalismaa, 2013).
Eco-DRR incorporates natural hazard risk management and climate change adaptation and shares common
features with Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) (UNEP, 2015).
With regard to ecosystem services, cultural services – specifically tourism services – are some of themost common yet most controversial services. According to the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP), tourism in general has three main impact areas which are the depletion of natural resources,
physical impacts of tourism development, and physical impacts from tourist activities. Over the past few
decades, tourism has continued to expand and diversify around the world. According to the United Nations
World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), tourism can be defined as travel for the purposes of leisure,business, or recreation. Although tourism is highly diversified, it can be characterized into categories anddivided into niches such as: adventure and extreme (adventure tourism, extreme tourism, and space tourism),
culture and arts (cultural tourism, heritage tourism, and music tourism), medical and dental (dental tourism,
medical tourism, and wellness tourism), natural (ecotourism), and rural (agri-tourism, jungle tourism, andrural tourism) tourism.
In the 2013 global economic impact analysis of travel and tourism, the travel and tourism contribution
to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) outweighed that of automotive and manufacturing in every region in theworld. Overall, travel and tourism contribution equaled 9.5% of the global GDP generating over 266 million
jobs, US$754 billion in investments, and US$1.3 trillion in exports. Creating significant contributions to theglobal economy, tourism is continuously gaining popularity. In recent studies, tourism has been linked tosolutions for global problems such as poverty, environmental sustainability, health, and global partnerships.
One niche of tourism is ecological tourism, commonly called Ecotourism. It has been described in thework of Ceballos-Lascurain as the fastest growing tourism segment globally, with an annual growth of 20%
to 25% (Ceballos-Lascurain, 2012). Ecotourism defined by the UNWTO is “a form of tourism in which themain motivation of tourists is the observation and appreciation of nature as well as the traditional cultures
prevailing in natural areas” (UNWTO, 2002). Furthermore, UNWTO states that ecotourism should haveeducational features and features that minimize the negative impacts of activities on the natural and sociocultural environment. UNWTO also notes that ecotourism should be generally organized by specialized tour
operators for small groups and that ecotourism activities should support the maintenance and conservationof natural areas used as ecotourism attractions through the generation of economic benefits to hostcommunities, organizations, and authorities with ecological conservation purposes.
In the International Handbook on Ecotourism, it is stated that the benefits of ecotourism fall into threemain categories: the environment, local communities, and participating tourists (Ballantyne and Packer,2013). In the handbook, it states that ecotourism provides environmental protection through the provision of
economic incentives for conservation and the generation of funds required to implement conservation plans.

Research Note
5
Furthermore, the handbook states that ecotourism facilitates the protection of traditional and indigenous
cultures in and around the ecotourism destination and develops the visitors’ cultural and environmental
awareness, appreciation, and respect. As ecotourism strives to provide employment and income for local
communities, thus, in theory, it helps to alleviate poverty and aids in sustaining the well-being of local people.
Ecotourism, however, does not only promise benefits. Poorly managed ecosystems can lead to increased
exposure to natural hazards leading to landslides or flash floods. However, the sustainable management of
the ecosystems will help improve the economic, social, and environmental conditions.
Returning to DRM, ecotourism is one of the initiatives implemented in long-term recovery efforts, longterm development plans, and reconstruction, as it can play a crucial role in human security and poverty
reduction. Moreover, ecotourism if sustainably managed can provide other ecosystem services such as“regulation and provision services” enabling ecotourism to be a tool for disaster mitigation similar to EcoDRR, but with the additional feature of job and profit generation ideal for the local economy and community
in and around the ecotourism site.
Given the details on the possibilities and the use of the ecosystems, particularly ecotourism in DRRM,
it is worth factoring in the involvement of the different climate change and DRRM policies in crafting the
tourism policies, specifically ecotourism. Furthermore, this can be studied within the Philippine context.
The Philippines is one of the most disaster-vulnerable countries in the world as well as one of the most
biologically diverse making it a good subject to explore. In being so ecologically diverse, the country isinevitably driving development of the tourism industry showcasing its natural beauty, despite disaster
vulnerabilities.
This study aims to identify the different policies created by the government that relate to climate change,
disaster, and tourism, specifically ecotourism, and identify whether the vulnerability of the country todisasters has been factored into the crafting of ecotourism policies. This study specifically looks at thedifferent policies of the aforementioned themes mandated between 1990 to 2015. Furthermore, it mainly
utilizes information from primary data that are the policies and laws from the national government. Deskreview and frequency text analysis are conducted to identify the references to disaster management in various
tourism policies and laws.

II.

Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Policies in thePhilippines
The development of DRRM and climate change policies emerged as early as 1970 when the Philippines

was hit by typhoon Joan. In that year, the National Disaster Control (NDC) was established. NDC was
mandated to track the aftermath of disasters. However, in 1972 its functions were transferred to the Officeof Civil Defense (OCD) and NDC was abolished. In the same year, Presidential Decree No. 1566 wasmandated. The decree aimed at strengthening the Philippine Disaster Control and it also mandated thecreation of the NDC Council that served as a focal organization for DRRM during that period. NDCC washeaded by the Secretary of National Defense. Together with the creation of the NDCC, the regional,
provincial, and local coordinating councils were also established. However, after the policy in 1978, theevolution of DRRM and Climate Change policies became stagnant, only regaining attention during the 1990s.

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
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In this section, the different rules, regulations, and policies in disaster management and climate change
between 1990 to 2015 will be discussed.
Long after 1978 came the development and mandate of the Republic Act (R.A.) No. 7160 in 1991 or the
Local Government Code (LGC) of 1991. The LGC enabled the Local Government Units (LGUs) to access
5% of their estimated revenue from regular sources for the occurrence of disasters and calamities provided
that the office of the president/ the president declared the LGU to be in a state of calamity.
In 1992, the earth Summit or the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development(UNCED) was held in Rio de Janeiro where Agenda 21 was created. The Agenda is a non-binding action
plan of the United Nations towards sustainable development. Agenda 21 recognizes that sustainable
development is primarily the responsibility of governments that requires the creation of national strategies,
plans, and policies. In the Philippines, as a response to Agenda 21 the Philippine Agenda 21 (PA21) was
created. This consists of the principles of unity, the action agenda, and the implementation strategies towards
a sustainable development. The PA21 has a vision of providing the Filipino people with a better quality oflife through the development of a just, moral, creative, spiritual, economically vibrant, caring, and diverse
yet cohesive society. The action plan focuses on strategies responding to social issues such as poverty
reduction, social equity, empowerment and governance, peace and solidarity, and ecological integrity.
In 1996, R.A. No. 7160 or the LGC of 1991 was amended to enable LGUs to better utilize government
funds. The LGC of 1991 was enacted into law via R.A. No. 8185 and was amended such that 5% of theestimated revenue from regular sources would be set aside as annual lump sum appropriations for relief,
rehabilitation, reconstruction, and other works or services in connection with disaster and calamities that
may occur during the budget year. The funds, however, are limited to the use of the LGU within its
municipality/city affected by a disaster or calamity as determined and declared by the LGU. The amendment
also includes a restriction on the utilization of funds in fire related disasters and calamities for relief
operations.
In 1999, R.A. No. 8749 or the Philippine Clean Air Act was mandated. The law includes the creation of
the Air Quality Improvement Framework that monitors and set standards for greenhouse gas emissions
which increased the global temperature. The policy was created and implemented by the DENR together
with the LGUs, NGOs, POs, and academia. The Integrated Air Quality Improvement framework aims tomonitor and set standards for greenhouse gas emissions that increase the global temperature.
In early 2000, there were several policies and programs that were developed in the Philippines relating
to DRRM and Climate Change. In 2004, Executive Order No. 320, S.2004 was mandated. It is an adaptationof the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Clean Development
Mechanism whereby projects are implemented to prevent or absorb GHG emissions. Executive Order (E.O.)
No. 320 designates the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as the national authority
for the Clean Development Mechanism.
In 2005, the NDC council created a Four Point Action Plan focusing on the prevention and mitigationof disasters. The first action plan is the upgrading of the forecasting capability of cautionary agencies,
particularly the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA)

Research Note7
and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS). The second action plan isintensifying public information and education campaigns on disaster preparedness. The third action plan isenhancing capacity building of local chief executives and disaster coordinating councils. The fourth and final
action plan is strengthening mechanisms for government and private sector partnerships.
The Philippines signed the UNFCCC on June 12, 1992 and was ratified on August 2, 1994. The country
also signed the Kyoto Protocol on April 15, 1998 and was ratified on November 22, 2003. Being ratified toboth, the country has realized the urgency in addressing issues on climate change, including the mitigationof impact and adaptations to effects leading to the creation of administrative order no. 171 in 2007. The
administrative order creates the Presidential Task Force on Climate Change (PTFCC) that is comprised of
the secretaries of DENR, Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Science and Technology (DOST),
Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and two
representatives from the private sector/ civil society.
In 2009, R.A. No. 9729 or the Climate Change Act of 2009 was mandated. This policy establishes thecreation of the Climate Change Commission, a national government agency attached to the office of thepresident. The commission is the sole policy-making body of the government that is tasked to coordinate,
monitor, and evaluate the programs and action plans of the government relating to climate change. The
Philippine president serves as the chairperson of the commission, and three commissioners are appointed by
the president, one of which will serve as a vice-chairperson. The Climate Change commission has anadvisory board that is composed of 23 different secretaries from various local government agencies.
In 2009, the Strategic Action Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction (SNAP) 2009–2019 was developed. The
SNAP pursues the strategic goals of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) that is the first plan to explainand describe the work details required from all the different sectors and actors to reduce disaster losses. The
SNAP also emulates the four-point action plan of the NDC Council. The NDC Council is based on two
guiding principles. In the first principle, DRRM is directly linked to poverty alleviation and sustainable
development. The second principle entails the participation of various stakeholders in order to mainstream
DRRM into the relevant sectors in society.
In 2010, R.A. No. 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 was
mandated. The policy aims to strengthen the country’s disaster risk reduction and management system,
providing for the national DRRM framework and institutionalization of the national DRRM plan. In R.A.
No. 10121, NDCC was reformed and changed to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Council (NDRRMC) that is composed of 36 national council members. The R.A. called for the creation of
the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan (NDRRMP) 2011–2028. The NDRRMP covers
four thematic areas: disaster prevention and mitigation, disaster preparedness, disaster response, and disasterrehabilitation and recovery.
In 2012 R.A. No. 10174 or the People’s Survival Fund was passed into law amending the Climate
Change Act of 2009 with the incorporation of the climate finance feature focusing on climate change
adaptation. The People’s Survival Fund is a special fund from the national treasury that is used for financing
adaptation programs and projects based on the National Strategic Framework.

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
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In 2014, E.O. No. 174.s2014 was mandated with the establishment of the Philippine Greenhouse Gas
Inventory, Management, and Reporting System (PGHGIMRS) aiming to institutionalize the greenhousegases inventory management and reporting system in different government agencies. The rationale behindthe creation of the PGHGIMRS is for the country to be able to transition towards a climate-resilient pathway
for sustainable development. The system is mainly responsible for providing guidance and direction in theaccounting and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions.
The Philippine government developed a combination of 13 rules, regulations, and policies regarding
climate change and DRRM from 1990 to 2015. The policies have greater focus on the establishment ofgovernment agencies to handle and manage climate change and disaster management issues from thenational to the local level. Furthermore, the policies also focus on the provision and allocation of calamity
funds for municipalities and cities as well as climate financing. In terms of coordinating disaster managementin the country, the NDRRMC has been delignated where the Department of National Defense (DND) serves
as the secretariat and the executive arm. In the event of a disaster (before, during, and after) there are different
governmental agencies that support the NDRRMC. DOST leads the efforts in the mitigation of disasters.
DILG leads the efforts in disaster preparedness. The Department of Social Welfare and Development(DSWD) leads in disaster response and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) leads
in disaster rehabilitation and recovery. Apart from the national agencies, there are also regional and local
DRRMCs.
Policies regarding disaster management and climate change are also mainly inspired and adopted frominternational treaties such as Agenda 21, the UNFCCC, and the Hyogo Framework for Action but are driven
by the national governments’ increasing concern about disaster management and climate change issues in
the country.
III.

Tourism Policies in the Philippines
In the Philippines there are more than 160 rules, regulations, and policies concerning tourism listed in

the portal of the Department of Tourism (DOT). However, there are very few specific ecotourism policies,
rules, and regulations. This section focuses on the identification and discussion of the different rules,
regulations, and policies in tourism, specifically ecotourism.
The first reference to ecotourism in Philippine law was in R.A. No. 7586 or the National Integrated
Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act of 1992. In the NIPAS Act, protected areas are defined as “identified
portions of land and water set aside by reason of their unique physical and biological significance, managed
to enhance biological diversity and protected against destructive human exploitation” (NIPAS Act, 1991).
The NIPAS act provides for the establishment of buffer zones and other multiple use zones including
ecotourism sites in protected areas. In the zoning of protected areas, it has been recognized that tourism
contributes to the ecosystem protection, development, and management. As stated in the NIPAS Act, tourism
activities, particularly ecotourism activities, are permitted in “recreational zones” that are stipulated toprovide benefits to residents and enable visitors to appreciate the beauty of nature (NIPAS Act, 1991). TheNIPAS Act has also initiated the restructuring of the DENR creating a Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau

Research Note
9
(PAWB) tasked with formulating policies and guidelines for the establishment and management of an
Integrated Protected Areas System.
In 1999, E.O. No. 111, the first policy in the Philippines to focus on ecotourism, was mandated. The
E.O. establishes the guidelines for ecotourism development in the Philippines and states that the development
and promotion of ecotourism in the country are viable and sustainable activities that will promote theprotection of the environment while contributing to economic development. The E.O. has a joint
memorandum circular designating that DOT and DENR work together in the development of the ecotourism
industry in the Philippines. Furthermore, E.O. No. 111 has enabled the creation of the National Ecotourism
Development Council (NEDC) with the National Ecotourism Steering Committee (NESC) and the Regional
Ecotourism Committees (REC) aiming to effectively implement programs and activities. The NEDC serves
as the policy-making body for ecotourism and is composed of the secretaries from various government
agencies such as DOT, DENR, DILG, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Finance(DOF), NEDA, and representatives from the private sector and non-government organizations while the
NEDC is chaired by the DOT and is co-chaired by DENR.
In 1999, the rules and regulations governing the accreditation of ecological guides or eco-guides, ecotours, eco-lodges, and eco-tour facilities were issued. In order to obtain accreditation, the DOT has certain
requirements that include a valid mayor’s permit and/or business license from the local government unit, avalid DTI business name certificate (for single proprietorship), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
registration certificate, and articles of incorporation and their by-laws (for corporation/partnership), articles
of cooperation and their by-laws (for cooperatives), and a notarized list of the names of all officials andemployees with office designation and quality. The DOT, however, may also require supplementary
documents such as a working permit in the case of foreign employees. There are corresponding fees thatmust be paid in the accreditation process (see Table 1). In an eco-lodge, eco-tour operator, and eco-tour
facility accreditation, an initial payment of 1,000php (≈20usd) is required and upon approval of theaccreditation, an additional fee of 2,000php (≈40usd) will be paid. Furthermore, an additional cost of 100php(≈2usd) will be incurred for the sticker as proof of accreditation that can be displayed in the business offices.
In the case of eco-guide accreditation, 500php (≈10usd) shall be paid initially and upon approval, a fee of
1,000php (≈20usd) will be paid. For issuance of an eco-guide identification card, an additional fee of 50php(≈1usd) will be incurred.
Table 1. Fees for Ecotourism Accreditation.
Note: The entire amount is in Philippine Pesos (50 peso ≈ 1 US dollar)[Source: Department of Tourism, 1999]

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
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There are several benefits of accreditations according to the DOT including the following: endorsementof embassies and travel trade organization/s for utilization of the establishment’s facilities and services;eligibility for participation in travel fairs; priority given to DOT training programs; endorsement ofinternational airports for the issuance of an access pass to qualified personnel (for 2-year accredited tour
operators and accommodation establishments only); endorsement of the Commissions on Elections(COMELEC) for exemption from liquor ban during election-related events (for accommodation
establishments and restaurants only); free online/print advertising in national dailies; and promotion of
events on the DOT Facebook and other social media sites.
In the rules and regulations governing the accreditation of eco-guides, eco-tours, eco-lodges, and ecotour facilities, the general advantage of accreditation is the protection and management of the environment,
culture, indigenous knowledge, and practices. Specific advantages of accredited eco-tour facilities and ecotour operators in the community and the environment are identified in the rules and regulations ofaccreditations. An accredited eco-tour facility would provide certain benefits to the community and theenvironment. Community benefits include employment opportunities for residents, the representative of thelocal community is formally asked about how the operation affects the community, and locally produced
souvenirs and products will be made available. Environmental protection and conservation can also be
achieved when an ecotour facility is accredited. The rubbish and garbage from visitors will be removed;
physical, financial, or in-kind assistance for the rehabilitation of areas subject to negative visitor impacts
will be provided; physical, financial, or in-kind assistance of facilities that reduce visitor impact will be
provided; monitoring environmental impacts will be done; and research on visitor impacts will be conducted.
Eco-tour facility and eco-tour operator accreditation provide the same benefits to the environment. An
accredited eco-tour operator would also provide benefits to the community and the environment. At least
50% of the staff will be hired locally within five years of operation. Residents will occupy key management
positions in the operation. Regular monitoring will be undertaken on the impacts of ecotourism on the hostcommunity. Tangible support or partnerships will be extended to the local community. Discount access will
be offered to the community such as school or other special interest groups. One or more residents will get
access to free training for better employment, work experience for one or more local students, and more
opportunities for women and marginalized groups. A staff from the DOT will attend community meetings,
workshops, seminar or consultations, participate in local events, join local advocacy groups or civicorganizations, and may also express support for community endeavors through letters or endorsements. For
the community, a local network of suppliers will be developed that will stimulate the demand for local
products expanding and creating local community enterprises.
In 2002, the National Ecotourism Strategy (NES) or E.O. No. 111 called for the formulation of the NES
that is founded on a vision to advocate, foster, coordinate, monitor, and mobilize support for ecotourism. The
NES also aims to identify key ecotourism destinations to be developed. Identifying the key ecotourism
destinations requires a two-level evaluation. In the first level of evaluation a scoring system is used basedon relative weights assessing ecotourism products based on natural and/or cultural features (35%),
availability of ecotourism product/s (35%), and level of social/ political support (30%). The second level ofResearch Note11
evaluation is priority-setting based on market demand and forecasted benefits to the community and visitors.
Specifically, accessibility of the site from major international and domestic gateways and tourism flows(10%), current market demand from international and domestic visitors, including the potential appeal tothese markets (30%), availability of visitor facilities and services (25%), local benefits accruing to thecommunity through livelihood and employment opportunities (30%), and peace, order, security, and safety(5%). The selected sites are divided into four clusters representing four main groupings of regions that share
a common major gateway.
In 2009, R.A. 9593 was mandated; it is the National Tourism Act of 2009. The RA mandates the DOT
as the primary planning, programming, coordinating, implementing, and regulatory government agency inthe development and promotion of the domestic and international tourism industry in coordination with
attached agencies and other government instrumentalities. The R.A. also supports the establishment ofTourism Enterprise Zones (TEZ) that are to be the centers of tourism development in the Philippines. The
Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) is mandated to designate, regulate, andsupervise the TEZs established under the R.A., as well as develop, manage, and supervise tourism
infrastructure projects in the country.
In 2011, the National Tourism Development Plan 2011–2016 was created. The tourism plan aimed todevelop a highly competitive and environmentally and socially responsible tourism that delivers more widelydistributed income and employment opportunities. The vision of the tourism plan is to become a must-do
experience and more fun destination in Asia. The plan includes three strategic directions which are: todevelop and market competitive tourist products and destinations, improve market access, connectivity, anddestination infrastructure, and improve tourism institutional governance and human resources.
In 2013 Administrative Order No. 2013–19 or the guidelines on ecotourism planning and managementin protected areas were developed. The order applies to ecotourism planning and management in protectedareas under NIPAS. In the Philippines, there are several protected areas developing ecotourism business andactivities. In the A.O., the process of conducting ecotourism activities in protected areas is explained. There
are four phases in such process: site assessment, ecotourism planning, implementation, and monitoring andevaluation.
In 2013, the Gender Responsive Toolkit on Ecotourism Planning and Management was created. The
toolkit is a result of the collaboration of the Philippine Commission on Women and the Protected Areas andWildlife Bureau (PAWB) of the DENR. There are five guidelines: the first guideline is to determine theparticipation of women and men in the proposed project. The second guideline is to identify existing genderissues as well as possible related concerns that may arise (gender analysis). The third guideline is to design
strategies that can address the identified gender issues relevant to a proposed/existing project. The fourth
guideline is the data collection and demographics of women; women employment, incidence of violenceagainst women (collect to help identify socio economic gaps). The fifth guideline is the establishment ofenabling mechanisms and support systems to ensure that gender responsiveness is mainstreamed in local
development planning.
In 2013 a new National Ecotourism Strategy and Action Plan for 2013–2022 was released. The goal ofGlobal Resource Management Journal Vol.6
12the action plan is to have an environmentally and socially responsible ecotourism development thatsafeguards the integrity and diversity of its natural resources, provides education and enjoyment to visitors,
and delivers larger and more widely distributed income and employment opportunities to the local
communities and their constituents, especially the women, youth, indigenous people, and other vulnerable
groups. The goal of the new NES will be achieved through its eight strategies. The first strategy is to develop
and market diversified and competitive ecotourism products. The second strategy is to create a conducive
environment for ecotourism investments. The third strategy is to maximize economic benefits for the hostcommunities. The fourth strategy is to promote and develop a culture of ecotourism. The fifth strategy is tostrengthen institutional capacity. The sixth strategy is to develop and strengthen partnerships. The seventh
strategy is to establish mechanisms for sustainable financing. The eighth strategy is to monitor outcomes andimpacts.
In 2015, a new National Tourism Development Plan was developed for 2016–2022. The vision andguiding principle of the tourism development plan is to develop a globally competitive, environmentally
sustainable, and socially responsible tourism industry that promotes inclusive growth through employment
generation and equitable distribution of income thereby contributing to building a foundation for a high-trust
society. In 2015, the Tourism Guidebook for LGUs was also published. The guidebook is the result of thecollaboration of DOT and the Japan International Cooperation Agency. It provides concepts, methods, stepby-step processes, and worksheets that will aid the LGUs in formulating their local tourism development
plans (TDPs) with examples and supplemental readings on various tourism concepts and tourism planning.
Eleven rules, regulations, and policies have been presented and discussed. There are three pertaining totourism in general, one pertaining to protected areas alone, one pertaining to ecotourism and protected areas,
and the remaining policies that focus on ecotourism. Reviewing the different tourism policies in the country,
ecotourism is the only tourism niche to have its own strategic and action plans. Conspicuously, however,
ecotourism is rarely mentioned or discussed in the general national tourism strategy and action plans.
Despite the number of ecotourism destinations in the country, the guidelines in developing ecotourism
destinations are mainly focused on protected areas and specific sites stated within the NIPAS Act. The
principal agency in-charge of tourism is the DOT which is also in-charge of tourism accreditation. The
national agencies involved in this development in the protected areas are the DOT and DENR. Again,
conspicuously, despite the emphasis on the ecotourism niche among other tourism niches, there is no national
ecotourism department nor an arm of the DOT that focuses on ecotourism. Moreover, there is no specific listof accredited ecolodges, eco tour operators, facilities, or eco-guides posted by the DOT. However, the DOT
has published a general list of accredited tourism enterprises and tourism frontlines on their website(http://www.tourism.gov.ph/) consisting mainly of hotels that have been accredited.
Recent developments in ecotourism have materialized. Guidebooks have been published to guide LGUs
on developing ecotourism businesses. Also, recent studies and guides on gender sensitivity have been
produced for ecotourism developers.

