title: Community-Based Tourism Development in Long Lan Village, Luang Prabang, Laos

authors: Phillips, Laura Elizabeth

abstract: This thesis reports on research that was conducted from July to September 2014 in the village of Long Lan in Northern Laos into the potential for a community based, community operated, and community controlled ethnic-ecological-tourism enterprise. 
Long Lan is a White Hmong village located in a mountainous area 40 km northeast of Luang Prabang. They were traditional shifting cultivators growing rice and corn for subsistence and opium poppies for the production of opium as a cash crop. In 1999, however, the Lao government banned both shifting cultivation and opium production, presenting Long Lan with a serious livelihood challenge. In the same year, the Centre for Ecological Studies of Highlands (CHESH), a sister organization of the Vietnamese NGO the Social Policy Ecology Research Institute (SPERI), began working with Long Lan on a programme of Culture Based Sustainable Community Development aimed at developing the customary forms of leadership, governance, and ownership of territory in order for Long Lan inhabitants to maintaining their own spiritual values towards nature and their own customary ways of governing their community and natural resources.
As part of the overall village development plan, the objective of the current research was to gain an understanding of potential benefits, pitfalls and challenges involved in operating a community-based ethnic tourism enterprise in Long Lan village, and to gather information useful in aiding in the possible development of an endogenous, community-based tourism venture owned and operated by the people of Long Lan. Thirty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with Long Lan residents to ascertain their knowledge and understanding of tourism activities and their possible impact. These views were analysed and fed back to the village in research feedback meetings together with recommendations by the research team. 
The research is placed within the context of a critical review of ethnic tourism Thailand and Laos.

text: Community-Based Tourism Development in Long Lan Village, Luang Prabang, Laos This thesis reports on research that was conducted from July to September 2014 in the village of Long Lan in Northern Laos into the potential for a community based, community operated, and community controlled ethnic-ecological-tourism enterprise. 
Long Lan is a White Hmong village located in a mountainous area 40 km northeast of Luang Prabang. They were traditional shifting cultivators growing rice and corn for subsistence and opium poppies for the production of opium as a cash crop. In 1999, however, the Lao government banned both shifting cultivation and opium production, presenting Long Lan with a serious livelihood challenge. In the same year, the Centre for Ecological Studies of Highlands (CHESH), a sister organization of the Vietnamese NGO the Social Policy Ecology Research Institute (SPERI), began working with Long Lan on a programme of Culture Based Sustainable Community Development aimed at developing the customary forms of leadership, governance, and ownership of territory in order for Long Lan inhabitants to maintaining their own spiritual values towards nature and their own customary ways of governing their community and natural resources.
As part of the overall village development plan, the objective of the current research was to gain an understanding of potential benefits, pitfalls and challenges involved in operating a community-based ethnic tourism enterprise in Long Lan village, and to gather information useful in aiding in the possible development of an endogenous, community-based tourism venture owned and operated by the people of Long Lan. Thirty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with Long Lan residents to ascertain their knowledge and understanding of tourism activities and their possible impact. These views were analysed and fed back to the village in research feedback meetings together with recommendations by the research team. 
The research is placed within the context of a critical review of ethnic tourism Thailand and Laos.

year: 2015

title: Increasing Microcystis cell density enhances microcystin synthesis: a mesocosm study

authors: Wood, Susanna A.

subjects: cell abundance

abstract: An experimental protocol using mesocosms was established to study the effect of Microcystis sp. cell abundance on microcystin production. The mesocosms (55 L) were set up in a shallow eutrophic lake and received either no (control), low (to simulate a moderate surface accumulation), or high (to simulate a dense surface scum) concentrations of Microcystis sp. cells collected from the lake water adjacent to the mesocosms. In the low- and high-cell addition mesocosms (2 replicates of each), the initial addition of Microcystis sp. cells doubled the starting cell abundance from 500 000 to 1 000 000 cells mL⁻¹, but there was no detectable effect on microcystin quotas. Two further cell additions were made to the high-cell addition mesocosms after 60 and 120 min, increasing densities to 2 900 000 and 7 000 000 cells mL-1, respectively. Both additions resulted in marked increases in microcystin quotas from 0.1 pg cell-1 to 0.60 and 1.38 pg cell⁻¹, respectively, over the 240 min period. Extracellular microcystins accounted for <12% of the total microcystin load throughout the whole experiment. The results of this study indicate a relationship between Microcystis cell abundance and/or mutually correlated environmental parameters and microcystin synthesis.

text: Increasing Microcystis cell density enhances microcystin synthesis: a mesocosm study An experimental protocol using mesocosms was established to study the effect of Microcystis sp. cell abundance on microcystin production. The mesocosms (55 L) were set up in a shallow eutrophic lake and received either no (control), low (to simulate a moderate surface accumulation), or high (to simulate a dense surface scum) concentrations of Microcystis sp. cells collected from the lake water adjacent to the mesocosms. In the low- and high-cell addition