IV.

Incorporation of Climate Change and DRRM Policies in Tourism Policies in thePhilippines

Research Note
13
Identification of the different policies, rules, and regulations in disaster management, climate change,
and tourism in the previous two sections provided awareness on matters at the policy level in the individual
subjects. In this section, how and whether disaster management has been incorporated in ecotourism
development are discussed.
In order to easily visualize the different rules, regulations, and policies in DRRM, climate change, andtourism, a visual timeline has been created (see Fig. 1). The left side of the figure shows the DRRM andclimate change policies and the right side shows the tourism policies.
When discussing the incorporation of climate change and DRRM in tourism policies it is better to firstunderstand the position of ecotourism in the general tourism policies and the involvement of tourism in the
DRRM and climate change policies.

Figure 1. Rules, regulations, and policies in DRRM, climate change, and tourism in the Philippines.
[Source: Compiled by the author]

Ecotourism in Tourism Rules, Regulations, and Policies
Ecotourism has its own strategy and action plan; however, it is still a subset of tourism. In locating
ecotourism in the general tourism rules, regulations, and policies, it has been cited in the Tourism Act of2009, NTDP 2011–2016, and NTDP 2016–2022.
In R.A. 9593 or the Tourism Act of 2009, ecotourism has been cited as one of its objectives. The
objective states that the nation should develop responsible tourism as a strategy for environmentally soundand community participatory tourism programs, enlisting the participation of local communities, including
indigenous people, in conserving bio - physical and cultural diversity, promoting environmental
understanding and education, providing assistance in the determination of ecotourism sites, and ensuring fullenjoyment of the benefits of tourism by the communities concerned. The R.A. also cites the jurisdiction
overlap between the NIPAS and the National Ecotourism Policy stating that the DOT together with theGlobal Resource Management Journal Vol.6
14
DENR shall identify areas covered by the NIPAS with ecotourism potential and cultural heritage value, andprepare policies, plans, and programs for their development, preservation, operation, or conversion into
tourism enterprise zones. The R.A. also states that 5% of travel tax collections shall be held in reserve forthe development of ecotourism sites in areas with strong tourism potential.
The National Tourism Development Plan 2011–2016 cites ecotourism multiple times. Furthermore, it
states that the National Ecotourism strategy was reviewed prior to creating the plan in which it has been
noted that DENR and DOT are collaborating on the development of ecotourism destinations in protectedareas. In the plan, ecotourism is identified as part of nature-based tourism. The plan states the design andimplementation of product development programs targeting ecotourism in 50 key natural heritage sites.
Although cited in all the general tourism policies, there is no elaboration of the role of ecotourism andits contribution to general tourism development. Nevertheless, the existence of specific ecotourism policies
indicates the value in developing the ecotourism sector.

Disaster Management in Tourism Rules, Regulations, and Policies
In being vulnerable to frequent natural hazards and the continuous pursuit of its tourism industry, thecountry recognizes disasters as a threat to tourism development. However, the inclusion of disastermanagement in tourism rules, regulations, and policies has been limited. Among the tourism rules,
regulations, and policies, disaster management has been cited in two, NES 2002 and the NTDP.
In the NES 2002, disaster is cited several times. In terms of disaster management, the NES states that
the NDCC spearheads rescue operations. Meanwhile, it is stated that the support programs including disaster/emergency management should be strengthened to enable the ecotourism destinations to be more attractive
and competitive in the market. Another citation of disaster management is found in the program componentof the NES. A desired outcome for education and advocacy is strengthening different programs including
programs in disaster/emergency. In the NTDP 2011–2016, disaster has been cited, albeit only once. It states
the recognition of disasters in the tourism sector as a threat to development.
In the National Tourism Development Plan, it should be noted that the nation recognizes disaster as athreat to tourism development. In the National Ecotourism Strategy, disaster has been cited as it being
considered in the development of strategy programs and emergency management.

Tourism in Disaster Management and Climate Change Policies
The LGC of 1991 cited tourism twice in its Chapter 2 Section 17, basic services, and facilities. In thegeneral powers and attributes of local government units, it states that municipalities should provide basic
services such as “tourism facilities and other tourism attractions including the acquisition of equipment,
regulation and supervision of business concessions, and security services for such facilities” while theprovince should provide “tourism development and promotion programs.” This means that there would be
support from the LGUs in terms of tourism development.
In the Strategic National Action Plan (SNAP) tourism is cited three times. The first citation of tourism
is in the discussion of the national government expenditure for DRR. An example of such expenditure in
DRR is the DOT acquiring services from the Crisis Management Institute to provide training. In the priority

Research Note
15
programs and projects under safety and well-being, enhancement tourism is cited, in particular, to conduct
DRR capability building programs for key response and coordinating agencies of NDCC as well as for sector
agencies including tourism. The SNAP also mentioned the integration of current DRR practices withemphasis on several sectors such as the tourism sector. In R.A. No. 10121, tourism is cited in Section 5
stating that the secretary of DOT is a part/ a member of the NDRRMC.
Despite the number of disaster and climate change policies, it is surprising that further involvement of
tourism in disaster management and climate change councils is barely cited. Although DOT is indicated asa member of the NDRRMC its task was not specified. It is, however, recognized in SNAP that in the tourism
sector there is a need to exert more effort to integrate DRR practices.

V.

Conclusion and Recommendations
The Philippine Development Plan (PDP) of 2017–2022 focuses on the vision of “building a future where

every Filipino enjoys a matatag, maginhawa, at panatag na buhay”. In English it is building a future where
every Filipino enjoys a stable, comfortable, and peaceful life. In the plan, tourism is cited three times. The
first citation of tourism is on the promotion of Philippine culture and values, and one of the strategies is toestablish historic and cultural complexes nationwide as hubs for cultural education, entertainment, andtourism. The second citation is the expansion of economic opportunities in industry and service through“trabaho at negosyo” (work and business) to increase foreign direct investments. One strategy is tostrengthen value and supply linkage through the implementation of the medium-term National Tourism
Development Plan. The third citation is under the expansion and development of sustainable resource-basedindustries including forestry, fishery, marine, and genetic resources. Ecotourism and cultural sites should bepromoted and developed.
The government is giving attention to the tourism industry even though there are dedicated ecotourism
policies, such as the General tourism policy that is R.A. No. 9593, National Tourism Development Plan
2011-2–16, and 2016–2022 that have no dedicated chapter or elaboration of the role or contribution of
ecotourism in tourism development. It has been identified that one of the threats to tourism development in
the country is disasters; however, there is very little linkage on disaster and tourism policies. There is no
mention of ecotourism in disaster management policies even though the secretary of the DOT is a memberof the NDRRMC. Disaster and emergency management is being developed as part of the tourism sector
management. Disaster management policies on the other hand do not include and mention ecotourism. The
aspects of ecotourism do not include the promotion and utilization of ecotourism as a strategy for disasterrisk reduction and management; one reason for this is the late establishment of the NDRRMC.
At the national level, the government has been investing in protected areas and supporting its ecotourism
developments. Furthermore, guidelines in ecotourism planning in protected areas have been issued. Thesedevelopments have been brought about by many government departments and the treasury that considers
protected areas to be a drain on the economy. If the protected areas are used for DRR, the cost of maintaining
protected areas will appear more justifiable. According to IUCN, in virtually all cases, DRR from protectedareas will be additional to other multiple benefits that protected areas bring to communities, such as fromtourism, jobs, and other ecosystem services. The government is already investing in the establishment andGlobal Resource Management Journal Vol.6
16
management of state protected areas for biodiversity conservation, recreation, and tourism. Additional
incorporation within DRR strategies means that such state investment produces a wider range of benefits,
which address the needs of more government departments, and is thus a more efficient use of tax revenue.
In a much broader sense, there are several ways to promote disaster risk reduction and resiliency throughecotourism. The members of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC)
and the National Ecotourism Development Council (NEDC) are similar. Thus, they can issue a joint circularor guidelines, applying disaster risk reduction management to ecotourism and/or making ecotourism as a
strategy in promoting disaster risk reduction management in vulnerable but potential areas of ecotourism
that would also lead to an increase in the resilience of the surrounding community. An additional area of
DRRM and ecotourism integration is planning. A planning guideline could be issued that amalgamates
DRRM in ecotourism planning (from site selection to design of amenities, even providing attractions on
DRRM in the ecotourism areas). Another scheme is strengthening decentralization in ecotourism and DRRM
concerns. This means enabling (or even expanding the powers and responsibilities) local government units
to utilize their authority in promoting DRRM in ecotourism (or vice versa – utilizing ecotourism as a strategy
in promoting DRRM and resiliency). Local chief executives (mayors and governors) as area managers intheir jurisdiction can integrate these two concerns. Ecotourism and DRRM can also be integrated throughregulatory measures. In formulating and implementing their comprehensive land use plan/ zoning ordinanceand enforcing the building code and other related regulations (that affect ecotourism), disaster risk reduction
and resiliency should be incorporated. This means building design, location, standards of construction, andmaterials, among others, should be considered. The last measure is through market-based instruments –ecotourism ventures that promote disaster risk reduction and resiliency should be able to obtain grants(matching and/or performance grants) through special funding from international or national organizations.

References
1) Accreditation Fees. tourism.gov.ph. Retrieved
22 August 2019, fromhttp://www.tourism.gov.ph/Downloadable%20F
iles/AccreditationFees2017.pdf.
2) Benefits and Incentives of Accreditation.
Retrieved 22 August 2019, fromhttp://www.tourism.gov.ph/Downloadable%20F
iles/BenefitsAndIncentivesOfAccreditation2017.pdf.
3) Centre, U. Mayon Volcano Natural Park
(MMVNP) - UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
Whc.unesco.org. Retrieved 23 August 2019,from
http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6007/.
4) CRED, UNISDR. The Human Cost of Weather
Related Disasters 1995-2015. Retrieved 22
August 2019, fromwww.preventionweb.net/files/46796_cop21weat
herdisastersreport2015.pdf.
5) Department of Environment and Natural
Resources. Air Quality Management. Retrieved
23 August 2019, fromhttps://www.denr.gov.ph/news-andfeatures/latest-news/51-air-pollutionmanagement.html.
6) Department of Environment and Natural

Resources. The Philippine Agenda 21. Retrieved
22 August 2019, from:http://119.92.161.2/embgovph/eeid/Resources/F
actSheets/tabid/1397/aid/194/Default.aspx.
7) Disaster Statistics - UNISDR. Unisdr.org.
Retrieved 22 August 2019, fromhttps://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/disasterstatistics.
8) Distribution of regional travelers in thePhilippines January – December 2015 Partial
Report. (2017) (1st ed.). Retrieved from http://eservices.tourism.gov.ph:8080/didcs/Static%20D
ocuments/publish_summary%20by%20province%202015.pdf.
9) Dudley, N., Buyck, C., Furuta, N., Pedrot, C.,
Renaud, F., and K. Sudmeier-Rieux (2015).
Protected Areas as Tools for Disaster Risk
Reduction. A Handbook for Practitioners. Tokyoand Gland, Switzerland: MOEJ and IUCN.
44pp.
10) Dudley, N., K. MacKinnon & S. Stolton (inpress). Reducing vulnerability: the role ofProtected Areas in mitigating natural disasters.
In: Renaud, F.G., K. Sudmeier-Rieux & M.
Estrella (Eds.) The Role of Ecosystems for
Disaster Risk Reduction. Tokyo: United Nations

Research Note
17
University Press.
11) Economic Impact of Travel and Tourism 2014

Annual Update: Summary, (World Travel andTourism Council, the Authority on World Travel
and Tourism, 2014).
12) Economic Losses, Poverty, and Disasters 19982017. Retrieved 22 August 2019, fromhttps://www.unisdr.org/2016/iddr/IDDR2018_E
conomic%20Losses.pdf.
13) Estrella M and N Saalismaa (2013) Ecosystembased disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR): An
overview. In: Renaud FG, Sudmeier-Rieux K,
Estrella M (eds) The Role of Ecosystems in
Disaster Risk Reduction. UNU Press, Tokyo, pp
26-54.
14) Estrella M., and N Saalismaa (2013).
Ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (EcoDRR): An overview. In: Renaud FG, SudmeierRieux K, Estrella M (eds) The Role of
Ecosystems in Disaster Risk Reduction. UNU
Press, Tokyo, pp 26-54.
15) Holling, C. S. (1973) ‘Resilience and stability of
ecological systems’. Annual Review of Ecology
and Systematics, 4, 1-23.
16) Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA).
2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being:
Synthesis. Island Press, Washington. 155pp.
17) Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation
Bureau (eds). March 2016. Handbook for
Practitioners of Eco-DRR in Japan.
18) National Ecotourism Strategy & Action Plan
2013-2022. Retrieved 22 August 2019, fromhttp://eservices.tourism.gov.ph:8080/didcs/Static%20D
ocuments/National%20Ecotourism%20Strategy%20and%20Action%20Plan%202013-2022.pdf.
19) National Ecotourism Strategy. (2002). Retrieved
22 August 2019, fromhttp://bmb.gov.ph/downloads/ActionPlan/NES.p
df.
20) Official Gazette. Executive Order No. 174. S
2014. Retrieved 23 August 2019, fromhttps://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/2014/11/24/e
xecutive-order-no-174-s-2014/.
21) Official Gazette. Feb. 20, 2007. Executive orderNo. 171, s. 2007. Retrieved 23 August 2019,fromhttps://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/2007/02/20/a
dministrative-order-no-171-s-2007/.
22) Official Gazette. June 25, 2004. Executive orderNo. 320. S 2004. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/2004/06/25/e

xecutive-order-no-320-s-2004/.

23) PEDRR (2013) “PEDRR input into post-2015

global framework on disaster risk reduction.”24) Rules and Regulations Governing

Accreditations of Tourism Enterprises.
Tourism.gov.ph. Retrieved 22 August 2019,from
http://accreditationonline.tourism.gov.ph/Standa
rds.aspx.
25) Rules and Regulations to Govern the
Accreditation of Ecoguides, Ecotours,
Ecolodges and Ecotour Facilities. (1999).
http://accreditationonline.tourism.gov.ph.
Retrieved 23 August 2019, fromhttp://accreditationonline.tourism.gov.ph/Downl
oadables/Standards/2008%20Rules%20and%20
Regulations%20to%20Govern%20the%20Accr
editation%20of%20Ecoguides,%20Ecotours,%2
0Ecolodges%20and%20Ecotour%20Facilities.p
df.
26) Streamlined Documentary Requirements for
Accreditation Of Tourism Enterprises And
Frontliners. tourism.gov.ph. Retrieved 18
August 2019, fromhttp://www.tourism.gov.ph/Downloadable%20F
iles/StreamlinedDocumentaryRequirements201
7.pdf.
27) The LawPHiL Project. Executive order No. 174.
Retrieved 23 August 2019, fromhttps://www.lawphil.net/executive/execord/eo20
14/eo_174_2014.html.
28) The LawPHiL Project. Republic Act No. 9729.
Retrieved 23 August 2019, from:https://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2009/
ra_9729_2009.html.
29) The LawPHiL Project. Republic Act No. 10121.
Retrieved 23 August 2019, fromhttps://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2010/
ra_10121_2010.html.
30) What is DOT Accreditation? Retrieved 22
August 2019, fromhttp://www.tourism.gov.ph/Downloadable%20F
iles/WhoMayApplyForAccreditation2017.pdf.
31) World Economic Forum. Travel and Tourism
Competitiveness Index 2017. Country Profile.
Philippines. http://reports.weforum.org/traveland-tourism-competitiveness-report2017/country-profiles/#economy=PHL.
32) World Risk Report 2014. (2017). Retrieved 23
August2019,
fromhttp://i.unu.edu/media/ehs.unu.edu/news/4070/1
1895.pdf.

Course ReportsOn-site Training in India, 2019.3.9 – 3.17
(Joint Lecture with Taoyaka Program, Hiroshima University)On-site Training in Hiroshima, 2019.8.18 – 8.25
(Taoyaka Program, Hiroshima University)Group Work Practice V (Fall Semester 2019)

Course Reports
19

Van Gujjars’ Awesome Handicraft: A Business Proposal
Marwa Ahmad

Table of Contents
1.
2.

3.

4.

5.

1.

Executive Summary
Introduction
a. Visionb. Missionc. Values
Backgrounda. Van Gujjar community with limited mobility
b. Van Gujjar community living in the forest
c. Relocated Van Gujjar community
Business Proposala. Product description
b. Logistics
c. Decentralized production facilities
d. Ownershipe. Payment scheme
f. Market study & Marketing campaign
g. Limitations
References

However, the Van Gujjars have more to offer; since they’vebeen nomadic for more than 1,500 years, overtime they havedeveloped high-end manufacturing skills and innovativetechnics to attend to their life needs with minimum resources.

Executive Summary:

Van Gujjaris is a semi nomadic community living in India,
Pakistan and Afghanistan. Those constitute a population ofsome 300,000 people scattered in India, Pakistan and
Afghanistan and their main economic activity has been inwater buffalo breading for 1500 years.1
The Indian government and NGOs have had numerous
attempts to rehabilitate them;2 they provided them withhousing and land as a means of livelihood besides selling
milk.

That is where we found an opportunity to capitalize on their
existing professional handicraft skills to offer them anothersource of income. Handicraft manufacturing would serve
as a diversification channel to their current source of
livelihood.

“Ethnographic Profile of the Van Gujjar,” p.51. Retrieved from:http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/105307/11/11_chapter%202.pdf
2 Seema Sharma, 2017. “Uttarakhand government making intense efforts for relocation of Van Gujjars from Rajaji Tiger
Reserve,” The Time of India. Retrieved from: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/uttarakhandgovernment-making-intense-efforts-for-relocation-of-van-gujjar-from-rajaji-tiger-reserve/articleshow/60817911.cms
1Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
20
3. Background:
The origin of the idea for the business was developed during
the University On-Site training to Dehradun in the state of
Uttarakhand, India as part of a generic theme on “Nature
conservation and forest dwellers’ livelihood.” As part of theeducational aim of the on-site trip taking effect between
March 9th and the 17th, we visited a number of sites, including
Rajaji National Park and 3 different sites where the Van
Gujjars live—a detailed account of which will be later
described in due course.
As a local business endeavor, Tiger Paw Inc., would help
elevate their social capital in the Indian society throughfinancial empowerment.
It would also provide thenecessary means for their kids to be registered in private
schools for them to grow having additional opportunities thatare not presently available to the Van Gujjar community.
2. Introduction:
Our vision in the startup that we aim to establish is to turn the
Van Gujjars from a marginalized “backward community class”
to an empowered and voice-full integrated social andeconomic agent. To market their ancient artifact technic as
the pride of ancient talent that withstands the tests of time andfast consumerist fashion trends, all the while presenting
lively patterns that never tire to please its customers of allages.

The purpose of our trip was to explore livelihood means fora semi-nomadic tribe in India called the Van Gujjars, as
earlier mentioned. It is since around 23 years now, that the
Indian government is trying to rehabilitate them into a fixed
property land and farm for them to integrate better in the
Indian society and to have an alternative source of livelihoodthat is more stable and less environmentally demanding as
resources become scarce and environmental changes occur
glocally.

While there, and from extensive prior readings, we
researched of their social, educational and economic
struggles and presented at the end of our onsite, a businessproposal related to their exploration of their best strength:
their own talented handicraft abilities.

The mission statement of our startup, Tiger Paw Inc., is:Creating opportunities, changing lives. As Tiger Paw Inc.,
will strive to engage with the Van Gujjars and provide themwith the tools and capacity building needed for them toassume their lives the way they want it following a successful
business model.

a.

Van Gujjar community with limited mobility

The first site represented a Van Gujjar community that havebeen resistant to the governments’ attempt at relocating them
indefinitely but whose movement at the moment have been
confined to a certain geographic area.

Course Reports
21b.
Van Gujjar community living in the forest
The second village pertained to Van Gujjars who haven’t
abandoned their nomadic migratory traditions, who still rely
solely on selling milk and herding water buffalos and otherlivestock.

Among the reasons stated and read in literatures behind thissocial trench’s unwillingness to move but to accept thelimited physical movement they are bound by,3 pertains tosome feelings of distrust towards the government. As somebelieve that after their moving, they may fall subject toabandonment in case of further demands, if any.4
Another reason extracted from the analysis of a number ofinterviews conducted with family heads of household—
either the available mother or father—among the visited
families, pertains to their relationship with other Van Gujjar
communities who have made the move and whose state
didn’t improve much from their current situation.

Some even expressed that they communicate with the Van
Gujjar families who moved, and that the latter complain ofbeing faced with new challenges, as confirmed by one of theheads of household who moved closer to the Urban city
center, as will be described at a later stage. This negative
feedback loop doesn’t appeal as the best solution for thiscommunity of Van Gujjars who haven’t taken thegovernment’s relocation plan yet.

The journey to reaching their location of residence in theforest is long and can only be accessed by foot or off-road
motorbikes, which means that their dependence on the local
market is lower than the previous Van Gujjars community we
had previously interviewed.

With only a few resources and a relatively lower purchasing
power than their Van Gujjar peers living closer to urban
localities, this community is more conscience over the burdenof buying a product and carrying it all the way home. Hence,
they maintained ancestral knowhow of certain construction
work, rope-making, kitchenware utensils and sewing
technics. The below bed-base, for instance, is made using
used plastic shopping bags and by dismantling gunny sackbags, whereas the food preserving pots are made of clay.

3 Ibid4 Note: As per author’s discretion, a detailed anthropological reading and observations of the sites and its dwellers, mayfollow the present report, in the form of a scientific paper to be published perhaps in the GRM journal.

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
22
too excels at making some house appliances and furniture,
however the raw product is bought from the market.
Moreover, there were more younger kids observed than older
teenage generations and young adults when compared to theformer two Van Gujjar sites.

This community seemed most self-reliant and prosperous
when it comes to the number of livestock and geographic areaof land residence. Moreover, each married descendent fromthe senior head of the family had a house and a number ofwater buffalo herd, but that were managed as one. This served
as additional reason for this Van Gujjar community not totake on the government’s offer for relocation.
c.

Relocated Van Gujjar community

The third Van Gujjars residence we visited is that of relocated
Van Gujjar tribes.5 Those were clearly closer to the city urban
centers and had better facilities when it comes to electricity
and toilets as an infrastructure.

It is by visiting all three Van Gujjar localities that we saw themarket opportunity in setting up the handicraft business weare pursuing: Tiger Paw Inc. Their attentions to details andthe high quality of the end product they produce represents
the essential value added of our product.

4. Business Proposal
Their kids as well, had better chances attending schools, eventhough the latter are famously known to be skipping classes.
Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that kids did value education
and believed it to be the way to “becoming somebody,”
according to one of the kid respondents who’s around 12
years old.

To begin with, our short-term growth plan will start buildingon the Van Gujjars’ existent technical skills. This will be
the added value of our products as we sell accessories,
handicrafts and apparel with a 1,500 old pastoral story. At
this stage, the established company, will provide them withthe raw material necessary for them to implement appareldesigns that reflect their artistic communal values.
In terms of logistics, we took into consideration the limitationof female worker participation, therefore, the system wesetup would deliver the necessary materials and collect themfrom Van Gujjar households, of course this applies to male
Van Gujjars too since the pay will be per piece, as will belater detailed.
We figured that this model of decentralized production,
would allow us to invest the initial capital in establishingpoints of sales in local markets and where there is tourist
attractions instead of setting up a physical facility that would
entail financial burdens.

5 Seema Sharma, 2017. “Shifting of Van Gujjars from Rajaji Reserve begins,” The Times of India.

Just like the former two Van Gujjar tribes, this community

Course Reports
23
That having been said, however, setting up a factory
eventually may be considered at later stages, the more thebusiness is able to reach planned goals.
As for the company’s ownership and financial system of
payments for its laborers, Tiger Paw Inc., is an incorporated
company whose shareholders are responsible for its operation.
However, Van Gujjar people can also buy stocks in the small
enterprise to claim higher authorship and perhaps eventuallytake full control of its management.
Furthermore, the corporation will follow an equal pay
scheme among gender, and monetary rewards will depend on
the number of pieces produced per individual, regardless ofage. Having said that, special rate will be awarded to skills
so as to insure the encouragement of skilled workers andpromote their abilities as a model to be followed by othercraftsmen and craftswomen.
The first production phase will extend over a 3 months period
as we aim to supply handicraft, accessories and apparelindustry segments to the local market in Dehradun.
This phase will be complemented with a monthly assessmentof the market, and the implementation of slight amendments
or substantial pattern changes in the production line.
Moreover, to keep our products as closely reflective of thelocal market demands, we will follow a feedback loop
initiated with a local marketing campaign, on billboards andin major places of gathering, such as areas of worship. We
also anticipate that our target will involve international
tourists and to those we will provide yogic patterns with aspiritual message from the initial phase.
Finally, as every business venture, Tiger Paw Inc’s areas of
weakness lies in the ability of its leadership to find ways toconvince the Van Gujjar community to participate in its
business model and what it has to offer them. This isespecially true, given that their skills will be the added value
with-which we aim to sell our products with a convincing
story. We plan to compensate for such by means of treating
the Van Gujjar community as our partners since day one,
whereby training schemes and capacity building programs
will be held semi-annually to ensure that the Gujjar
population develops their own skill set and business sense.
Perhaps eventually leading some elements of them to venture
solely when is presented by some spotted opportunity wefailed to supply.
5. References
No Author. “Ethnographic Profile of the Van Gujjar.”
Seema Sharma, 2017. “Uttarakhand government making
intense efforts for relocation of Van Gujjars from Rajaji Tiger
Reserve,” The Time of India.
Seema Sharma, 2017. “Shifting of Van Gujjars from Rajaji
Reserve begins,” The Times of India.

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
24

Van-Gujjars
W Livelihood by Herbs
Deeb Alashgar
I.

Executive Summary

1.1.

Introduction

The study is an onsite training conducted in 3 villages of
Van-Gujjar people under Rajaji National Park (RNP) whichis spread over 820 km² and includes the Shivalik hills in the
Himalayas, and three areas of Uttarakhand: Dehradun,
Haridwar, and Pauri Garhwal. It also has three sanctuaries
which are Chilla, Motichur, and Rajaji sanctuaries. In 1983,
The Union government merged these three wildlife reserves
into one reserve to become Rajaji National Park which isconsidered a second tiger reserve in the State after theCorbett Tiger Reserve. Now the government looking
forward increase RNP to be 1150 km² [1]. The establishmentof this natural reserve has several advantages in preserving
nature but has a significant negative impact on the lives andlivelihoods of Van-Gujjar people. In order to find out VanGujjar’s problem, we visited the three villages namely,
Kunaon-Chod Village, Chandi-Sout Village, and Gandhikhata Village. Figure 1 shows the 13 districts of the
Uttarakhand state.

Figure 2 The whereabouts of the Van-Gujjars in RNP [6]1.2.

During surveying Van-Gujjar's villages, some of VanGujjars were interviewed by conducting householders
survey randomly to collect information on the demographic
structure of the Van-Gujjars such as the family size, age,gender, and education level of the family members, numberof family members in the working age group, occupation,
size of landholding for each family. In addition to
information about the Van-Gujjar’s society, legitimacy ofresidence, and livelihoods
Findings resulted from the three visited Van-Gujjar'svillages are identified and summarized below.
1.2.1.

Figure 1 The map of Uttarakhand state [5]During the onsite visits to the Van-Gujjar’s villages, theconditions of the population, the level of education andmeans of living were studied. Significant differences in thelevel of education and livelihoods between the first twovillages and the third village but in common all of VanGujjar’s keep the nomadic lifestyle of the tribe.
Consequently, they are defenseless against the change innatural which leads to poor conditions, low educational
attainment, and diverse livelihood. Despite theestablishment of the RNP natural reserve, there are still VanGujjars living within specified areas in RNP as shown in
Figure 2.

Summary of key findings

The society

Van Gujjars are a simple rural, semi-nomadic tribe who havepracticed transhumance for long periods among different
eco-regions of the Himalayas. They were traditionally foodgatherers who relied on the forests. Unlike the most othercommunities, the concept of the village structuring is absent
amongst the van-Gujjars, and they build their houses inside
the forest by construction style called ‘Dera', which
considered as the nucleus of the Van-Gujjar's society.
Besides, Indian courts have not registered any cases against
the Van-Gujjars [2] Figure 1 shows the building styles usedin the construction of houses in Van-Gujjar community.

Figure 3 Dera style of building the houses of the Van-Gujjars

Course Reports
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1.2.2.

Legitimacy of residence

The government of India considers the Van-Gujjars as agroup of cross-border nomadic tribes who settled in the
country only 300 years ago [3]; Accordingly, they are notthe owners of the land, but only beneficiaries of residence.
However, the Government of India considers the VanGujjars as part of the Indian people. After considering the
RNP area as a nature reserve, the residence of Van-Gujjars
become illegal, So the government has sought to resettle
them in other areas so that they will be distributed toemerging and organized villages in the Indian Civil Registry.
On the other hand, Van-Gujjars have positive attitudes of forrelocation if they have a safe and regular life such asproviding livelihoods for them and education for theirchildren.
1.2.3.

Education

The semi-nomadic nature and the frequent mobility of the
Van-Gujjars led to the difficulty of availability of places foreducation. Thus the Van-Gujjar's community is sufferingfrom a severe lack of education which affected negatively
on all aspects of their lives: most cannot read and write aswell as do not follow the global development in the areas offood security and self-sufficiency which led to the difficultyof developing their livelihoods. So Van-Gujjars have shownthat education comes as a priority after food security.
1.2.4.

Livelihood

Gathering herbs and nutrients from the forest in addition to
buffalo milking and selling mil are the most importantsources of livelihood of Van-Gujjars. The average numberof buffaloes per family is five buffalo. In addition to that, thesemi-nomadic nature of the Van-Gujjars has made farming
rare in the Van-Gujjar's region and has made them more
dependent on collecting herbs and food instead ofcultivation. Figure 4 shows the whereabouts of buffalos inthe Van-Gujjar’s areas.

Figure 4 The breeding of buffaloes in Van-Gujjar’s areas

1.2.5.

Health and treatment

The Van-Gujjar community does not have any knowledge of
medicinal herbs and herbal remedies, so they are treated by
nearby clinics and medical centers. They consider that
health insurance is not a priority compared to food security.
Figure 5 Shows Van-Gujjar’s family is treated using
medicinal treatment.

Figure 5 A Van-Gujjar’s family is treated using medicine

2.

Field Work Analysis

2.1.

The current situation

Findings resulted from the three visited Van-Gujjar'svillages are identified and summarized. The comparison
between the Kunaon-Chod and Chandi-Sout Villages showsslight differences as shown in the following table1.
Table 1 Comparison between Kunaon-Chod and Chandi-sout villages

Comparison
Site
Specification
Land’sownership
Home’sConstruction
Educationlevel
Cultivation
Herbs
knowledge
Livelihood

KunaonChod
Near the riverandtransportation
Government ofIndia
No permission
None
None
None
Milking andCollecting
plantsFoodinsecurity

Chandi-sout
Far from rivers
andtransportation
Government ofIndia
No permission
Poor education
level
low
None
Milking,collecting
andcultivating
plantsAfter this field visit to Kunaon-Chod and Chandi-soutvillages, we visited the Gandhi-khataVillage which iswithin the civil organization of the villages established by
the Indian government. The differences in the livelihoods
and education levels between the last random villages andthis village are distinctly evident. The residents of theregular villages use cement to build some of their homes butat the same time retain the fairly traditional building style,where the Dera style of their construction is clearly shownin their construction style with some modification using
cement for building instead of wood as shown in Figure 6.
Although the government of India has given people small
pieces of land and permitted them of construction andagriculture on this land, people consider it as insufficient tomeet their food needs and cannot be used as a source ofincome to meet other requirements and other things. In otherwords, those lands do not achieve self-sufficient for people.

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
26
through one of the following things:
Obtain permission from the Indian government togive them government land more significant thanthe current land .This option is complicated andrequires a lot of paperwork and transactions, not tomention that the success rate of approval of the
Indian government is meager.
Buying or leasing a large plot of land, establishinga private agricultural project and employing the
Van-Gujjars as farmers. In this project. This idea
facilitates the process of assisting Van-Gujjars, andon the other hand, does not require a lot ofcomplicated legal procedures as in the above item.



Figure 6 The construction style of Gandhi-khata’s homes

2.2.

The Problems of the current situation

As usual, it is not possible to know the obstacles andproblems facing people except the field visit, which is toinvestigate and analyze accurately and practically fromonsite through interviews with residents and seeing thenature of their lives and discuss some officials in the region.

4.1.
Methodology
The project is based on the idea of establishing acompany working on herbal cultivation and develop
ways of marketing. To make the idea more clearly,
Figure 7 illustrates the structure of the building
company.

After the onsite visit of the Van-Gujjar villages and thenature reserve, it turns out that several problems are facing
the Van-Gujjars as shown below:•

Land limitation
Despite the positive attitude of the Van-Gujjars to beresettled in new places, but the government granted
them small plots of land for housing; these lands are
not enough for agriculture or any other uses besides
the housing. This lack of space has led to the difficultyof the people to exploit the land in agriculture andothers to improve their livelihoods.

•

Lack of knowledge of agriculture
The study of the effects of dependence on the forest
by Van-Gujjar communities shows that Forestdependent Van-Gujjars are suffering from a lack ofknowledge of agriculture more than that who did not
rely on forests for their livelihoods. In addition to theprevious, the lack of education in the Van-Gujjars also
leads to a lack of knowledge of the arts of agriculture.

•

Unsustainable income.
Van-Gujjars suffer from the problem of the scarcity of
job opportunities which lead to unstable income andvolatile socioeconomic situations.

•Figure 7 The block diagram of the Company
As shown in figure 7, the project is divided into three
sections as follow:
4.1.1.

Sources of raw materials
Consumers Analysis
Our company
Resources

As mentioned in the above, the project is based on the ideaof buying land and hiring Van-Gujjars as farmers in this land,so the Van-Gujjars will be one of the important elements inthe process of providing raw materials for the company. As
mentioned previously, the employment of Van-Gujjars in theland owned by the company is better in terms of legal
procedures, but in the other hand it has another advantages
and disadvantages as shown in table 2:

Lack of knowledge of how to develop their livelihood

The ever-evolving societies can develop theirlivelihoods by having sufficient awareness of theingredients needed to develop themselves, and the
exploit of the surrounding resources, but in the caseof the Van-Gujjars, they suffer from a lack ofintellectual and scientific awareness necessary for thedevelopment of life because of poor education, lackof knowledge of agricultural and livestock production.

Table 2 Comparison between buying herbs and farming Herbs

Comparison
Cost of the business
Secure the business's
futureResources control

Buying
Herbs
Low
No

Buying
Herbs
High
Yes

No

Yes

Figure 8 summarizes the Herbs sources in a simple diagram

3.

Objectives

To secure the economy of the Van Gujjar by Developing
the Van-Gujjar’s livelihood with a stable socioeconomic
situation.
4.

Methodology and Business Analysis

Developing the livelihoods of Van-Gujjars can be done

Course Reports
27
for the company. Figure 9
diagram.

illustrates the company's block

Figure 8 Diagram of the Herbs sources summary

4.1.2.
Customers Analysis
Marketing is the most common obstacle that people
are facing in their businesses because usually, theirmarketing strategies are not giving them the desired
results sometimes the efforts are not bringing them thecustomers, clients or sales they desire.

Figure 9 The block diagram of DOSHIMA Company
Therefore, the Department of Investment Management is thefirst department in the company, which is structured into
three administrative sectors as follows:

Investment in the education and training of workers andfarmers of Van-Gujjars is not profitable in the shortterm but is of strategic benefit. So obtaining
professional and efficient trained workers that increase
the speed of production and product efficiency and thusincrease the company's future revenues. Despite thegreat benefit of the training of Van-Gujjars, it is more
beneficial for them themselves to become moreproductive to improve their livelihoods. So theagricultural knowledge should be provided for VanGujjars.

Marketing concentrates on firms that ultimately sell to
consumers (e.g., individuals, families). This type ofmarketing is commonly considered as Business toConsumer (B2C) marketing. However, on the other
hand, there is another type of business which isbusinesses of providing products and services to otherbusinesses. This marketing is commonly recognized
as Business to Business (B2B) marketing;
Table 3 The comparison between the B2C and B2B marketing

BuyersDemand Type
Impact of pricechangesMarketing
Dependence
Point ofAttraction

B2C
more andsmallerbuyersDirectDemandElastic
DemandOn theProducts
BrandsB2B
Fewer andlarger buyers
DeriveddemandMore elastic
DemandOn therelationships
Quality

The comparison shown in Table 3 illustrates that do businessto business marketing is considered the best in terms of costand effort. In the case of the business to customer marketing,the company will be obliged to work factories to treatment
the herbs before being sold as a final product to theconsumer, which means that the company requires moreestablishment and operating costs, which means burdening
the company with more costs that hinder its creation easily.
4.1.3.

Education investmentsTechniques investments
Investment in equipment and project infrastructure isessential in terms of making production more efficientand more productive. As the use of plow instead ofmanual tillage is a positive point in increasing the
production of the project. Therefore, the provision oftechnology required for agriculture is very importantand one of the most important ways to develop
production and increase its quality

Farming land investments
Investing in land is sometimes unproductive andrenting land is sometimes less costly and more
beneficial to the project as it is in this project .Despite
this, the land must be prepared in terms of fertilizationand immunity from insects. In addition to the above
should take into account the agricultural land should beclose to Van-Gujjars villages as well as easy tocommute.

Figure 10 displays a summary of the investments
management in the DOSHIMA Company.

Company Analysis

Most people know the importance of investing forbusinesses to gain the most of their money and savings by
putting money into guaranteed and solid investments growsteadily. This kind of thinking builds stability for thebusiness. The business plan should critical ensure that futurebusinesses’ profits are secure and growing, even without
new customers. Real estate is the best and reliable option forinvestors. The business plan must be convincing andreassuring to investors that they trust the project and inject
their money into it smoothly. If the Business plan is doneright and had a great idea for a business without capital, thesupport, and many business contacts can easily offer fundFigure 10 The Summary of the investment’s managementof the company

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
28
To have the investment we have three methods [4]:

Debt investments
such as loans, bonds, and mortgages

Table 4 summarizes what described above in Business
Model Canvas.

Equity investments
It is money invested in business through the acquisitionof shares of companies. Generally, it refers to company
ownership.



advertising, and On-line Sale.

Table 4 Business Model Canvas of DOSHIMA Company

Hybrid investments
These investments help companies protect themselvesfrom economic and financial risks in securities
transactions, such as convertible securities, andpreferred shares.

Trade is considered the cornerstone of any company which
includes the following sections:Supply/Resources Management
Resources Management is based on the control of types,
quality, and quantity of cultivated herbs. Also, it
includes the Department of Human Resources
Management and the Department of Agricultural
Production
Improvement
andTransportation
Coordinator.



Demand Analysis
The perception of customer demands is a wellestablished methodology for the demand analysis of
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.
Therefore; this section includes studying customer
demand and anticipating future demand.



Trade Management
Management between resource management, demand
analysis management to achieve harmony and interdepartmental coordination to obtain maximum
organized teamwork.

Figure 11 summarizes the trading department in thecompany as a block diagram.

5.

6.
[1]

[2]

Figure 11 The block diagram of the trading department of
DOSHIMA company
On the other hand, Marketing is another side of the trade,which is the art of dealing with customers to provide a largebase of customers while keeping the satisfaction of former
customers beside seeking new customers. This marketingshould include marketing consultancy and market research.
The essential tools that help the company to lead inmarketing are the agreements and trade relations,

Conclusion

This study is an onsite training conducted in 3 villages of
Van-Gujjar people under Rajaji National Park (RNP) namely,
Kunaon-Chod Village, Chandi-Sout Village, and Gandhikhata Villages. After the onsite visit of the Van-Gujjar
villages, it turns out that several problems are facing the
Van-Gujjars which are lack of farming land, lack ofknowledge of agriculture, their unsustainable income andthe bad livelihood. The solution to this problem should be asustainable solution. So the purpose of this study is to secure
the economy of the Van Gujjar by Developing the VanGujjar’s livelihood with a stable socioeconomic situation. It
can be done by diversifying production away from food into
the production of herbs "cash production such as medicinal
herbs, increasing food and Herb production Based on
scientific recommendations, making good marketing workfor the livelihood-security, moving away from thevulnerable livelihood into strategical livelihoods.
The principle of dual development is the most efficient andsuccessful in the development of society. So, the idea of our
project is to have two ways of benefits for the company andthe Van-Gujjars to make a sustainable development.

[3]
[4]

References
G. o. Uttarakhand, "Uttarakhand Forest
Government of Uttarakhand," 17 March 2019.
[Online]. Available:
http://www.forest.uk.gov.in/pages/view/156-rajajinational-park.
Traditional Wisdom in Natural Resource
management of people of Uttaranchal,https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d959y28a7f5g8uu/A
AADlrvkOJhg3vo6mZvCkz3a/Reading_Materials?dl=0&preview=Van+Gujjar.
pdf&subfolder_nav_tracking=1.
P. Vivekanandan, "Van Gujjars and their Land
Rights," SEVA, 2007.
C. E. Inc., " Investment Methods," Corporate
Finance Institute CFI , [Online]. Available:
https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/kno
wledge/finance/investment-methods/. [Accessed 17
March 2019].

Course Reports
29
[5]

[6]

G. o. Uttarakhand, "Uttarakhand tourism,"Uttarakhand map, [Online]. Available:
http://www.uttarakhandtourism.com/map/uttarakhand-map.php. [Accessed
17 March 2019].
F. Hanssen, V. Mathur, and V. Athreya, "Capacity
building for Intergovernmental Platform for
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES),"
Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, 2014.

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
30

Amazing Van Gujjar Handicraft Industry
A proposed business model of the amazing handicraft
for promoting commercial trading in the market
Mohammed Awad Hajjaj
Abstract2004).

The problem of the conflict between nature preservation anddevelopment is considered for nomadic people. Three onsite visits at Uttarakhand were for the nomadic people topromote a business model for surviving and livelihood.
Van Gujjar is a nomadic and big Muslims community who
are living without roads, and electricity, and no fixed
addresses as well. Van Gujjar is transhumance pastoralism
in the newly formed state of Uttarakhand. They migrateseasonally between the forests and the pastures on themountains. Some Van Gujjar people accepted to move to theplace that the government prepared with Rajaji National
Park establishment.

The people who are moving from the place to anotherplace, are looking for the convenient place that they canmake life activities for settling, cultivating, and trading as
well. Therefore, the eco-development program set somerules to protect the area or realize the balance between thedevelopment and the conservation activity and people using
resources within the area, especially with pastoral nomadic
tribes. Nomadic people do not own any land and build thepermanent structures, so their lands retain relatively
unaltered nature condition.

The current situation of Van Gujjar people that they feedbuffalo and sell milk, undereducated, building skills retained
from ancestors. However, they can make beautiful
handicrafts to meet the needs of their lives. They have theskills to apply their ability to new products, so that they canmake a lot of beautiful handicrafts and sell it in the market
or for whom interested people in to get money for theirlivelihood.
Van Gujjar people don't have to ability to run any businessin the market due to the education and lack of experience tounderstand more the market and any business skills in themarket so that the purpose of the on-site visiting is to run asmall startup company to promote the beautiful handicrafts
in the market. The small startup company can help and hirethe Van Gujjar people to make more handicrafts and sell it
in local or on the internet. The main sociality goal of the
project is to help Van Gujjar to take part and take part insociety, and to get more survive for their needs in the daily
life by using their skills in making the handicraft.
Van Gujjar is a part of the society, and they have the owned
culture and style and the needs as well. They have a lack of
education, material but they have talented handmade
products, so they can participate in society with theirtalented products, and speak loudly about their needs for allother societies.
Index Term—Van Gujjar, India Uttarakhand, Rajaji
National Park, Handicrafts, Business Model.

The eco-development program has taken part in thedevelopment to improve the livelihood for those who areliving around the place. In India, there are many ethnic
groups who are living in different levels in ethnic groups andtribes. They are collecting daily life by their way forsurviving and moving from place to another place in looking
for a safe life and surviving. Var Gujjars have been a vibrantethnic minority of India. The Van Gujjars are living in ethnic
groups of nomadic water buffalo herders as well. They livein the wilderness and in the jungles and mountains grazing
their livestock on the vegetation. They occupy marginallands because the better-favored environments are almost
occupied by settled permanent agriculturists. Therefore,
there are some limitation for the Van Gujjars to do any job
due the lack of the experience, and no education and limited
resources (Harihar, Verissimo, & MacMillan, 2015).
However, the culture market is not stable in India as
there are many culture lifestyles for religious, ethnic groups,
people, herbs, handicrafts, and Indian lifestyle. The
beautiful Van Gujjars handicrafts are one of the products thatare not stable in the market because it is handmade, and there
are no two products look exactly the same, so the ideas comefrom the nomadic lifestyle (Onstie Training, 2019).
In this report, a business model has been proposed torunastartupcompany
forpromotingthe
Van Gujjars amazing handicraft industry. The amazing
handicraft industry is a small part of the culture exhibition
for the Van Gujjars lifestyle.
1.1 Objectives

1.

Introduction

The Indian government and the non-governmentorganizations have different plans to protect the national
areas and for releasing the eco-development programs. Ecodevelopment is an approach for community participation.
There are different phases of eco-development program inIndia. Most of the programs have different problems
because the programs have some fragmented activities withno long-term planning, or it is small and micro planning due
to the lack of resources. However, some programs have theparts more organized with a focus on livelihood,participation and institution building and looking at the next
minority generation of people for sustainability (Gooch,

The main sociality goal of the project is to help
Van Gujjars to take part and participate in society, andto get more survive for their needs in the daily life byusing their skills in making the handicraft. The sub
objectives of the project are to run a small startup
company to promote the beautiful handicrafts in themarket; and to hire the Van Gujjars in the production
process for making the amazing handicrafts industry.
Firstly, the target group of the proposed business modelis the Van Gujjar people at Uttarakhand, India. Thenthe people who has the skills to make professional
handicrafts products will be the specific target of the
proposed business model.

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2.

1.2. Methodology

Training, 2019).

About the methodology to get data from Van Gujjars,
questionnaire survey and interviews were carried out
among the Van Gujjars inside Rajaji National Park.
Then, three onsite visits were to different areas at
Haridwar district of the Rajaji National Park in
Uttarakhand as a case in point. The purpose of theonsite visits to hold some interviews with the Van
Gujjars and the nomadic people to know more about
their situations and to get closer more in their life.

In previous resettlements, Van Gujjars have returned to
the forest due to the lack of the support to assist theiradaptation to a sedentary agricultural way of life and many
Van Gujjars simply ended up leasing their land toenterprising farmers from adjoining areas and sending theirlivestock to graze in forest areas (Harihar, Verissimo, &MacMillan, 2015). Currently, Van Gujjars have no money touse it for business, and they don't have enough experience
to successfully adapt for the agriculture, so they get the foodby selling the products from the milk which they get fromtheir buffalo animals (Gooch, 2004) (Harihar, Verissimo, &MacMillan, 2015).

Background

The origin of Van Gujjars is traced to the north of India
and the Tibet area as well from the from the Gujjars
community. From history in late 1980, Van isadded to Gujjars to distinguish themselves from theother Gujjars in India. Van means the forest, so that
Van Gujjars aretheforest Gujjars basedintheIndian culture (The Van Gujjar Migration, 2019).
Van Gujjars are living in most of northern India andthey are a very large and ethnically diversified population,
the pastoral Van Gujjar people in this particular area are all
Muslims and constitute a rather homogenous, specialized
community based on the production of buffalo milk frompastoralism in the state forest (The Van Gujjar Migration,2019).
Each Van Gujjar settles into base camps, often in thesame spot for many seasons in a row. They might be a few
hundred meters or perhaps a kilometer away from theirnearest nomadic neighbors. They have their huts of sticks
and mud, and they roam over gnarled sedimentary
topography, through a tangle of deciduous trees and shrubs,
feeding their buffaloes on the abundant foliage (Gooch,2004).
Van Gujjars heavily rely on an economic system based
primarily on animal husbandry. The primary resource of the
Van Gujjars is livestock and as their territorial rights are
confined to marginal environments, it is imperative for thecommunity to move seasonally in order to ensure adequate
grazing and water for the livestock (The Ban Gujjars Children of the Forest, 2019).
In a part of the eco-development programs with Rajaji
National Park establishment, some of Van Gujjars accept torelocate to place that the government prepared near theforest. They seasonally migrate between forest at the foothilland pasture land up in the mountain. Their traditional
livelihood is feeding buffaloes in the way of nomadic
pastoralism. The Van Gujjars adapt to using the major partof milk production to sell for dealers on way back to thefoothills (Anmol Jain).
Van Gujjars use the medicinal herbs or plants as
tradition continued by ethical and local communities forhealthcare and household remedies. They have a fairly goodknowledge of the various diseases that their buffaloes(Nusrat, Pattanaik, & Farooquee, 2011). The Van Gujjars
people don’t have any level of education which affect themin their life. They sent their children to the private school tolearn the basic language and activity of life in a short time.
They get the experience from each other by teaching them
the knowledge they got from their ancestors (Onstie

Van Gujjars relate to their buffaloes as much more thanmere resources as family members, naming each one andcaring for them with genuine devotion. The buffaloes are themain sources for the Van Gujjars to get the food every day,so when they are losing one of them, they are feeling withthe loss is more personal than financial.
2.1. Geographic
India, country that occupies the greater part of South
Asia. It is a constitutional republic consisting of 29
states, each with a substantial degree of control overits own affairs; 6 less fully empowered union
territories; and the Delhi national capital territory,
which includes New Delhi, India’s capital, as shown
the (Maps of India, 2019).

Figure 1: India map, and Uttarakhand map.
Now, there are many Van Gujjars are living in
Uttarakhand, in the Dehradun district and the Haridwar
district in close the Rajaji National Park, the west and northpart of Uttarakhand, as shown in Figure 2. Some of them
are moving from the north of India to Haridwar and living
in tribes around Rajaji National Park.

Figure 2: The Dehradun district and the Haridwar district map.

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
32vegans, and they get the vegetables from the market
near their houses or from the farms by exchanging themilk sometimes or selling it for the people. They dosome activities in their free time, and practice religion
or visiting and reaching each other in groups. They
have owned their beautiful nomadic life, and they don't
get the experience to do any business activity in themarket (Harihar, Verissimo, & MacMillan, 2015).

2.2. Census Data
Van Gujjars numbers around more than 2 million
people according to the last census in 1931 in the
different location of India in special Uttarakhand, andalong the Himalayas. Van Gujjars and Hindu Gujjars
are the same, but there is relatively unknown inrelation between the tribes.

Van Gujjars make sometimes in the free times
amazing handicrafts. The handicrafts become from thenomadic lifestyle. They have the ability and thecapacity to make exactly what they need in a
professional ready-to-market standards for example
the beds, small chairs, circular tables made of tires.
They get and built their skill retained from ancestors(Onstie Training, 2019).

2.3. The Current Situation of Van Gujjars
Van Gujjars are a small community and they are living
in tribes with livestock. They get and earn a living by
selling milk and other dairy products. They are totally
pastoral and unmoved by the desire to either hold or
cultivate the land. The life of the Van Gujjars is
becoming from the nomadic lifestyle with unstablelocations. They are living far away from the center ofthe city, so they are moving with the livestock insearching for their livelihood. Van Gujjars live in ascattered temporarily erected huts, made from forest
materials for both winter and summer pastures in theinterior of the forests, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 4: Amazing Van Gujjars handicrafts.

3.
Figure 3: Van Gujjar houses.
The majority of Van Gujjars are semi-nomadic, forestdwelling and cattle-herding Muslim. Van Gujjars andtheir socio-political, economic and educational
advancement, and how they themselves are struggling
to fight for their rights in some pockets. Their origins,
relations with traditional Islam and religious
worldview remain largely shrouded in mystery (Anmol
Jain).
Van Gujjars people was a non-literate, not very
well known as they have a private special school for
their kids. The pastoral people are living with theirherds at the periphery of local Indian society. Sociallyand politically marginalized and heavily exploited byboth forest officials and middlemen, they appeared tohave all odds against them. Historically, the Van
Gujjars have been suppliers of dairy products in theregion, but in spite of new market possibilities for suchproducts in the fast-growing urban. They use therevenue getting from selling the milk to buy some daily
foods from the market. Most of their food depends onthe vegetables as it is not expensive to get vegetables
for the livelihood (Nusrat, Pattanaik, & Farooquee,2011).
The Van Gujjars as they are ethnic groups andliving in tribes, they are living in the lowest level of life
in society. Most of their houses are built without good
infrastructure for electricity and water, and no roads.
They used some batteries and solar panel to get theelectricity for the light and use the water pump to get
the water from the ground for drinking or washing or
feeding the animals. They have nothing for a clean life
as they are living with the buffalo, and using the normal
way for cooking and the natural medicine for surviving
or covering the bodies. They are too low of the undereducated as they cannot read and write well. They are

The Proposed Business ModelIn this section, a new solution proposed to help the Van
Gujjar community for surviving and participating in society.
As shown in Figure 5, a third-party needed is to make therelationship between the Van Gujjar community and Indiansociety.

Figure 5: The proposed solution of helping the Van Gujjar
community.
Whatever the international organizations and the nongovernment organizations or NGO are a solution to make arelationship between Van Gujjar community and the Indiansociety, but the international organizations or NGO havedifferent goals to work in the society. The organizations
work for research and development, and not for business.
The goals are depending on the public policies for thegovernment or the party that they belong to, so it might not
be a good proposed solution in a short time.
In another side, the specialist people are one of the
proposed solutions as well to make a relationship between
Van Gujjar community and Indian society, but not for many
people or big community to take part in the business or themarkets. The specialist people might be a business person ina short time which will lead to making a body for the law or
running business. Another problem for the specialist people
that they will have in Indian society to make tax or insurance
system, and the behavior of customers as it will take time toCourse Reports
33
build the trust between the producers or sellers and clientsor customers.
So far, the best solution to activate the
Van Gujjar community might be the running a new startup
company. The startup company will be the third-party andthe channel to the society for the Van Gujjar people.
However, the startup company including the specialist
people as well have the skills, and they can understand theneeds of the society, and how to run the business the rightway, so the startup company can go deep inside the markets,and open new channels or markets in the society.
On the other side, the startup company might be thechannels for the Van Gujjar community, and they can hire
the human resources from the Van Gujjar as they have theskills to make amazing handicrafts for people. Then
Van Gujjar community can sell their products for the startup
company, or the company can manage the products for the
Van Gujjar people and sell it in the market.
Van Gujjar people can find the startup company as agateway to communicate with the Indian society.
3.1. Launch A Startup Company
One of the best solutions to promote acommercial trading in the society is a small startup
company. The small startup company can be the bridge
to make the relationship between Van Gujjar
community and Indian society. However, the startup
company can promote and do the commercial tradingof the handicraft products, not only in the domestic
market, but also in the international market using
different gates and ways.
Whatever, the startup company can have an
initial plan to build a success story with Van Gujjar
people. A good plan including strategic marketing planand financial issues are the main factor to build a
success story in the society for the first business trading
to work with Van Gujjar people.
1.

Initial Management Plan

Whatever, the startup company can have an
initial plan to build a success story with Van Gujjar
people. The proposed plan for the startup company
is shown in the next Figure 6 below which is thebasic platform to run the business of the startup
company.

Figure 6: The initial management plan of the startup company.

In this plan, the management plan will be inthree months for the first phase of running thebusiness. The goal of this short first plan is toprepare the business and start to make a goodsuccess story for the Van Gujjar. Then, theproposed startup company can make a link
between the Van Gujjar community and society.
The startup company consists of a small store
or shop in close the center of the city which thecompany can communicate with Van Gujjar easy.
The site of the shop will be in the centerof Haridwar district in close to Rajaji National
Park or the river of the city. This site is easy for
the Van Gujjar people that they can come to get
the daily food and communicate with people. On
another side, this location seems like attraction
tourist area for people who travel around India
and Uttarakhand, so many people come to thisarea for the sightseeing and get a little about thetraditional area and culture of Indian society. The
shop in this area likes an exhibition for thehandicraft industry and nomadic culture that comefrom Van Gujjar people. However, the shop
will register in the district hall which is easy toreach for all.
Whatever, the proposed company will start in
the first plan with three people to work in the staff
for the management, relationships, and marketing.
The company will get all products from Van
Gujjar people in two ways: the first way, they willcollect all handicrafts that the Van Gujjar people
have already made and sell it in the market or thesecond way the company targets a few groups of
Van Gujjar people who have the skills to make thehandicrafts and sell it the market. The main
purpose of the first plan is to make a success storyof the Van Gujjar people in the market so that all
marketing plans and financial issues will beconsidered in the first plan.
2.

Marketing Plan

In the marketing plan, the startup company
have some strategies to work with Van Gujjar
people. The marketing plan for the fist phase oflunching the business is knocking the door ofmarket, and promoting the handicrafts products
and getting the feedback from the customers.
At first, the startup company will make abrief feasibility study of the products. The
feasibility study will consider the material of the
products and the quality as well. The company
willcollectthehandicrafts
from
Van Gujjar people and check the quality inmatching the market needs. Then, the company
will ask the Van Gujjar people to improve theproducts based in the criteria, so in this case, thecompany will offer the good material for the
Van Gujjar people as needed.
However, the Van Gujjars have the skills,
and they have some good and nomadic products,
then the company can collect the handicrafts andput in the shop or the exhibition. Meanwhile, thecompany will make a promotion plan for thehandicrafts in the market, including website topromote the products in the internet. Alltransportation and promotion plan have been
considered in the feasibility study.

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
34

Figure 7: The proposed business model of new startup company.
Another point has to be addressed in themarketing plan is the cost and the prices of thehandicraft products. The proposed company willsell the products in the market with suitableprices. The prices will cover the consumption
cost of the processing and the return of value to
Van Gujjar people as the main purpose for the
livelihood and surviving, then the
Van Gujjars can take part more in the production
process.

3.

Financial Issues

The financial issues for the startup company
are considered based on the investment and thereturn of value for sustainability, and running thebusiness. However, the consumption cost for thebusiness activities of the startup company
including the feasibility study is the running of thebusiness, the promotions, and the marketing
analysis.
The basic investment of business for the firstphase has to cover the consumption cost, and thebusiness activities including the wages of the staff
and the shop rent for the first phase of the business,and the marketing including the feasibility study
and advertisement locally and globally via theinternet, and providing the material for the
production as well.
Meanwhile, the basic investment has toconsider the marketing analysis including theplans and the compensation for the Van Gujjar
people to motivate them to work and produce
more handicraft. In another side, the basic
investment has to cover as well the cost ofbuilding a trading brand for the Van Gujjar people
and enhance the trust and the relationship withcustomers and trading partners for businesscooperation.
3.2. Run the Commercial Business Trading
In this business model, a new startup company

has been proposed to hire the Van Gujjar community.
The Van Gujjar has the ability to make the amazing
handicraft, and the startup can promote thecommercial trading of the handicraft products in themarket, as shown in Figure 7 below.
1.

Value Propositions

The value propositions or the added value ofthe business model is the talented hands as
Van Gujjar people have the skills to make theprofessional and good products of handicrafts, so
that, they can make unique handmade products.
However, Van Gujjar people have theirowned nomadic life, so they have the ability tomake the old Indian nomadic and traditional
handicrafts, which could be a new and an added
value for their products in the markets.
2.

Customers Segments

The customers who will have the products
depend on the market. The market for thehandicraft products will be in almost for thedomestic and local market especially for thepeople or those who have traveled and come to see
the Uttarakhand and Rajaji National Park.
However, the startup company will have and go
globally to sell the products in different places of
Uttarakhand, and India, and for many countries
via the website.
In addition, the company will target thepeople who are looking to have traditional
handicrafts from the nomadic style. Sometravelers have the hobbies to collect and buy
handmade goods, and they want to have a homestyle from the nomadic lifestyle including thefemales. The females collect some accessories fortheir life, and they are looking to collect some ofnomadic handmade for their houses and to get for
the traditional fashion.

Course Reports
35
The primary segments are the western people.
The western people even the secondary segmentfrom the east of Asia don’t know more about thenomadic lifestyle, and Indian style, so that the
India Van Gujjar handicrafts will be the best
souvenirs for their friends, families and theirrelatives.
3.

Channels & the Customers Relationship

6.

Cost and revenue

The cost for the first phase of the project isthe assets and the equipment, in addition to theconsumption cost for the research anddevelopment like realizing the quality. As well,
the running cost for the company will be forproviding the materials, wages, and marketing
expenses.

The company will have a small shop to use it
for the exhibition and gift show. As well, thecompany will work with small retail stores topromote the Van Gujjar handicraft products.
Whatever, the company will a website to show the
products online for people and sell them in the
online marketing places.

The startup company will be looking to get
revenues which they can cover all consumption
cost, and return to the Van Gujjar people for the
livelihood. The main production will come fromthe Van Gujjar people, and the company will sell
the handicrafts in the market and return a part of
the revenue to the Van Gujjar people.

The most important part is to build therelationship between the Van Gujjar and theIndian society. The company has to make trust insociety with customers by using different types ofhandicraft product, so no two products lookexactly the same model because it is handmade.
The customers will get a special handmade giftfrom the company. As well, the customers cansend feedback to the company by the internet, or
the customers can ask the company to offer special
handmade by showing the online market.

However, another revenue will come fromthe sale of products by telling a compelling storyof the origins of various handicraft and Van
Gujjars. In addition, meeting the needs of more
people seeking out original lifestyle goods is
another revenue for the project.

4.

Business Partners

The startup company can have business
partners like NGO, or the government to do someresearch about the Van Gujjar people as thecompany can reach for different types of Van
Gujjar. Therefore, some Van Gujjar can reach eachother to promote their handicraft products to thecompany; then the company will be the main gate
for them to communicate with society.
In another side, the company will promote
the handicraft in the market, then some other staff
needed for the production process like designers,
or some artisans to offer some models for the Van
Gujjar people, and some retailers to expand the
local market to other places. As well, the partners
will be some investors for help and funds.
5.

Activities & the Resources

The activities of the startup company, in
general, will be for helping the Van Gujjar peopleby training and coaching to make a good qualityof the handicraft products. In addition, thecompany will do some researches for the market,
and offer the product design for the Van Gujjar.
The main activity for the startup company is topromote the handicraft products for society.
About the resources, the startup company
needs the main resources which they can use it for
the activities. The basic resources for the firstphase of launching the company are the material
for the production including the designing andmarketing research. In addition, rennet
motorcycle is needed for the commuting andreaching the Van Gujjar people.

7.

The Sustainability

The project will have a plan for thesustainable and expand the market to other placesin India, and outside of India, so the company will
cut a part of the revenue to use it for the researchand development, and expand the target of the
Van Gujjars as well.
4. Summary
In general Van Gujjars are is a semi-nomadic tribe living
in Uttarakhand. They are a big community and a part of thesociety. Van Gujjars are a pastoralist community, based ondairy buffalo herds. They have their owned culture and styleand the needs as well.
Van Gujjars are suffering in their life due to the lack ofresources and adapting with the revolution life of the people.
They are having a problem in communicating with society
and doing their business due to the lack of education, andmaterial. However, Van Gujjars find their material to makeand have talented handmade products. They get theresources from the area around them.
There are different preferences for coexistence options
designed to remove or reduce severe impediments totraditional livelihoods and development inside theforests. With enlightenment, the Van Gujjars are now
organizing themselves to ask for the right to live in and to
manage the forests or lands that have been their home forages. Van Gujjars can participate in the society with theirtalented products. Van Gujjars can speak loudly about theirneeds for all other societies.
Works Cited(2019, 3). Retrieved from The Van Gujjar Migration:
http://www.himalayanmigration.com(2019, 3). Retrieved from Maps of India:
https://www.mapsofindia.com/
Anmol Jain, S. S. (n.d.). People of Uttarachal. In
Traditional wisdom in natural resourceGlobal Resource Management Journal Vol.6
36
management: the only way to conserve. Dehra
Dūn, India: Rural Litigation & Entitlement
Kendra.
Gooch, P. (2004). Van Gujjar: The Persistent Forest
Pastoralists. In P. Gooch, Nomadic People (pp.
125-135). White Horse Press.
Harihar, A., Verissimo, D., & MacMillan, D. C. (2015).
Beyond compensation: Integrating local
communities’ livelihood. Global Environmental
Change.
Nusrat, R., Pattanaik, B. K., & Farooquee, N. A. (2011).
Adaptation and Coexistence of Van Gujjars in
the Forests: A Success.
(2019, 3). Onstie Training.
The Ban Gujjars - Children of the Forest. (2019, 3).
Retrieved from The Lifestyle of India:
http://www.indiaprofile.com/lifestyle/bangujjars.
htm

Course Reports
37

GRM Field Work report in Uttarakhand, India (March 9-16, 2019)
Towards investing in an ecotourism business as a livelihood alternative to the Van
Gujjar tribe in Uttarakhand region
Hernandez James Edward II Aquino

I.

Introduction

One of the popular reasons for travel, as well as wildlife
conservation research is the appreciation of various
ecological habitats of diverse range of species of flora andfauna within a certain region. In the case of India this year,
104 national parks, 550 wildlife sanctuaries and 127
community reserves are situated. [1] Thus the practice oftravelling to beautiful natural places for pleasure in a way that
does not damage the environment, or popularly known asecotourism, has its demand steadily increase for tourists andconservationists alike. Ecotourism in India is not new but isa big business; with hundreds of thousands of endangered
species within various terrain, the practice makes the country
attractive for visit. Earnings in tourism in the domestic
spending alone reach 87.2 percent which contribute to thecountry’s 9.4 percent of GDP. [2]Figure 1. India Travel and contribution to GDP. Adopted from [2]A particular case which will be focused in this report is thestate of Uttarakhand which is situated in the northern part ofIndia, near Pakistan. The region consists of 10.4 million andpredominantly Hindu inhabitants mostly belonging to theupper caste. In terms of ecotourism, the state covers 165000
square kilometers of the total area for the purpose of forest
conservation. The publicly-funded Wildlife Institute of India(WII) situated in Dehra Dun, Uttarakhand, is one of theresearch institutes whose goals include such purpose. The
institute, labelled Category 2 Centre for World natural
heritage management and Training by UNESCO, also
investigates local inhabitants and human activities whichmight affect the wildlife situation.

Ecotourism businesses also exist within the Uttarakhand
region. An example of tourist attractions is the Rajaji
National Park, which is situated near the foothills of
Himalayas. The park covers 820 square kilometers with avariety of wild species inhabiting the area. [3] The park is
designed such that safari tours via gypsys (jeeps) are possible
with few patrol stations to provide quality experience for the
tourists while keeping them safe. Outside the park, souvenirs
are being sold and other services relating to safari are offeredto provide additional income for the workers in the area.
Apart from the locals which belong to the upper classes,
tribes also cohabit within Uttarakhand. Within the 84.89
lakhs which make up the state, a selected tribe called Van
Gujjar (Forest Gujjar) includes the population. [4] Van
Gujjars are semi-nomadic tribes, whose main source of
livelihood is selling milk from cattle rearing. Cattles were let
to graze within the forest land until resources are used up, andthen Van Gujjars relocate to other parts of the forest. This
practice serves as a threat to the forest ecosystem, which
could accelerate species extinction, which clearly alarmed
the Forest department. So in 2006, the Forest Dwellers Act
serves as a rule to essentially clear out all inhabitants offorests labelled as protected areas. [5] This caused tensions
among Van Gujjars and the Forest department, as the conflict
between continuing traditional methods of resource
acquisition and habitat conservation arises. Although a
proposed suggestion could be that the government is tosimply provide the Van Gujjars a permanent resettlement area
wherein they could perform cultivation, however the Van
Gujjar populace possesses no legal land where they performthese activities. In the perspective of the forest department,
either the Van Gujjars would receive the land, sell it, andreturn to their previous nomadic lifestyle, or that other nonVan Gujjar citizens would illegally demand land, as the Van
Gujjars themselves do not even have legal documentation of
their identity. This longstanding issue then becomes a subjectof international attention, and various researches considering
Van Gujjar livelihood evolution are being performed amidst
the implementation of the act.
Recently, however, the Van Gujjar lifestyle does not entirely
fall under the nomadic, cattle rearing tradition. Discussions
with a Van Gujjar representative within the WII as well as
onsite interviews in three Van Gujjar communities show thedifferences between Van Gujjar situations across the areas of
Uttarakhand. During the onsite interviews, Van Gujjars areclassified as semi-nomadic, where they either purchase or

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
38





Keen knowledge offorestSkills in cultivation
Experience inworking under
private businesses
Able to wirelessly
communicateStrengths

Weaknesses







Access to English
and Hindi
instruction
Eager toparticipate inecotourism
businessOpportunities

Threats

No landownership
Lack of sanitation
Lack of electricity
accessLack of awarenessin financial
management
Limited jobs with
Forest department
Complacency incurrent state oflivelihood
Difference inlifestyle of eachfamilyFigure 2. SWOT diagram of the Van Gujjars during the conducted onsite interview
cultivate crops for their cattle, from which they sell the milk
for around 40 rupees per liter with 30 to 50 liters sold per day.
Some utilize forest resources during summer seasons, where
the expenses exceed their income. Some Van Gujjars claim
to be illiterate, while some others, particularly the younger
generations, can understand and are being taught Hindi andeven English language in public or private elementary
schools. Village housing was heavily dependent on thematerials used, thus the variation in cost: 50000 rupees forhouse, with maintenance costs of around 6000 to 8000 rupees
for thatching. Most families claim that they did not save any
money with their current livelihood. Some families withmultiple houses claim that they did not require permission
from the government in order to construct an additional one.
Tribe sanitation was below average, and access to medical
facilities are limited. Some villages do not have access toelectricity, but others do have access to solar power for
lighting. Other families which depend on transmission lines
for electricity pay around 400 rupees for two months. In
terms of communication, some Van Gujjars have access tomobile communication with the use of keypad phones. Other
farm animals are domesticated such as dogs and goats,
however they are used mainly for personal hobbies.
In aspects of livelihood, Van Gujjars share a commonality ofraising cattle, where two out of three families have utilized
these for dairy sales. In one family, cattle are not main sourcesof livelihood since the head of the family has secured a job
within the construction company run both by the government
and the private sector wherein he is paid per day. Some of therelatives of one family belong to ecotourism business as
drivers. From the difference in livelihood, as well as from theobserved difference in the availability of resources such as
electricity within the tribal families, it could be seen that thepeople within the tribe are undergoing a transition from thetraditional nomadic livelihood to a more sustainable form.

With this transition, it could be hypothesized that the Van
Gujjar has capability and interest of performing tasks fit fora modern lifestyle.
Although livelihood in a settled community is being
performed by the Van Gujjars, the persisting problem where
they do not possess the land exists. This issue cannot bedirectly resolved due to the lack of proper documentation that
the Van Gujjars have. In the perspective of the Forest
department, either that they might sell the land should they
be given, or that some other external party would interveneand falsely claim as Van Gujjar, as both of these scenarios canoccur due to the aforementioned lack of documentation.
Consequently, the issue entails that the Forest department, oreven the entire public sector will not be a primary livelihood
option for the Van Gujjars. Thus, a need for an intervention
from the private sector in starting a suitable livelihood option
arises.
In this report, an alternative livelihood, particularly involving
the ecotourism business is proposed to the Van Gujjar
community. A feasibility study is first conducted, considering
the current skills and capabilities of the family. A businessplan and market analysis then are established, which consistof the details of the proposed ecotourism business and its
potential stakeholders, as well as the process for which
ecotourism be availed from these neighboring parties.
Marketing methods which involve business selling points are
discussed. By establishing a private business, the livelihoodof Van Gujjars can be sustained, which would ease theirtransition further into much modern lifestyle.

II. Feasibility of employing Van Gujjars in theecotourism businessIn the proposed ecotourism business, the current skill set ofCourse Reports
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Van Gujjars are first investigated. Below is a summary of a
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats)
analysis from the current state of the tribal community.
a.
Strengths
In an ecotourism business, the knowledge of the forest, as
well as former activities done within their former area could
serve as a vital asset for tourists in identifying the common
species inhabiting the land similar to that in which they used
to live. Possible implications involve better management of
the areas where the ecotourism will be held. Particularly forthe semi-nomadic people, their history could be imparted in
the activities that will be performed in the business, which
serve as advantage for them, as well as the tourists.
Furthermore, Van Gujjars’ resources in terms of cultivation
can also be used to obtain information about the state oflivelihood during their settlement. This concurrent history
can be taken into advantage and materialized into selling
points in the future in terms of handicrafts and other means.
Since some Van Gujjars have experience working in the daily
wage business, the knowledge and experience of their own
context can be applied to working in ecotourism. Kinship isobserved to be particularly strong in the communities, as eachvillage are reported to be communicating closely. They canalso be able to teach other families of the system(organization, rules, benefits, etc.) which they are under, as
opposed to the previous rearing-selling methods. In terms ofcommunication, wireless communication can be utilized to
inform other Van Gujjar communities of the status of theirfamilies, as well as easier relay of information with theintervening parties, particularly those who will be
participating in the business. These information can be informs of updates, status checks, emergencies, and manyothers which would be also beneficial to fellow Van Gujjars
and visitors.
b.
Weaknesses
Still, the problem of land ownership persists within thecommunity. In relation to other forms of ecotourism businesssuch as rural stay wherein the tourist temporarily lives near
the protected areas, the absence of land ownership makes thisform currently impossible. Furthermore, the overall current
situation of lack of sanitation, access of electricity, and, insome cases, lack of communication media greatly affects thefeasibility of utilizing their community as places for tourist
visit. From the description of the income flow within the Van
Gujjars, there appears no savings obtained from the revenue,
or if there were, the money will either proceed to thethatching material, payment of seasonal debt, or cattle
purchase. From this, the current financial situation of the Van
Gujjars seem to have no current intention of savings. This
could affect their progress in terms of asset acquisition,
particularly when they prefer to purchase land. Lack ofsavings also serves also as a hindrance in the improvement of
their present situation in terms of the aforementioned factors
such as sanitation, electricity, and communication. In
addition, a weakness in terms of lack of knowledge in otherforms of livelihood is identified. For instance, knowledge ofmaking handicrafts is currently lacking, which results to anarrower market.
c.
Opportunities
Although currently incapable of initiating a businessthemselves apart from their current livelihood, the Van
Gujjars are observed to be eager to participate if given theopportunity. This could greatly ease the transition of
introducing them into the ecotourism business. Moreover,this eagerness is observed when asked about their relatives
currently participating in the ecotourism business. They
claim that they “get inspired” when these relatives talk about
their experiences in their occupation in the safari business. In
a positive note, this can be a factor in encouraging more Van
Gujjars to voluntarily abandon the nomadic lifestyle, which
could possibly ease their tensions with the Forest Department.
d.
Threats
Future threats involve their complacency in their current
lifestyle. In one family wherein Van Gujjars currently
purchase fodder to feed their cattle, but apart from this theyfind little motivation to improve their income source by
cultivating additional crops or trading their buffalos because
they are preoccupied with their current daily tasks. In a way,
this complacency could represent a resistance to changes intheir livelihood. However, in another family whose headleads an occupation in the construction business, they too
expressed their stance of being comfortable in their lifestyle.
Thus this complacency could hinder the rate at which they
become introduced and trained into the ecotourism business.
It could be observed that there is a conflict between the
responses relating to the motivation of changing livelihoodfor the Van Gujjars. On one hand, the eagerness andmotivation is present when encountering fellow Van Gujjars
working in ecotourism, while on the other, there is quite areluctance when they themselves would be undergoing a
livelihood transition. Without them being aware of theirpresent skills, the result could be that there will either be astagnation in their current income situation should there will
be no external factors which would empower the community.
Thus, an intervention, primarily in the private sector, isneeded to make them informed about their advantages andopportunities. In particular, the following advantages of thecurrent Van Gujjars can be summarized in the following:








Having a history of nomadic livelihood
Having skills in cultivation for fodder purposes
Having previous knowledge of the forest
Women having equal livelihood opportunities
Having close communication with nearby people insettlements
Having progress in education, particularly English
Having experience in driving some vehicles

Based on these findings, it can be stated that there is
feasibility in conducting an ecotourism business in the futurewith the Van Gujjar community. However, a gradualapproach in the transition is suggested, especially when aGlobal Resource Management Journal Vol.6
40
private entity intervenes with their lifestyle. With a gradualapproach, the current livelihood remains unaltered, whileproviding additional options for their improvement.
III. Business Plan
In this chapter, the process of conducting the ecotourism
business is shown. Preliminary methods will be explained,
whose steps is shown in the following:a.

Establishment of a cooperative format within the
Van Gujjar community

Figure 4. Flow of starting the ecotourism business
Since the Van Gujjar community consists of different villages,
formation of an organizing committee is critical, especiallyin forming the ecotourism business. According to the
University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives, there arevarious cooperative types, mainly producer, consumer,

employee, and business cooperatives. [6] In this report, thelatter two cooperatives are taken into focus. The ecotourism
business primarily operates under an employee basis,
wherein the private entity hires Van Gujjar employees invarious suitable positions. Thus, setting a businesscooperative is prioritized. A brief process of establishing abusiness or even an employee cooperative is as follows:i.
Formation of a steering committee
Currently, the Van Gujjars do not have yet a properorganization, so the business is owned by the private sector.
However, the members of the committee should consist of
Van Gujjars of different backgrounds, with ample
representation of women. A schematic of the steeringcommittee is shown below.
In the above diagram, the term ‘external’ head means anentity outside of India, which primarily has competence incommunicating with travel agencies and international
marketing in which the details will be discussed later. Internal
representatives, on the other hand, are Indian citizens withclose contact with the Van Gujjar community who also have

Executive of Private
Sector (External)
Head not necessarily an Indian citizen, oversees all processes

Internal representative

Van Gujjar overall
representative

Should be an Indian Citizen withcompetence in Hindi, English, and Van
Gujjar language

Should have competency at least in Hindi
Language

Entrepreneur/External
Representative

Researchers (External and Internal)

Conducts regular onsite checks, withcompetencies in Hindi and English

Specializing in Van Gujjar livelihood

Van Gujjar Family
representative 1

Van Gujjar Family
representative 2

Van Gujjar Family
representative 3

Handles work-related
issues, financeHandles Communication, Health

Handles women and children
representation

Course Reports
41
competence in communication with international
representatives. The role of academic researchers,
particularly belonging to WII, Uttarakhand who work withthe entrepreneurs is important because they can examine theevolution of the behavior, role distribution, and management
styles of the Van Gujjar within a structured committee.
ii. Financing the Cooperative
In financing the cooperative, there are two time periods
considered: before and after completion of education andtraining of Van Gujjars for the ecotourism occupation. Before
the training, the entire expenditure is supplied by thecompany capital. The financing will be led by executive head,as well as a Van Gujjar Family representative assigned tofinance. The details of financing the cooperative is explained
below:
Member recruitment, Legal Procedures andEstablishment of by-Laws
In recruiting cooperative members, the age is limited to thelegal age (18), however, the rule for the minimum working
age (14) for driving personnel still applies. Once the age ofthe employee reaches the legal age, he or she will become amember of the cooperative, and is required to pay monthly
dues.
The private cooperative would lead the preparation of legal
documents mainly, but not only for the (a) permission for
installation of equipment and construction in non-protectedareas (b) permission to conduct safari business within theprotected areas (c) registration of the required equipment forsafari business (gypsys, souvenir shops) and for possible
rural stay equipment (sanitary permit, electrical operation,
network subscription). Further, especially in the case ofhomestay, the business name should be registered to the
Tourism Board, in order to ensure the safety and quality of

the homestay. [7] The executive head will manage the overallregistration of the documents involving these, with the aid of
local and international representatives.
By-laws will be made by the representatives themselves,
under the supervision of the executive. Should there beconflicts amongst external and internal representatives, thedecision will be left for the benefit of the Van Gujjar membersof the cooperative. Representative selection for the foreignerside will be decided by the head executive, while the Van
Gujjar side should be decided by the community members.
iv. Job description of Van Gujjars which do not
require English
The details in the job description and hiring process of Van
Gujjar in the ecotourism business which do not require
English skills are discussed in this section. The jobs should
follow the legal age (14) entering the occupation.

iii.

v.
Hiring Process
From the established cooperative structure, the executive firstcoordinates with the overall Van Gujjar representative, whoshould possess the records regarding the statistics of working
Van Gujjars, as well as stay-at-home, children, etc. Since
there is a probability of Van Gujjars who would not prefer thesafari business and would prefer their current livelihood, thenumber of potential safari employees will be filtered. Then,the preferred occupation will be left for them to choose,where one month time allowance for selection is provided.
Those who fall under the safari driver category will be trained
accordingly and, upon completion, will be hired as the safari
driver. In a similar note, the hired porters and shopkeepers,with the driver will be debriefed after hiring.

Table 1. Financing the Cooperative and Training Costs*based on income from present livelihood (onsite interviews) and online prices (indiamart.com)
Time period
Description
Amount (rupees)*
Stakeholders concerned
Driver Training (1 year, 2 Covered by: Private company
months per course, weekly
Head Executive
sessions)Free training (1 year)
Entrep. Head
Gypsy training vehicle
1,500,000/5 vehicles
Van Gujjar head of financecosts
5000/year
and work,
Before Training 
Maintenance costs
1000/week
Researchers
CompletionAllowance costs
Head of Communication
Patrol trainingFree training
Same as above

Uniform costs
1000/person
Allowance costs
2000/weekMaterials of InternalSmartphone cost
Same as above
representatives
25000/unit
Cooperative fund (for
2000/month
meetings, etc.)
After Training
Same as above, employed
Covered by: Employees
completion and
Covered by: Private company Van Gujjars
during
200/month/person
employment

Cooperative fund (formeetings, etc.)
5000/year
Maintenance costs
2000/month
Sanitary allowance costGlobal Resource Management Journal Vol.6
42
Table 2. Job title and description of potential Van Gujjar employees in the ecotourism business
Job Title
Job description
Required Skills
Gypsy Driver
Assigned to:
Hindi language
Drive designated route of safari using
Driving skills (should pass the
gypsystraining course)
Maintain integrity of designated gypsy(fuel, oil, body, etc.)
Report serious damage of the gypsy
Safari PatrollerPatrol the safari (outside, watch tower,
Hindi language
and patrol houses) during opening hours
Able to respond quickly toPatrol safari during closing hours
emergencies
Provide first aid for emergency
Safari Porter
Clean and check the patrol houses before
Hindi languageand during the opening hours

Report inventory of cleaning materials
ShopkeeperTrack inventory of souvenir materials
Basic ArithmeticCommunicate to tourists about souvenirs
Hindi, Basic Englishb.

Improvement of the current sanitary and educationlevelsAs mentioned above, the sanitary level of Van Gujjar village
and community as well as the education levels have to be
improved before proceeding to further increase in ecotourism
business options such as rural stay. This should be done while
undergoing training for the ecotourism occupation. The
details of the costing, as well as the timetable are shown in
the following.
It is noted, however, the above projects are performed for themain purpose of creating a rural stay business. The
employment of Van Gujjars to tasks not directly affected by
the above projects are not affected, i.e. the Van Gujjar cancommence their jobs as driver, patroller, etc. immediately
after finishing their training, during the duration of thesanitary projects.
Effects of the improvement of sanitary and education
situations not only prevent unwanted diseases that could
affect the income of Van Gujjar workers and children, butthese programs also provide the long-term benefit ofTable 3. Timeline and Financing the current sanitary and education levels*according to WATSAN project by TATA Trusts [8]Time
Description
Cost
Stakeholders
1st to 3rd year
[Small Scale]
Covered by: Private Head Executive
Van Gujjar (coop and noncompany
 Clean water access
200000 per 50
coop members)
Milestones: Plumbing equipment
households
Van Gujjar head of women(WATSANand children
1st to 2nd year: access toproject*)
Researchers
drinking water Waste management
and education

20000/month
2nd to 3rd year: Animal
waste management,
Garbagedisposalmanagement

Course Reports
43
maintaining clean environment that would be usable for rural
stay visitation. With the current state of basic education(elementary level), in the future, Van Gujjars who would
work in the homestay business would be able to conduct basic
communication with the local and foreign tourists.
c. Rural stay plan
Upon completion of sanitary and education projects, theestablishment of rural stay option is proposed. Rural stay isdefined here as the settlement in a separate area near the Van
Gujjar community, while providing package tourist visits tothese settlements. The goal for the rural stay is to provide
additional income to the Van Gujjars apart from the safari
business, as well as travel options to the tourists. For the rural
stay plan, the construction, maintenance, and the visit
package description are discussed. Moreover, the possibilityof partnering with other private businesses and NGOs are
discussed.
Time(After sanitation andeducation programs arecompleted)
1st and 2nd year

3rd year and 4th year

3rd yearto these jobs in the future, e.g. once advanced trainings havebeen conducted amongst the community. The partnerships
planned for NGOs mainly involve specific tasks such as
handicraft making and cultivation, which aim to further
increase options for livelihood for Van Gujjars. These
specific activities will be organized also with the cooperative,
where Van Gujjar overall representative will take lead. Prior
to execution of these activities, corresponding trainings will
be performed which would last within the one year timeframe. During this period, the information regarding theavailable rural stay packages will be decided upon by thecooperative. Upon completion of arranging the package
information, the packages will be sent to market, and thisproject will be led by the head external and internal
representative and entrepreneur.

Table 4. Rural stay package description and costing
Description
Estimated cost*based on interview**compared with salaries inother cities
Construction of Van Gujjar model
houses
Location: 50 km away fromHouse construction:
protected areas
150000 (foundation,
Facilities: Meal service, hotthatching, etc*)
and cold shower, toilet, air
Facilities: 200000
conditioningPartnering with NGOs
Maintenance of facilities

Water supply
10000/monthElectricity

20000/monthNetwork access maintenance10000/month

Cooperative
Van
Gujjaremployees
NGOs

Same as above

Employment of Van Gujjars
Porter, Guard, DriverPartnership with non-Van Gujjar
populace
Reception desk manager
Cook
Accountant

4th year

Stakeholders
Involved10000/month

15000/month**
20000/month
15000/monthPartnering with NGOs for rural stay
activities (for handicraft making,cultivation etc.)
Determination of package:
Rural stay
Van Gujjar community visitSafari tour
IV. Market Analysis

The above description implies the expansion of the present
cooperative structure due to collaboration with NGOs, aswell as opening additional job opportunities for both Van
Gujjars and non-Van Gujjars. Jobs that require higher levelskills were directed towards non-Van Gujjar locals whichhave prior related experience, which reduce training costs.
However, it is envisioned that the Van Gujjar will transition

The ecotourism business clearly has markets both locally andinternationally. For the business involving Van Gujjars,
however, rural stays which involve Van Gujjars could offer
quite a unique experience as tourists would learn about theevolution of the situation of the (then) nomadic community.
In this section, the market analysis for packages areGlobal Resource Management Journal Vol.6
44
performed for the safari tour (a) with and (b) without rural
stay packages.
a.
Target Market, Costing
International tourists comprise approximately 10 million,
which is just 10 percent of travelers in India. [9] This implies
the strong market for tourism for both domestic and foreign
citizens. Consequently, hundreds of private companies takeadvantage of the diverse Indian terrain. In terms of homestay
costs, there is a wide variety of choices available fortravellers. For instance, the travel site Travelguru offers
homestay prices as low as 800 rupees per night in Dehradun.
Homestay hotels are also arranged according to categories
such as theme, landmark, localities, and property. On theother hand, the rates for the safari tour for Corbett nationalpark are investigated. The safari tour has different prices fordomestic and international tourists, as well as discounted
price for children. There are also options for canter safari
tours, which cost lower than the gypsy tours. The following
is a sample rates for safari and homestay tour.
Table 5. Safari tour and Homestay offers from
Corbett and Tapasya Homestay
Safari tour costs
Homestay (Tapasya(Corbett)
Homestay, Dehradun)
Gypsy tour
Price per night – 800
Indian – 4800
Amenities:
Foreigner – 8000
Internet access
Canter tour
Airport
Indian – 1500
transportation fee
Foreigner – 3000
Power supply+ Legal permission toRoom service
conduct safari inprotected areas+ Possible hotel stay
optionOther examples of private safari package in the same nationalpark mentioned above involves a full tour, with meals andlodging, which the tourists can choose the itinerary (jeep)
whichever fits their schedule. The main advantage of thissystem is increased convenience, while enjoying the fullsafari package. In this business, the similar method will be
adopted, with the addition of the Van Gujjar themed stays.
b.
Marketing procedure
As mentioned in the section III. A. iii, the legal procedure ofregistering the rural stay business, where business is first
applied. Then the homestay is mainly promoted via multiple
ways: a. Home website b. Travel websites, and c.
Advertisements. The first two methods can be performed
immediately by the cooperative after completion of the
package. The third method can also be freely made via
creating social media accounts. In advertising using social
media, the overall Van Gujjar head will be collaborating withthe family representatives, workers, and people outside thecooperative in creating digital advertisements (posters, video
presentation, etc.). In this way, marketing and advertisingcosts in the first phase of the release of safari do not havesignificant contribution in the total capital.

c.
Selling Points
Although ecotourism does not have major issues with regards
to the market population, the uniqueness of each rural staypackage in a particular topographic location is important interms of marketing. Selling points in the ecotourism businessare discussed here.


Appreciation of Van Gujjars’ history – aprimary selling point of the business is thepresentation of the transitioning lifestyle of
the Van Gujjars. Since, as explained by theprevious sections, various Van Gujjar
lifestyles coexist within the same timeframe,
the information in which van Gujjars live
differently can be creatively presented within
the locations of homestay, apart from thepresent Van Gujjar style design plan of thehouse itself.
Goal for providing livelihood for Van Gujjars– since the objective of the current businessplan is to provide alternative livelihood to thetribe, this selling point can be utilized in the
promotional aspect, e.g. advertisements insocial media. It is noted also that from thepresent organization of the cooperative thatthe major stakeholders involved are Van
Gujjars themselves (apart being supervised
by international entities), which could betaken advantage of, as the other business goalof maintaining the business centered on Van
Gujjars can be promoted.

d.
Cash Flow and Funding
The business first aims to serve as an intermediate between
currently established institutions. However, as with otherbusinesses, additional aid is needed to hasten the initiationand increase the sustainability of the business. The followingshows an outline of the revenue flow within the business,
which involve the different stockholders within and outside
the cooperative.

Figure 4. Flow of starting the ecotourism businessWith revenue managed by the cooperative, the employees canbe assured of equalization of income. This process ispreferred also since there are multiple payment methods, andthere is still difficulty for Van Gujjars in accessing these
forms of payment. Another important consideration is theCourse Reports
45
cooperative requests for external capital subsidies andsponsorships from external companies, which could greatly
aid in investment costs, particularly the purchase of sanitation
systems and gypsy purchases. NGOs as helpful stakeholders,with the participation of the cooperative will help
identification of additional needs, which entail more efficient
programs. In the case of Uttarakhand, subsidies can beapplied from various sources to receive seed capital forbusinesses, particularly small startups. [11] Applications
would be led by the head executive and aided by thecooperative entrepreneur for pitching. Both safari andhomestay businesses will be set for application. With
additional funding from external agencies, ease of businessand transition is possible.
V.

VI.

Challengesa.
Further marketing Van Gujjar Culture
Although the benefits of establishing and maintaining thisecotourism business are aimed primarily towards Van Gujjar
livelihood improvement, challenges in increasing themarketing impact of the Van Gujjar can be observed.
Currently, apart from their semi-nomadic livelihood, there
are no clear material trademarks which distinguish the Van
Gujjars amongst the other tribes. A method in resolving thismatter is during the trainings for jobs which do not require
skills, there will include the inquiring the Van Gujjars of theirinterest in creating handicrafts that resemble their family, if
not their whole culture. This way, tribal information isdisseminated within the constructed properties, but also
through handicrafts.

Expected outcomesa.

Reductionofseason-dependent
incomedisadvantage
Since the current livelihood of some Van Gujjars rely heavily
on the monsoon season for greater income, with theestablishment of an alternative, and a sustainable business inecotourism, shortages which could lead to borrowings, canbe mitigated.
b. Increased skillset of Van Gujjars
With the increase in livelihood options, the skillset of thetribe population could be significantly improved. For
instance, with a skilled driver in a family, that member would
be able to do other diverse tasks outside the business such as
goods delivery. It is also envisioned that, upon the graduallevel of basic education with the younger generations, morejobs would be available to Van Gujjars who would possess
wider skillsets.
c.

Increased motivation, and more efficient
communication
The availability of jobs also increase overall attitude of the
Van Gujjars and would enable them to discover additional
means of livelihood or culture-related activities. With Van
Gujjars dominating the cooperative in collaboration with theacademic and international community, they can identify
their capabilities as managers of their own tribe. With the
improvement of the sanitary lifestyle and education, thepeople will be comfortable to invite outside parties in theirimproved properties. The communication methods between
families in various locations would be improved as income
generating sources increase. The increased interaction ofdifferent Van Gujjars in the working sites would increaseawareness between different locations. Meetings with thecooperative representatives would increase effectivity ofidentifying other needs of Van Gujjars in the smaller scale.
d.
Ability to purchase own land
The longstanding issue of land ownership could be resolved
with the increased purchasing power of the Van Gujjars. Withsufficient revenue, the Van Gujjars will be able to purchaseand settle legal land outside of the protected zones.

b.
Changing perspectives of Van Gujjar Forest
department
With the issue of land ownership, the challenge of improving
relations of Van Gujjar with the state Forest department
remains. Through establishing the ecotourism business, theVan Gujjars are aimed to be relocated outside the protection
zones, whose approval is also a challenge in itself. Given theassumption of relocation (with the necessary provisions fromthis private business), the transition of perspectives with theForest department, especially should collaborations exist
within both parties, is expected to undergo slow progress.
The private sector has the agreements with the Van Gujjar
working population, and that the legal documents andpermissions are made through the business themselves (withtransparency within the cooperative).
VII.

References[1] Protected Areas-Subject Area: Wildlife Institute of India,
Ministry of Environment & Forests. (2019). Retrieved fromhttp://www.wiienvis.nic.in/Database/Protected_Area_854.aspx[2] Growth & Analysis Of Tourism and Hospitality Industry
In
India.
(2019).
Retrievedfromhttps://www.ibef.org/industry/indian-tourism-andhospitality-industry-analysis-presentation[3]
National
Parks.
(2018).
Retrievedfrom
http://wiienvis.nic.in/Database/npa_8231.aspx[4] Tolia, R. (2019). Great Tribal Diversity of Uttarakhand[Ebook].
Retrievedfrom
http://uic.gov.in/Without%20Fear%20or%20Favor/Great%2
0Tribal%20Diversity%20of%20Uttarakhand.pdf[5] Sabha, Ｒ . (2019). Scheduled Tribes and otherTraditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights)
Act,
2006.
Retrievedfrom
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=108222[6] University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives - Farm
Supply and Input Cooperatives. Retrieved fromhttp://www.uwcc.wisc.edu/info/i_pages/startc.html[7]
Registration.
(2019).
Retrievedfromhttps://uttarakhandtourism.net.in/homestay/registration.php[8]
Himmotthan.
(2019).
RetrievedfromGlobal Resource Management Journal Vol.646
http://www.himmotthan.org[9] Popescu, A. (2018). Tourism in India Is Booming. So
Why Is Everyone So Worried?. Retrieved fromhttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-0706/tourism-in-india-is-booming-so-why-is-everyone-soworried[10] India Private Safari. (2019). Retrieved fromhttps://www.theearthsafari.com/private-safari.php[11] Panwar, M. (2019). Uttarakhand State Start-up Policy2018 [Ebook] (pp. 1-4). Uttarakhand. Retrieved fromhttps://investuttarakhand.com/themes/backend/uploads/Utta
rakhand%20Start%20Up%20Policy-2018.pdf[12] Tapasya Home Stay in Dehradun - Book Room
800/night.
(2019).
Retrievedfromhttps://www.travelguru.com/homestays/homestays-indehradun/tapasya-home-stay[13] Book Safari In Corbett National Park, Online Safari
Booking For Jim Corbett National Park, Corbett Safari Tariff.
(2019).
Retrievedfromhttps://www.corbettnationalpark.in/online-corbett-safaribooking.htm[14] Drinking water Supply and Sanitation. (2019). Retrieved
from http://www.himmotthan.org/wash/drinkingwater.aspx

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47

An Exploration of New Business Concepts in Mitarai District
A proposed business models to activate the tourism in Mitarai District
Mohammed Awad Hajjaj

Abstract

1.

The on-site training program in Mitarai district was to findthe potential success business model to activate the tourism
services and serve the residents in the area.

The on-site training program in Mitarai district was to findthe potential success business model to activate the tourism
services and serve the residents in the area.

The plan was to analyzing and mapping the existing
businesses across Mitarai. Besides, the plan is to collectinformation about the challenges that the existing businessowners face, and what the residents do like to have in
Mitarai as a potential new business. There are many tourists
visited Mitarai for sightseeing which affect to attract the
tourists in Mitarai.

This program is a part of the culture development to increase
the population, and activate the business in Mitarai, which
would attract tourists more in the island. Mitarai district is ahistorical town since long a while, and it has one of the major
ports in the Seto Inland Sea, which has four small islands.
However, the population declined after connecting theislands with the bridge. The population of the district isaround 200 people, and more than 70% of them is in elder
ages more than 65 years.

The methodology depends on the survey by conductingsome interviews with the business owners, residents, andtourists in the area. We found that there are some difficulties
and lacks in the resources for the business owners and thepeople move out of the area to the city, as well as the bridge
has made life difficult. However, the area has a special valuethat it would increase the tourism services like the historicalarea, attractive points in the sea, and the production of theorange at the area.
Index Term—Community Development, Tourism, Mitarai.
Contents
Abstract
Contents
List of Figures
1.
Introduction
1.1.
Objectives
1.2.
Methodology
2.
Background
2.1.
Geographic
2.2.
Census Data
2.3.
The History of Mitarai District
3.
The Current Situation of the Business in theDistrict
4.
The Potential Business Solutions
5.
SummaryWorks Cited
List of Figures
Figure 1: The Geographical Map of Kure City, Hiroshima
Prefecture
Figure 2: The Location of Mitarai District at Seto Islands,
Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture
Figure 3: The Population of Kure City
Figure 4: The Transition of Cityscape of Mitarai District
during the century of 17th ~ 18th. (left) during the century
of 18th (middle) during the century of 19th (right)
Figure 5: SWOT Analysis of the Current Business in
MitaraiIntroduction

The plan of the on-site training was in analyzing and mapping
the existing businesses across Mitarai. Besides, the plan is tocollect information about the challenges that the existing
business owners face, and what the residents do like to havein Mitarai as a potential new business. As well, to attract the
tourists in Mitarai, as there are many tourists visited Mitarai
for sightseeing. The methodology depends on the survey byconducting some interviews with the business owners,
residents, and tourists in the area.
We found that there are some difficulties and lacks in the
resources for the business owners and the people move out of
the area to the city, as well as the bridge has made life difficult.
Besides that, there are a lot of café shops which it has been to
manage more.
However, the area has a special value that it would increase
the tourism services like the historical area, attractive points
in the sea, and the production of the orange at the area. We
found as well that young people are needed to live here
permanently with more job opportunities, and the people
want to keep Mitarai heritage. Some services are notcommensurate with Mitarai residents’ needs for somerestaurants; transportation systems; and grocery stores.
Tourists need restaurants, while Mitarai needs businesses,
such as, local fisheries and other producers are needed tosupply Mitarai restaurants which have recently increased in
number, and local products of Mitarai can be sold outside of
Mitarai.
Mitarai district is one of the traditional areas in Japan for over
200 years. The problem in the area has a declining in the
population, as many people move out to the central cities inJapan. However, many people visit the district to see theGlobal Resource Management Journal Vol.6
48
traditional houses and enjoy the fruits in the district, so
Mitarai needs more business to attract tourism services andactivate the district. In this report, we are going to analyze theexisting business in Mitarai district then propose a new
business model which match the needs of the people in the
district.
1.1.
Objectives
In this report, we are going to answer the question about thepotential business model in Mitarai by analyzing the existing
business in Mitarai district, besides to propose a new businessmodel that can be an attractive to increase the tourism in the
area.
1.2.
Methodology
As there is a lack in the resources about Mitarai district, themethodology of the onsite training at first is to collect some
information from the maps, pamphlets, and some lectures andpresentations. Whatever, the main method to find theinformation is getting the observation from the people in thefield and hold some interviews. The direct interviews withthe residents are the best way to get more opinion about thepositional business that can be in Mitarai. In addition tocollect some information from the residents, tourists, andbusiness owners to know more about their needs in the
district.
The rest of this report organize as follows. Next section isabout the background of Mitarai district, and analyze thecurrent situation of the existing business in the district. The
third section is about the proposed business model in Mitarai
following with the conclusion and the summary of the report.
2.

Background

Mitarai district detached from the frantic pace of modern
Japan. The district is not like as in the central cities of Japan
as Tokyo, Osaka, and Hiroshima as well. Mitarai district isstill having traditional houses and roads of classic Japan. The
charming streets and alleyways of Mitarai meaner throughbeautifully preserved Japanese traditional houses which go
back over 200 years.
Mitarai district developed with domestic sea trade routes
during the Edo Period. This was a time when Japan was in
Sakoku or isolated from the rest of the world for over 200
years until 1853. The district is established in 1666 when
Hiroshima prefecture allowed to develop Mitarai district forthe people and fishermen who get there in the way to theirdestination. Many ships stopped at Mitarai district for rest,
then continues the trip. In Mitarai district there are many
fishers work in fishing services in the sea, as Mitarai is oneof the oldest ports in the area.
Then Mitarai district developed as a regional hub for trade,entertainment, and pleasure for people and travelers by ships.
Japanese shipping hugged the coastline, riding the tides andthe winds up and down the length and breadth of Japan.

Mitarai port became an ideal place to drop anchor with thenaturally protected harbor located on the important sea routeto and from Osaka.
2.1.
Geographic
Mitarai district is a part of Kure city located on Hiroshima
prefecture. Kure city located 20 kilometers on the south eastof Hiroshima prefecture as shown in the Figure 1. The city
faces the Seto Inland Sea in the south. Kure city is a main
port of Hiroshima prefecture, and it hosts the second oldest
naval dockyard in Japan and remains an important base for
the Japan Maritime Self Defence Force.
The Tobishima Kaido is a set of five picturesque islands in
the Seto islands sea connected by bridges to the mainland andKure city as in the Figure 1. The Seto inland sea has manysmall islands and natural bounty such as fruit and fish. It is
like the islands around the Mediterranean Sea.
Figure 1: The Geographical Map of Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture.

The Osaki islands consists of five islands: Shimo
Kamagarijima Island, Kami Kamagarijima Island, TeshimaIsland, Osaki Shimojima, Osaki Kamijima now known for
their slow pace of life and cultivation of fruits: blueberries,
lemons, mikan oranges. Mitarai district located in the centerof Seto islands in the fourth island. In the Seto islands sea.
Osaki Kamijima is not a part from Kure city. As shown in
Figure 2, Mitarai district is left tongue of Osaki Shimojima
island. Mitarai district is a small village built around a harboron the east coast of Osaki Shimojima island in the Seto inlandsea between Honshu and Shikoku.

Figure 2: The Location of Mitarai District at Seto Islands, Kure City,
Hiroshima Prefecture.

Arrive at the Mitarai port using various transportation either
by car, bus, or even the ship to access to Mitarai district. It
takes 50 minutes from Hiroshima city to Kure city by bus orcar, then another 50 minutes from Kure city to Shimo
Kamagari. Then 40 minutes from Shimo Kamagari to Osaki

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Shimojima. Mitarai district in the east part of Osaki
Shimojima in 5 minutes by bus or car. Besides, it takes
around 45 minutes to direct from Takehara city by ferry or
small ship Osaki Shimojima to Mitarai port. Also, it takes
around 80 minutes from Imabari city in Ehime prefecture to
Okamura island, then 20 minutes from Okamura island to
Osaki Shimojima island and Mitarai district.
In case of using the ferry, it is necessary to consider that there
are two tides in a day, and the tidal current reverses
approximately every 6 hours, which has to be considered.
However, it is necessary to wait on the tide or get on the tidein a case to avoid reverse tide.
About the climate of the Mitarai district, the area is the samealmost Kure city, where has a humid subtropical climate with
hot summers and cool winters. Precipitation is significant
throughout the year and is heaviest in summer.
2.2.
Census Data
According to the reports of the local government of Kure city,
the population of the city declined recently due to multireasons like moving to central business cities, and for finding
jobs. As shown in the Figure 3 below, the population of Kurecity is going down in general.

break for them.
Mitarai district has a port which provided a good harbor inwhich to anchor for a few days while waiting for favorable
winds. As with port towns all over the world, to meet theneeds of passengers and the crew members with time on theirhands, hotels, and some restaurants. At first, the main
business of the Mitarai district after developing the district
was to provide food, water, and the stick of firewood to theships that are waiting for the good tide and wind.
Therefore, the characteristic of the Mitarai district as a port
town is an intermediary business area that doing business fornavigating for ships, sailors, and passengers as well. The port
mediates to get the items and cargos between tugs. It is likeother ports for storing the cargos in some cases in big
warehouses and selling that for the ships at different prices tomake a revenue for the district. The transition of the district
developed by the time during the century 17 to now as shownin Figure 3.

Figure 4: The Transition of Cityscape of Mitarai District during the century of
17th ~ 18th. (left) during the century of 18th (middle) during the

The Census Data

Whatever the specific data about each district of Kure city is
not available at the time of this report. Based on the data of
the information center at Kure city, the situation of the
population in the Mitarai district was in two cases: before
connecting the bridge, and after connecting the bridge of the
Seto islands sea with the main city. The population before
connecting the bridge was around 2000 people, but
unfortunately, the population declined after connecting thebridge and reach to 200 people at the Mitarai district with afew younger people in the community.

century of 19th (right).

Many boats gathered from various places and filled withvarious types of goods, the district prospers as a port town,
and the production and shipping services increased by thetime to serve a lot of boats and passengers in the district
which affected the movement of people to come and live in
the area as well. The goods include the rice, water, drinks,
dried bonito, noodles and cigarettes.
The agency for cultural affairs recognized Japan Heritage asa story of culturalism and tradition through the historicalcharm and features of the district. Mitarai district and Kurecity have got the certificate in 2016 about the revitalization
and utilize the attractive tangible and intangible culturalproperty at the district.

280,000
260,000
240,000
220,000
200,000
2000 2005 2010 2015 2018

Year
Figure 3: The Population of Kure City

2.3.
The History of Mitarai District
Mitarai district was found during the Edo period from 1600
to 1868 as a part of Osaki Shimojima island. For the first time,
the Mitarai district thrived as an anchorage port forcommercial boats in Japanese medieval ages. Mitarai was amarine break for many boats that they were waiting for thewind to come and continue the trips to the target destination.
That time, many boats navigated with the help of the wind,
and if there is no wind, the boats find the Mitarai area as the

Unfortunately for Mitarai district, the business began to
decline due to the introduction of the advent of steamships
and diesel engines, which the steamships go without waiting
for winds to change. By the time, the district continued tofade from the memory for many years until 1990, and many
people forget the district where they had passed before.
After the strong typhoon which hit Hiroshima and Mitarai
district, the traditional buildings of the district are notdamaged. The government of Hiroshima sent a special teamto Mitarai district to estimate the damage undergone by theisland, and the team found that the historical buildings ofMitarai district were so well preserved, which led to being
designated as a cultural property in 1994.

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50
Mitarai's narrow roads and lanes are still lined with buildingsthat date back to an earlier age. Shotoen is a collection ofhistoric buildings set in landscaped gardens on the seashore
in Sannose, Shimokamagari. Shotoen has a variety ofdisplays connected to the elite maritime travelers of the Seto
Inland Sea during the Edo Period.
Besides the historical building, there are a lot of Wakaebisuya
which are the historical sites in the district, and Chisagohato
and Takadorou which are the historical breakwater, andhistorical lantern as well. Mitarai had four large high class oftea houses, Wakaebisuya is the only one still standing now
and it is open to the public. Moreover, there are many peopleof Mitarai worked as boat industry, and built crafted modelboats and sold it in the market.

Now, the business declined in Mitarai district due to theadvanced technology of steamships, which is no longer towait to have a break in Mitarai. Many shops and stores closed,
but there are many restaurants for the seafood which haverecently increased in number. Therefore, a lot of farmers havea small lands or work in the farming in special Mandarina
fruits or Mikan fruits. This kind of fruit is one of the special
fruits in Japan, and many people just come to visit this area
and get a little of the fruit.
Whatever to understand the current situation of the businessin Mitarai, Figure 5 analyzes the situation of the business in
Mitarai which is a general view of the impact factors affected
at the current business in Mitarai district.

Based on the tourist information office of Kure city, thelegend has it that the mythical Empress Jingu washed her
hands in the stream that runs through the shrine, hence thename Mitarai, which means washing of hands. Just over ahundred years ago the shrine became a Tenmangu Shrine,
enshrining Sugawara Michizane, who is also reputed to have
washed his hands here on his journey to Kyushu in the ninth
century.
Figure 5: SWOT Analysis of the Current Business in Mitarai.

Mitarai district thrived, and restart to re-stocked ships in the
harbor with water and provisions, while the district provided
the wealthy captains and seafarers with everything fromtheaters, and shops. Most of these buildings still survive
today.
3.

The Current Situation of the Business in the District

Mitarai district has a role to play in the sustainable economiesof Kure city in the Seto Islands sea. There are some ways tobe sought to empower the community to play a part inaddressing vital policy areas such as job creation for people
who are living in the area in special elderly people, farmers
and also the services of navigation of the Seto Islands sea.
The local government of Hiroshima prefecture and Kure cityin special are afraid of reducing the services due to thedeclining population in the district, which affects the small
business in the area. The revitalization of Mitarai district has
been considered recently to activate the tourism in apart ofprevent the population decline in the island, and return thehistorical life to the district. Due to its location being literally
in the middle of the sea, Mitarai escaped most of thedevelopment that came with the twentieth century, especiallythat obliterated so much of traditional Japan recently.
However, the most notable of the services offered in Mitarai
to the passengers and crews were women. Mitarai district had
an entertainment site with literally girls offering
companionship where the district was home to the biggest
entertainment and night clubs in the whole Inland sea until
the laws of 1956 to organize the community and the industryof the entertainment and the night clubs in Japan.

The agriculture activities become one of the main activities
in Mitarai, and there are some farmers export the products of
citrus fruits to many residents and people in the prefecture by
Japan agricultural cooperatives or using different ways topromote their activities outside of the district.
Therefore, Mitarai offers now some products which many
tourists from outside of district come to get a little. It is kindof oranges fruits. Mitarai has special fruit of orange called
Mikan. Mikan in this area is one of the best fruits in Japan
with high quality. Therefore, a lot of farmers have lands anduse it to produce Mikan. There are many people was working
in the agriculture and plant different types of citrus fruits asshown in Figure 6.
However, there is only one supplier in Mitarai, which is theJapan Agriculture cooperative. Japan Agriculture
cooperative is a regional business founded to support the
production, transportation, and sales of agricultural products
outside of the Mitarai district. Whatever not all the farmers
have a contract to work with the Japan Agriculture
cooperative. The Japan Agriculture cooperative has contracts
with some farmers to promote their crops outside of Mitarai,and other farmers work alone or with other cooperatives ofAgriculture from outside of Mitarai.

Figure 6: The Different Types of Citrus Fruits from Mitarai District.

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In another side, Mitarai still has the port, and the port was thegate of the boats to get a break before continuing to the target
destination. It was the main port of Kure city, so many
fishermen are doing the activities of fishing and selling fish
to restaurants and local people of Mitarai. Mitarai districtplayed an important role as a fertile environment for fishgathering and thus allowed the availability of the fishingprofession and the presence of large numbers of fishermen
practicing and practicing fishing among the local people.
Fishing was an activity that activates the fishing profession
for the local people of the Mitarai district. Techniques forcatching fish include hand gathering, netting, and trapping.
Fishing activities include catching aquatic animals other thanfish, such as mollusks, crustaceans, and echinoderms.
Mitarai district played an important role as the islands have asuitable climate for fish gathering and thus allowed thefishing profession for local people. There were many
fishermen practicing fishing among the local people. Becauseof that, a lot of restaurants opened the business and served thefish and seafood in the Mitarai district.
Unfortunately, the fishing profession declined due to the newtechnology of the boats and the equipment. In addition to the
new technology of steamships. Besides to immigration of thelocal people to work in the central cities and decline thepopulation in the area. However, this profession is still a partof Mitarai district.
As well, in Mitarai district, there is local tourism information
center which is an association related to the district officials.
The association is working to activate the tourism in Mitarai
district. The information center plays a main role to promote
the culture, activities, and the services of sightseeing.
Unfortunately, all the information in the center in one local
language, and the information about the district is notprovided in different languages.
However, Mitarai district has some internal factors which
affect the local people in the area. The first one is thetransportation system for older people, as more than 70% of
the residents are more than 65 years. Most of them don’t havethe cars, and there is no service in the district except the
public transportation for the bus that comes from Kure cityand it is limited.
On another side, the business has a problem in the district.
There are a lot of café shops, and restaurants that are noneeded, but Mitarai needs more business for the supply chain,
as a few of the supply chain is in Mitarai. Therefore, most of
the residents miss the supply chain like the connivance storesand other shops. Also, there are no grocery stores or bakeriesin Mitarai district, and the local people get the daily items
from the closed grocery store located outside of the Mitarai
district. Moreover, there is a lack of manufacturers in Mitarai,and there are no production firms in the district to activate theeconomy of the district.

About the external factors which affect to Mitarai district, thedistrict has some opportunities which support and may use tofind the potential or activate the business in the district, andon another side, the district has some threats should be
avoided by the local government of the city. For instance,
there are three opportunities, and two threats affect to thebusiness in Mitarai.
Firstly, many tourists people come to visit Mitarai district,and based on the information from the local government andtourist information center, around 5000 people from outsideof Mitarai visit Mitarai as tourists every year. They come toMitarai and spend a few days, and some of them are passing
through the day to see the historical area of Mitarai. The
general purpose of the visits to spends the vacation in thehistorical area, enjoy the sightseeing of the sunshine as
Mitarai has a beautiful view of the sunrise or sunset, besides,
some tourists come to get a little Mikan fruit.
Therefore, in Japan, there are a lot of travel agencies, that
include Mitarai to visit in their plan, so they have somecampaigns to promote the district for people in Japan.
Whatever, the connecting bridge, which has been built by thegovernment to connect all Seto Islands sea with Kure city
allows for the people to come individually by cars, and makeit easy to access there.
In addition, Kure city has public transportation for Mitarai bybuses. However, public transportations are a little expensive
for people in comparing another area in Japan, which is oneof the threats that affect Mitarai besides the population
decline in the area.
4.

The Potential Business Solutions

As Mitarai preserves a unique historical port town, the area
has the potential to grow as a tourism destination. The
community struggles to maximize its opportunity to further
develop tourism. Thus, seeking the areas of improvement intourism development at Mitarai while ensuring the quality oflife of the residents is an important issue.
Mitarai district has different possible solutions to develop thebusiness in the area. There are a lot of the opportunities that
Mitarai should use it to activate the tourism services in thearea. Mitarai district needs empowering with greater powers
from the local government of Kure city, and access to thedifferent resources to lead, and support residents, which help
the district to be more active in life.
Young people are needed to live here in Mitarai permanently,
so the local government of Kure city should offer to provide
more job opportunities in Mitarai. One possible job is to work
as a tourist guide or to work in the tourism offices of Mitarai.
The services of the tours include the social or local media;
provide more details in different languages; and story writersfrom Mitarai. On another side, young people may work in thefarms and help the farmers in agriculture.
Therefore, there are a lot of young people who want to workin a simple traditional area like Mitarai, so Mitarai could beGlobal Resource Management Journal Vol.6
52
a good environment for the traditional workplace. In
Kamiyama-cho at Tokushima Prefecture, a lot of people want
to work in different styles of the workplace using the internet
and working remotely, so the local government prepared theenvironment and established many workplaces calledsatellite offices. Kamiyama-cho is one of the rural areas andquiet with a traditional place where meet the desire of somepeople. Many offices use these satellite offices and send
many workers to work remotely as desired. As this is the
success story from Tokushima Prefecture,
Heritage is another opportunity as there are many building
and landmarks reflects the color or the spirit of the area. The
local people want to preserve Mitarai heritage and introduce
the history for the people or tourists from outside of Mitarai.
Unfortunately, there is no business in Mitarai that works inthis filed. Introducing heritage is one of promoting the cultureof the area to other people. Thus, the residents spread theflowers in their houses to express and welcoming the guests
from outside. It may be a good opportunity to create abusiness and manage the activities, events, and technicalissues of this field.
Therefore, there are a lot of young people who want to workin a simple traditional area like Mitarai, so Mitarai could bea good environment for the traditional workplace. In
Kamiyama-cho at Tokushima Prefecture, a lot of people want
to work in different styles of the workplace using the internet
and working remotely, so the local government prepared theenvironment and established many workplaces calledsatellite offices. Kamiyama-cho is one of the rural areas andquiet with a traditional place where meet the desire of somepeople. Many offices use these satellite offices and send
many workers to work remotely as desired. This is the
success story from Tokushima Prefecture, and Mitarai can be
another story. Mitarai has the human resources that can beused for doing the business at the district. For instance, thelocal government can invite some companies to open
branches there and activate the port. Mitarai can have thesame offices to work in the field of navigations services.
Mitarai may be as a second subsidiary for the port of Kurecity. Then, in this case, many young people can work in thisarea and support Kure city.
Whatever, the services in Mitarai are not commensurate withresidents’ needs. There are a lot of cafes and restaurants thatno needed. Even so, the prices are very high at these services.
The local people need more for the local market that they can
get the food daily. They need for grocery stores as there is no
store in Mitarai. These services can help the local people in
The people of the district commit to having a sense ofcommunity that encourages integrate from within inside. The
elderly people in the district is more than half of the
population, and the population is going down due to otherfactors in the district.
As well as the historical design the village also has some

Mitarai, and many residents can work at these services. Mostof the residents in Mitarai have cars, and Mitarai residents
need transportation systems for older people without cars.
Not all of them have a car license, and it might have some
accidents to drive in the narrow roads as Mitarai has a lot ofnarrow roads. Also, Mitarai needs the supply chain forrestaurants.
However, Mitarai needs more businesses, while tourists needrestaurants. Small restaurants can serve residents and tourists.
Moreover, local fisheries and other producers are needed tosupply Mitarai restaurants which have recently increased in
number. A lot of people can work in fishing services, supply
chain management, and shipping as well.
A lot of people can work in fishing services, supply chain
management, and shipping transportation. In addition, many
people can work to export and import services. The fishermen
can export their goods to outside of Mitarai. Mitarai needs
more for business to work in fishing or seafood production
like the cans, which can be exported to outside of the area.
The local products of Mitarai can be sold outside of Mitarai.
The transportation system for goods and materials is indemand, so some businesses from outside of Mitarai can offer
or provide the services to work in Mitarai. The entities in the
supply chain include producers, vendors, warehouses,
transportation companies, distribution centers, and retailers.
The functions in a supply chain include product development,
marketing, operations, distribution, finance, and customer
service.
Finally, the accommodation services, hotels, and lodging
complement restaurants and other businesses, which allows
tourists to stay longer in Mitarai. Homestay services may beoffered for tourists by the residents of Mitarai.
5.

Summary

Mitarai district gradually became more of a quiet backwater
than a bustling port town. Mitarai district is a pleasant place
to wander or drive there, but what important is to have a deep
understanding of the fascinating and colorful history, byconnecting the residents there. Have a see at the local people
and enjoy chatting with them. Appreciate the flowers inwhich local people decorate the walls of the houses forvisitors from outside the island. Mitarai is a place where you
can still experience the sense of community and small-town
friendliness that characterized life in Japan decades ago.
great scenes of the surrounding islands. Mitarai is a small
district and easy to get there. Mitarai is a wonderful placewith a fascinating and colorful history, in which local people
decorate the walls of their houses to welcome visitors fromoutside the island. Mitarai is a place with the experience ofthe spirit of community and small-town friendliness thatcharacterized life in Japan decades ago.

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Helping small businesses get organized and achieve potential
solutions for others. Business solutions are to ensure that thepotential business for Mitarai to have another option that canbe viable to develop the community. One purpose ofcommunity development is to work with each other toachieve sustainable development and increase the economic
opportunities of the area.
Works Cited(2019). Retrieved from Kure City Official Website:
https://www.city.kure.lg.jp/(2019). Retrieved from Kure City Census:
https://www.citypopulation.de/php/japanhiroshima.php?cityid=34202(2019). Retrieved from Statistical information of theJapanese prefectures: https://uub.jp/
Lectures. (2019). Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan.
Mitarai Guide. (2019). Retrieved from Tourist Information
Office: https://www.japanvisitor.com/
Mitarai on Osaki Shimojima. (2019). Retrieved fromJapanTravel:
https://en.japantravel.com/hiroshima/mitarai-on-osakishimojima/3610(2019, 8). Potential Business in Mitarai. (O. training,
Interviewer)
Richards, & Raymond. (2000). Creative Tourism.
Richards, G. (2014). The challenge of creative tourism.
Richards, G. (2016). Cultural Tourism.
Richards, G. (n.d.). Tourism trends: The convergence of
culture and tourism. NHTV University of Applied
Sciences.

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54

Building a Water Treatment Plant in Rural Cambodia
Marwa Ahmad

Contents
OutlineProject objectives
Background
Geographic and Demographic description
Cambodia’s water crisis
Our chosen location
Description of the fieldSpecific information on Svay Leu
Svay Leu inhabitants and livelihood strategies
livelihood strategies
Population estimation
The population size
Description of our project
Project’s objectives
Cost of the project
Negotiation strategy
Project ownership
Additional measures
Conclusion
Referencesby the Cambodian Ministry of Health (2008) that “six out of
the ten highest ranked diseases were water-borne diseases”2in the country. Those include: diarrhea, dysentery, skindisease and typhoid fever, among others.
This grim situation necessitated that we work on water
treatment of existing water sources, like ponds and rivers, inCambodia where access to safe water is a serious problem.
Water contamination is rampant as “most people get theirwater from unsafe sources, few people treat the water before
consumption, and most people are not transporting andstoring their water safely.”3
Geographic and Demographic description•
Geographic location of Cambodia

OutlineProject objectives
As part of our Joint Seminar II project, we were asked to picka geographic location of our choosing in which there is needto address one of the United Nations’ SDG goals pertaining
to Water supply and Water problems, pledging “universal
access to water and sanitation for all by 2030.” In the present
report, we present a detailed Project Proposal addressing thisissue by proposing to build a Water Treatment facility in rural
Cambodia.
The key benefits of successfully meeting theseneeds are:o To reduce the risk of watercontamination in Rural Cambodia
o To help save lives, prevent easily
avoidable diseases and health risks in
Cambodia.
BackgroundIn light of the national need in Cambodia for clean water
distribution according to the available literature review, wechose to study the potential of setting up a water treatment
facility. The reason for our informed decision mainly pertains
to results of some official reports and studies highlighting thehigh child morbidity rate due to poor water quality as “therate [of mortality rate for infants and under 5 years children]in Cambodia was the second highest”1 among neighbouring

Cambodia’s water crisis
Since our project is on water problem, we found Cambodia
to be facing great challenges pertaining to its poor water
quality and water scarcity, which according to the WHO,
causes the following:High child morbidity rate (WHO, 2009)
6/10 highest ranked diseases are waterborne (Incl.
Diarrhea, skin disease, typhoid fever, among
others)Furthermore, approximately 3 million people out of the total
population of 16 million lack access to safe water and withapproximately 77% of Cambodians living in rural areas, ourproject proposal specifically targets rural Cambodia where
the poor access to safe water and sanitation
disproportionately affects its rural communities.
Our chosen location
Description of the field
The majority of the people in Cambodia rely on multiple
sources in the community to meet their water needs, andregardless of the seasons (dry or rainy) they get their drinking
water from unprotected, most likely contaminated, sources:

JICA, NJS consultants and Kokusai kogyo, “Survey on water supply sector in the kingdom of Cambodia”, Finalreport, June 2010, p. 3-12. http://open_jicareport.jica.go.jp/pdf/12005690_01.pdf
2 Ibid., p.3-13.
3 (2016). Baseline
Survey Findings. LifeWater. Retrieved from: https://lifewater.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/10/Lifewater-SvayLeu-Cambodia-Baseline-Report.pdf [November 17, 2019]1

counties, as per WHO report (2009). Moreover, it is reportedThose constitute constructed ponds, wells and rainwater jars4

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during the dry season and Natural streams/ creeks during therainy season. In terms of population size, the country has 16
million people with a surface area of 181,035 sq km.

the water for drinking due to its contamination with germs.
Yet the interesting part is that the most common response for“clean water,” meant for the respondents: one that has beentreated. With very few mentioning the source of water as aconcern. Together, these data suggest that there is a lack ofunderstanding about what makes water safe and the impact
of water quality on health.7
Specific information on Svay Leu
In light of the above literature, after deliberate scrutiny ofdata on temperature, rain precipitation, sub-basin water
retention, and overall topography of Cambodia using Google
Earth, among others as above-described. We chose ourWater Treatment Plant to be situated in Svay Leu district, aspart of the Siem Reap province. Siem Reap province has very
famous archeological sites, such as: Beng Mealea, Kantuot,
Khnang Phnum, Ta Siem, and Svay Leu, the latter consists of
5 communes and 41 villages, of a population size of around
5,400.
We set our decision specifically to a village appropriate toour endeavour: One in high elevation and one on flat land,
where the lake is of the same elevation as the town. Our aim
is to present the possibility of both projects and choose thebest among them following a number of criteria that includes
beneficiaries’ population size, social and natural conditions,maintenance fees (where a pump is needed), the feasibility ofthe project, and a life cycle assessment as will be later
described.

Natural and Social conditions
Despite the high risk of contamination, water scarcity is ofa much greater concern to locals than water quality, with 87%
of households saying they had a shortage of water during thepast year, and only 4% recognizing water quality to be one of
their greatest problems, according to the Lifewater survey of2016.5 This is why water treatment are not common,
encouraging the necessity of our project.
From a reading through the literature, “there seems to be alow level of awareness about germs and diseasetransmission”6 caused by water storage and transport. Whilepeople could themselves treat their drinking water by boilingit, they are unaware of the potential harms of unsafe waterand lack concern for water quality. Therefore, only a low
number of households attend to safe water storage andtransportation. The remainder typically store water inunclean jars and transport it “in wide-mouthed jars that are
dirty and not covered.”

According to the literature on Svay Leu (below): “Existing
cultivation area (basically paddy fields) is about 500 ha: ofwhich 40% is located upstream of the dike and the remaining
in downstream. […] land productivity in the area was getting
worse, particularly after the irrigation structures weredamaged by flood in year 2000.”8

Relevant to our specific focus on Svay Leu, however, thearea relies on ponds that collect water during the rainy season
and ground water during the dry season, specifically from4 Rainwater jars are traditional open containers that household members typically dip into, using a small

bowl or cup. It’s a means for water harvesting during rainy season.
5 Op. Cit., (2016). Baseline
Survey Findings., p.5.
6 Ibid., p.15.
7 Ibid.
8 (2007) Cambodia: Preparing the Water ResourcesManagement (Sector) Project. Asian Development Bank. p.32.
Retrieved from: https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/project-document/66188/38558-01-cam-tacr-06.pdf [November
17, 2019]
During the survey’s focus group discussions, the meaning
Stung Sreng Sub-basin (below).9 A larger storage area canof “dirty water,” was only perceived as water with chemicals
help the town especially since there is a lot of bare earth areas
or garbage/leaves, with only a few mentioning the safety ofthat are not used by anyone. The current ponds are small andGlobal Resource Management Journal Vol.6
56
owned by individuals who charge for the water. Rivers are
not a reliable source of water in this area. The main powersource for the area is coal. The area is located near Siem Reap
and receives about 1400mm of rainfall a year (below), theamount of water generated in the nearest river called Chi
Kreng is insignificant (annual average of 10-30 m3/s; Figure2) and cannot be used for hydropower.

Water sources

Svay Leu inhabitants and livelihood strategies
It’s important to add that 45% of the people in Svay Leu are
not educated. Then when it comes to their livelihood, theyeither work in: Wet-rice farming (i.e., during rainy season)(97%), fruit and cash crop farming (35%), home gardening(31%), livestock raising, or as wage-labour (ex. renting land
for agriculture, traveling to Thailand or moving internally toother districts for work) (22%). Interesting points to note as
showing in the pictures bellow, the land topography will playin favour of the setup of our intended project, even though
this area does not have any river around Svay Leu. Interesting
points to note in favour of the setup of our intended project,is the fact that, although this area does not have any riveraround Svay Leu, however there is a lot of bare earth areathat can serve as a large water storage area.

For the focus area of Siem Reap, people collect water fromthe following most common sources of water: rainwater
harvesting (28-49%), family based or community based dug
wells (75%), natural stream and creek system (16%), ponds(purchasing water either from individual pond-owners (1622%) or private supplier (3%)). These figures make 19 to
25% of Siem Reap inhabitants buy water, but what’s mostimportant to note is that 74% of Svay Leu inhabitants haveaccess to public waters for free (ponds, water jets and dug
wells) and 0% pay the government for such a service.
To understand best the three different water treatment plantsthat we propose in the following sections, it’s worth
mentioning that currently, ponds are owned by individuals
who currently charge for the water and the “average expense
per time is around 3.8$” (418 yen). We have no information
about the Liters they purchase “per time” but since our
proposed project will cost 0.62$/L and 0.61$/L, we estimatedthat this is lower than a payment of almost 4$ “per time.”
Moreover, our project is certainly safer than the water theypurchase from Pond owners, which could hold the possibilityof being contaminated, as we shall later elaborate.
Population estimation
Population size
According to the official documents of Cambodia, thepopulation of Svay Leu district was 12,869 in 1998, 25,726
in 2008, and 40,579 in 2015. The figure below shows theactual and calculated population curves of Svay Leu district,displayed in three circles. Although the population of Svay
Leu was calculated based upon the growth rate of entire
Cambodia (around 1.81% by 2030), the calculated curves
shown in black and triangle were not fitted to actual
population size due to lack of data. Hence, the red line wascalculated on the assumption that the growth rate of Svay Leu
is 7.1%. The three black circles indicate actual population
obtained from these references. Two black circle and trianglelines are estimated population utilizing real annual
population growth rate. However, these lines could not fit to
the actual population at 2015.

9 For more on the Stung Sreng Sub-basin, check: Op. Cit., (2007) “Cambodia: Preparing the Water Resources Management(Sector) Project,” p.3.

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Wells are classified into three groups: shallow well (less than8m), deep well (deeper than 30 m), and intermediate well.
The pumped water from the shallow well must be filtered,since the ground water taken from a shallow layer showed
high iron concentration and low pH value that exceed
drinking water quality standards. Thus, we have to evaluate
costs for following two cases.
1. Shallow well (< 8 m) + purification system(TBD)
2. Deep wellDescription of our projectIn the following, we will present 3 types of water purification
systems to be considered in the flat commune, based on a life
cycle assessment of each project. (Including taking into
account beneficiaries’ population size, social and natural
conditions, feasibility, labour and maintenance cost.) Case 1:
Water harvesting (jars installation); Case 2: water
purification facility on flat lands (requires water pumps);
Case 3: water purification facility (using gravity).
Cost of the project
Case 1: Water harvesting & water jars
Cambodia has dry season from November to May and rainyseason from May to November. The precipitation amount in
the rainy season accounts for 85.9% of annual precipitation.
Water acquisition in dry season is difficult in this area due tolower precipitation, rain water has to be stored efficiently inrainy season. Therefore, each village must have water savingsof 13.3 × 106 L at the last day of the rainy season in order tosupply enough amount of water during the dry season.

In terms of water sources such as groundwater and wells, if
we assume the main water source as being groundwater, it isoften the most appropriate source for drinking water.
However, it should not have high mineral content, as it makes
unpleasant flavor, or even harmful to drink, which makes
treatment necessary. Deep groundwater is generally
bacteriologically safe, but shallow groundwater may containbacterial and viral pollution from nearby pit latrines, septic
tanks or cattle ponds.

Water consumption rate in the rural area of Cambodia is 40
L/capita/day, each village should produce 61,280
L/village/day in 2030. In order to estimate the necessary cost,
the amount of water to store per day per village is assumed
as 73,500 L which is corresponding to 120% of required
value.

The fastest hand pump with 60 L/min elevation speed takes
22 hours to elevate 80,000 L per one hand pump, while theslowest hand pump requires 95 hours for that. Thus,
installation of multiple units of hand pump or electric driven
pump have to be considered. A ground water well can also be
dug near the treatment plant to provide water during dry
seasons.
Figure 3 shows the investigated result of extracted volume ofgroundwater [m3/day] by several private wells. The
investigation was done at the city near the Tonle Sap lake inthe same province of Svay Leu. According to the result, in
the Siem Reap region, groundwater have to be extracted fromthe intermediate layer in the depth of 20 to 50 m. Table 1
shows the lists of price and pumping capacity of several typesof hand pumps designed for shallow pump. Lifetime of thepiston that is installed at the pump tip is 5 years and the priceis about 30,000 yen. Although these pumps have anapplicability to shallow well of less than 7m, additional
install of extension pipe enables us to adopt those pumps to50m depth. On the assumption of the 30m depth well, theadditional cost is about 140,000 yen (80,000 yen for theextension of piston and 60,000 yen for the extension of pipes).

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
58
of land rarely exceeds 1% of the total construction cost. In
order to calculate the total construction costs of a filter, thefollowing equation is given.
Ct = Ca × S + Cw × Lw
(1)
where, Ct is total construction cost, excluding pipes andvalves, Ca is combined costs per square meter of filter bed
area of floor, underdrains, gravel, filter sand and excavation,
Cw is cost of the walls per running meter of wall length, S is
total surface area [m2], and Lw is total wall length [m].
Total installation cost: 3,338,300 USD + labor cost

The slow sand filter is composed of raw water storage, filter
part, and clean water storage. According to the priorresearches, the typical slow sand filter can purify 4 meter ofwater per day. Because the purification system should purify
73.5 L of water in a day, the cross section of the filter should
be at least 18.375 m2. Therefore, total cost of the slow sandfilter is 284,833 USD.
Thus, the total cost of the large purification system
combining the main water source, slow sand filter, and clear
water storage is 329,203 USD.

Case 2: Building a water purification facility on flat land
We will show in the cost comparison that building a large
water purification facility is cheaper than installing a lot ofjars.
Figure 4 shows the components of the water supply systemthat we are working on. From the main water source where
the rainwater is stored, the water passes through the slow
sand filter through the gate valves and is stored in the clear
water storage. In order to store the 13,300m3 of rain water, a
big water pool that has a scale of 70m×38m×5m should beconstructed. The total cost of the wall and floor, are 81,750
USD and 207,675 USD, respectively, in addition to a slow
sand filter: 2.3 m in depth. Therefore, the total construction
cost except for labor cost is 289,425 USD. In terms of clear
water storage, the calculation of slow sand filter, the cost of
the clear-water storage is calculated. Since the minimum
amount of water used per day is fixed, the capacity and costof the tank are determined as 73.5 m3/day, 11,295 USD,
respectively.

In terms of slow sand filter, if we follow previous method andresearch on the slow sand filter installation in India, we
calculated the system installation and running costs.
According to the reference, the construction cost of slow sandfilters is mainly determined by the cost of materials such as
cement, building sand, gravel, reinforcement steel, filter sand,pipes and valves. The cost of labor and land is usually oflesser importance. In rural areas of India for example, the cost

Solar powered pump
Figure 5 shows the topographic map near the Svay Leu.
According to the figure, the land at Svay Leu is very flat.
Water should be pumped from the main water source andpurified water source into the storage tank, because thissystem cannot utilize gravity. Moreover, no power is supplied
to this village according to the google street view. Therefore,
we have to install the solar pumping system to this facility.
Main water source (70 m × 38 m × 5 m)
Solar pumping system
The total cost including solar powered pumping system is
333,805 USD (including pumps & solar panels).

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Case 3: Water purification facility on the top of a hill,leveraging gravity
Because solar powered pumping system depends upon theweather and its require maintenance. Case 3 does not require
external pumps and solar panels because this system utilize
gravity.

water storage methods by locals, educating villagers, school
teachers and children, on hygiene training and proper wateruse. Other solutions may encourage community-dug wells
for common use, and we will invite even locals pond owners
to learn better treatment and use, even capitalize on it, of theirponds, so as not to clash with them.
Conclusion
The proposed project proposes building a water treatment
facility that we aim to promote for as part of a greater national
and international campaign for a cleaner and even cheaperwater source. which we will advertise for via broadcastingawareness campaigns on local TV, and local news.
We calculated the price of water utilizing Life cycle cost
(LCC) including labor costs (1,536 USD/person/year),
Maintenance fees (replacing the filter every 2 years), Labor
cost (Pump replacement every 10 years).
As a results, the price of water of case 2 is 0.62 USD/L andcase 3 is 0.61 USD/L.

These values are twice of the Cambodian typical water server
fee.
COE: Cost of water, Ci is cost incurred in i year, r is discountrate, and n is product life time.
Case 2: 0.617 USD/L10 & Case 3: 0.611 USD/L
Typical water server in Cambodia: 0.3 USD/L

Total cost
[USD]

Negotiation strategy
Project ownership
Ponds are owned by individuals who currently charge for thewater and the “average expense per time is around 3.8$” (418yen). We have no information about the Litres they purchase“per time” but since our proposed project will cost 0.62$/L
and 0.61$/L, then we estimate that this is lower than apayment of almost 4$ “per time.” Not only that, but our
project is certainly safer than the water they purchase frompond-owners, which could hold the possibility of being
contaminated, such would entail them higher treatment cost,a higher national health bill and possible infant deaths, as per
WHO statistics.
Additional measures
This also brings us to the necessity of additional measuresthat would help us realize the greater good that local
governments would like to accomplish, that is: to reduce therisk of water contamination in Rural Cambodia. Those
measure could range from: Raising awareness of the proper

Case 1 (jars)

Case 2(purification
facility in theflat-living area)

Case 3(purification
facility on themountain)

3,338,300

333,805

329,203･Low hygiene･High cost

･Middle cost due
to pumping
system･Cost effective･a bit far

References(2013) International Water Management Institute,“Agricultural Water Management Planning in Cambodia”, 1,
June.
Retrievedfrom:
http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/Publications/issue_briefs/cambo
dia/issue_brief_01-awm_planning_in_cambodia.pdf(2010) JICA, NJS consultants and Kokusai kogyo, “Survey
on water supply sector in the kingdom of Cambodia”, Finalreport,June.
Retrievedfrom:
http://open_jicareport.jica.go.jp/pdf/12005690_01.pdf(2016). Baseline
Survey Findings. LifeWater. Retrieved
from:https://lifewater.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/10/Lifewater-SvayLeu-CambodiaBaseline-Report.pdf [November 17, 2019]

10 Author’s note: Subsidies from local governments and International donor countries currently exists to address water

problems and related public health risks.

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
60(2007) Cambodia: Preparing the Water Resources
Management (Sector) Project. Asian Development Bank.
Retrievedfrom:https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/projectdocument/66188/38558-01-cam-tacr-06.pdf [November 17,
2019](2018) Green Innovation Services. Final Baseline Survey
Report “Reducing the Vulnerability of Cambodian Rural
Livelihoods through Enhanced Sub-National Climate
Change Planning and Execution of Priority Actions (SRL)
Project
2017–2020”.
Retrievedfrom:https://www.kh.undp.org/content/dam/cambodia/docs/Proje
ctDoc/SRL/SRL%20Baseline%20Study%20Report%20(GI
S%20Co.%2C%20Ltd.).pdf

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Engineering Part of Building a Water Treatment Plant in Rural Cambodia
Yuji Shimabukuro

1 Introduction
In light of the national need in Cambodia for clean water
distribution according to the available literature review, wechose to study the potential of setting up a water treatment
facility. The reason for our informed decision mainly pertains
to results of some official reports and studies highlighting thehigh child morbidity rate due to poor water quality as "therate of mortality rate for infants and under 5 years children in
Cambodia was the second highest" among neighboring
countries, as WHO’s report [1]. Moreover, it is reported by
the Cambodian Ministry of Health that “Six out of the tenhighest ranked diseases were water-borne diseases” in the
country [2]. This grim situation necessitated that we work on
water treatment of existing water sources, such as ponds andrivers, and the location of which will be deliberated in due
course.

2.2 Our chosen location
In light of the above literature, after deliberate scrutiny ofdata on temperature, rain precipitation, sub-basin water
retention, and overall topography of Cambodia, among others
as described in the introduction. We set our decision to Svay
Leu commune which is located on flat land. This commune
is located in Svay Leu district in Cambodia, part of the Siem
Reap province. Figure 1 indicates the location of Svay Leu
district. This district consists of 5 communes (Beng Mealea,
Kantuot, Khnang Phnum, Ta Siem, and Svay Leu) and 41
villages. In this report, we focused on the Svay Leu commune.
Although there is a high hill on the west side of the commune,
their living area is very flat. Figure 2 shows a photograph oftypical landscape of that commune. According to the google
street view, there are no hills and the commune does not haveelectric power line.

2 Background
2.1 Description of the field
Access to safe water is a serious problem in Cambodia. Water
contamination is rampant as “most people get their waterfrom unsafe sources, few people treat the water before
consumption, and most people are not transporting andstoring their water safely” [3]. The majority of people rely on
multiple sources in the community to meet their water needs,
and regardless of the seasons (dry or rainy) they get theirdrinking water from unprotected, most likely contaminatedsources: Those constitute constructed ponds during the dry
season and rainwater jars during the rainy season.
Despite the high risk of contamination, water scarcity is of amuch greater concern to locals than water quality, with 87%
of households saying they had a shortage of water during thepast year, and only 4% recognizing water quality to be one of
their greatest problems, according to the Lifewater survey of2016 [3]. This is why water treatment are not common,
encouraging the necessity of our project.
From a reading through the literature, “there seems to be alow level of awareness about germs and disease transmission”
caused by water storage and transport. While people could
themselves treat their drinking water by boiling it, they areunaware of the potential harms of unsafe water and lackconcern for water quality. Therefore, only a low number ofhouseholds attend to safe water storage and transportation.
The remainder typically store water in unclean jars andtransport it “in wide-mouthed jars that are dirty and notcovered.” During the survey’s focus group discussions, themeaning of “dirty water”, was only perceived as waterchemicals or garbage/leaves, with only a few mentioning thesafety of the water for drinking due to its contamination withgerms. Yet the interesting part is that the most common
response for “clean water” meant for the respondents: onethat has been treated. With very few mentioning the source ofwater as a concern. Together, these data suggest that there isa lack of understanding about what makes water safe and theimpact of water quality on health.

Fig. 1. Location of the Svay Leu district.

Fig. 2. A typical cityscape of Svay Leu commune.
Moreover, 45% of population in Svay Leu are not educated.
Their main occupation is rice cultivation (97%) which is aseasonal cultivation. Therefore, they are working on fruit andcash crop farming (35%), home gardening (31%), wage
labour (22%) such as renting land for agriculture, traveling toThailand or moving internally to other districts for work andso on in addition to the rice farming.
2.2.1 Water sources
Prior research on water sources of Siem Reap province [4],showed 28 to 49% of residents utlizing rainwater harvestingin rainy season. In dry season, they utilize family based ofcommunity based dug wells (75%) and natural stream andcreek system (16%). Figures 3 (a) (b), and (c) show typicalhouseholds and their water jars in Svay Leu commune.
According to these photographs, residents in this area use
same water jars and the scale can be assumed from the boyheight. Figure 4 is the modeled water jar by three dimensional
CAD software. In this model, the height is 1000 mm, smallest

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
62
diameter is 600 mm, and largest diameter is 800 mm. The
estimated volume of the jar is about 600 L.

Fig. 6. Population growth rate of Cambodia
Fig. 3. Photographs of typical households and their water jars.

with respect to year.
A red line in the Fig. 7 is an estimated curve utilizing linear
approximation to meet three actual populations. The
estimated line showed a good agreement with actual
population. In this case, the red curve was calculated on theassumption that the population growth rate of Svay Leu
follows to 7.1%. However, such a high population growthrate is unfeasible.

Fig. 4. A modeled water storage jar.
In the target region, 74% of inhabitants have access to public
waters for free from pond, water jar, and dug well, which
could hold the possibility of being contaminated. Thus, theproject proposes the clean water access for all inhabitants at
low cost in following sections.
3 Population estimation
According to the official documents of Cambodia [8, 9, 10],
populations of Svay Leu district were 12,869 in 1998, 25,726
in 2008, and 40579 may be in 2015. Figure 5 shows the actualand calculated population curves of Svay Leu district. The
actual populations are shown in big three circles in the figure.
Although population of Svay Leu was calculated based upon
the population growth rate of entire Cambodia (≈ 1.5%) asshown in Fig. 6, calculated curves shown in black circle andtriangle were not fitted to actual population.

Population [×10 people]

0.1

Thus, we assumed that the population growth rate will be
converged to 1.81% at 2030. The estimated population curveis shown in Fig. 8 as a blue line. Current Svay Leu iscomposed of 5 communes(Beng Mealea, Kantuot, Khnang
Phnum, Ta Siem, and Svay Leu) and 41 villages. Figure 9shows the estimated population of one commune until 2030.

Actual population
Calculated population since 1998
Calculated population since 2008

8
7
6
5

6

Fig. 7. The estimated population curve with 7.1% of
population growth rate.

4
3
2

0.01
2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

2025

2030

Year

Fig. 5. Actual and calculated population curves of
Svay Leu district.

Fig. 8. The re-estimated population curve (in blue line).

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Fig. 9. Estimated population curves ofa Svay Leu commune.
Fig. 11. Annual precipitations of Cambodia.
4 Proposed projects
According to the average precipitation data as shown in Fig.
12, Cambodia has dry season from November to May andrainy season from May to November. The precipitation
amount in the rainy season accounts for 85.9% of annual
precipitation. Water acquisition in dry season is difficult inthis area due to lower precipitation, rain water has to be stored
efficiently in rainy season.
240

Average precipitation [mm]In this class, we would like to supply clean water in order toimprove hygiene awareness. We assume the main water
source is a groundwater at first. Groundwater is often themost appropriate source for drinking water, provided it does
not have a high mineral content, which males it unpleasant oreven harmful to drink and, which makes treatment necessary.
Deep groundwater is generally bacteriologically safe, butshallow ground water may contain bacterial and viralpollution from nearby pit latrines, septic tanks or cattle ponds.
Wells are classified into three group: shallow well less than 8m, deep well deeper than 30 m, and intermediate well asshown in Fig. 10. The pumped water from the shallow wellmust be filtered, since the ground water taken from a shallow
layer showed high iron concentration and low pH value thatexceed drinking water quality standards [1]. Thus, the project
should be assumed to construct deep wells. However,confirmation for the presence of groundwater is not easy andits cost should be high. Therefore, we adopted not the deep
well construction but a rainwater harvesting system.

200
160
120
80

Dry season
Rainy season

40
0
01/01

03/01

05/01

07/01

09/01

11/01

01/01

Fig. 12. Average precipitation data at
the Siem Reap province.
4.1.2 Minimum quantity of water

Fig. 10. (A) Shallow well, (B) Intermediate well,(C) Deep well.
4.1 Water harvesting system
4.1.1 Features of the area

According to the WHO’s report as shown in Fig. 13, about 20
L/day/capita is the minimum quantity of safe water required
to realize minimum essential levels for health and hygiene[15]. Minimum quantity of safe water is 20 L/day/capita,
however Cambodian consume less than 5 L of water/day/capita. The WHO’s table considers the use of drinking
and cooking. In our project, in addition to 20 L of minimum
quantity, we consider the amount of water needed to take ashower. Thus, we aim for a target 40 L/day/capita, which is
twice as large of WHO’s. As discussed in the last section, theestimated population of Svay Leu commune is 1,530 at 2030.
Therefore, minimum quantity of required water per day percommune is about 61,280 L. In this report, we assumed the
120% of that value considering population growth: 73,500
L/day/commune.

Before the description of the project, we surveyed theprecipitation of the area. According to the Fig. 11, annual
precipitation of Svay Leu is about 1,400 mm.

Fig. 13. Simplified table of water requirements forsurvival per person [15].

Global Resource Management Journal Vol.6
64
4.1.3 Case1: water jar + water purifier
Murase and coworkers installed unique water jar to store therain water in the Bangladesh as shown in Fig. 14. Annual
precipitation in their target area is about 2,000 mm, while thatof our target area is about 1,400 mm. Following his method
and prior research on the slow sand filter installation in the
Colombia, we calculated the system installation and runningcosts.

Slow sand filter
Following Ref. [14]’s method and prior research on the slow
sand filter installation in India, we calculated the systeminstallation and running costs. According to the reference, theconstruction cost of slow sand filters is mainly determined by
the cost of materials such as cement, building sand, gravel,
reinforcement steel, filter sand, pipes and valves. The cost oflabor and land is usually of lesser importance. In rural areasof India for example, the cost of land rarely exceeds 1% of
the total construction cost. In order to calculate the total
construction costs of a filter, the following equation is given.
where, Ct is total construction cost, excluding pipes andvalves, Ca is combined costs per square meter of filter bed
area of floor, underdrains, gravel, filter sand and excavation,

Fig. 14. A schematic diagram of the AMAMIZU system.

Cw is cost of the walls per running meter of wall length, S is
total surface area [m2], and Lw is total wall length [m].

According to the price list shown in Table 1, the installation
cost for one unit of water jar, Cinst [$/unit], is obtained as

When the capacity of the jar has 1,000 L, the installation cost
Cinst is (251.02 + Cpipe + Cconst) $. In this case, each village
must have water savings of 13.3 × 106 L at the last day of therainy season in order to supply enough amount of water
during the dry season. Thus, each village should install
13,300 jars; total installation cost is (3,338,300 $ + labor cost).
4.1.4 Case2: Large purification center on the flat land
Figure 15 shows the components of the water supply systemthat we are working on. From the main water source where
the rainwater is stored, the water passes through the slow
sand filter through the gate valves and is stored in the clear
water storage.
Main water source

Slow sand filtration

The slow sand filter is composed of raw water storage, filter
part, and clean water storage. According to the priorresearches, the typical slow sand filter can purify 4 meter ofwater per day. Because the purification system should purify
73.5 L of water in a day, the cross section of the filter should
be at least 18.375 m2 . Therefore, total cost of the slow sandfilter is 28483.3125 USD. This estimated cost does notinclude cost for pipe replacement, because the cost for that is
negligible.
Figure 16 shows the topographic map near the Svay Leu.
According to the figure, the land at Svay Leu is very flat.
Water should be pumped from the main water source andpurified water source into the storage tank, because thissystem cannot utilize gravity. Moreover, no power is supplied
to this village according to the google street view. Therefore,
we have to install the solar pumping system to this facility.
The total cost including solar powered pumping system is333805.3125 USD.

Clear water storage

Fig. 15. Components of the water supply system.
Main water source
In order to store the 13,300 m3 of rain water, a big water poolthat has a scale of 70m × 38m × 5m should be constructed.
The total cost of the wall and floor, are 81,750 USD and
207,675 USD, respectively. Therefore, the total construction
cost except for labor cost is 289,425 USD.
Clear water storage
Beforehand the calculation of slow sand filter, the cost of theclear-water storage is calculated. Since the minimum amountof water used per day is fixed, the capacity and cost of thetank are determined as 73.5 m3, 11295 USD, respectively.

Fig. 16. Topographic map near the Svay Leu commune.
4.1.5 Case3: Large purification center on the hill
A basic concept of the case 3 is identical with the case 2 ofthat. The difference from the case 2 is utilization of gravity.
Because solar powered pumping system depends upon theCourse Reports
65
weather and the system requires regular maintenance. We
decide the construction site as shown in Fig. 17 since thenearest foot of the hill from the village has a shrine. Figure
18 shows the conceptual diagram of the large purification
system on the hill. The system does not require external
pumping system and solar panels because the system utilize
gravity. Total cost for case 3 can be calculated as 329,203
USD.

Fig. 17. Construction site.

Fig. 18. A schematic diagram of the project in case 3.

Table 3 shows the summary of calculated total costs for eachproject. In order to estimate the price of water, a life cycle
cost is calculated. Here, we assumed maintenance fee forreplacing the sand filter in every 2 years, labor cost as 1,536
USD/person/year for 5 people, and pump and pipe
replacement cost in every 10 years. In this estimation, weused following indices,where LCC is life cycle cost, COW is cost of water, Ci is mostincurred in i year, r is discount rate, and n is product life time.
As a calculation result, case 2 and 3 requires 0.617 and 0.611
USD/L as the price of water, respectively. In Cambodia, thesevalues are twice of the Cambodian typical water server fee.
Therefore, we should raise awareness of the proper water
storage methods and reduce the price of water utilizing otherbudgets. Here, we would like to propose cloud funding as abudget source. For example, in order to realize same pricewith the water server, minimum required budget is about
160,000 USD. Thus, collecting donation of 100 USD perperson from 1,600 people realizes reduced price by half.
Moreover, the value and people are plausible in the field of
cloud funding system. Therefore, we think our proposed

project is fully feasible to supply very clear water to poor
rural Cambodian inhabitants at the price as the market andhelps residents raising awareness to hygiene.

References[1] Japan International Cooperation Agency, NJS consultant
CO., LTD., and Kokusai Kogyo CO., LTD., “Survey on thewater supply sector in the kingdom of Cambodia” Finalreport, June 2010.
[2] G. I. Davies, L. Mclver, Y. Kim, M. Hashizume, S. Idding,and V. Chan, Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 12 191 2015.
[3] Lifewater International “Baseline Survey Findings”,
https://lifewater.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/LifewaterSvayLeu-Cambodia- Baseline-Report.pdf, August, 2016.
[4] Asian Development Bank “Cambodia: Preparing theWater Resources Management (Sector) Project”,
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/projectdocument/66188/38558-01-cam-tacr- 06.pdf, May, 2007.
[5] “Projects We Have Completed”[Online] Available:
http://www.crdt.org.kh/programs/tab/ Accessed: 1 Oct 2019.
[6] JICA,NJSconsultantsandKokusaikogyo,“Surveyonwate
rsupplysectorinthekingdom of cambodia”, Final report,
June 2010.
[7] International Water Management Institute, “Agricultural
Water Management Planning in Cambodia”, 1, June 2013.
[8] National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning,Phnom Penh, Cambodia, “General Population Census ofCambodia 1998 Final Census Results”, August, 2002.
[9] National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning,Phnom Penh, Cambodia, “General Population Census ofCambodia 2008 List of Priority Tables”,2008.
[10] Siem Riap Probincial Department of Tourism and GIZ
RED Programme “Svay Leu dis- trict”,
https://visitsiemreap.com.kh/svay-leudistrict/1513915144520-25cd7fda-a92e.
[11] M. Murase, "バングラデシュの飲み水の危機を救う持続可能な天水活用の促進 (inJapanese)".
[12] Water for cambodia,
https://www.waterforcambodia.org/biosand-filters.html.
[13] PVC rain collector project,https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Cambodia-NepalThailand-India-Industry- pvc60678117465.html.
[14] J. T. Visscher, R. Paramasivam, A. Raman, and H. A.
Heijnen, “Slow sand filtration for community water supply”,
International Reference Centre for Community Water Supply
and Sanitation, The Hague, The Netherlands, (1987).
[15] World Health Organization, "Technical notes ondrinking-water, sanitation and hygiene in emergencies" July
2013.

Contributors
Ahmad, Marwa
Doctoral Student,
Graduate School of Global Studies, Doshisha University

Alashgar, Deeb ElianDoctoral Student,
Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Doshisha University

Carada, Miriam Caryl
Assistant Professor, University of the Philippines Los Baños

Hajjaj, Mohammed Awad
Doctoral Student,
Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Doshisha University

Hernandez, James Edward II Aquino
Doctoral Student,
Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Doshisha University

Shimabukuro, Yuji
Doctoral Student,
Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Doshisha University

Global Resource Management Journal Vol. 62020 年 3 月 発行
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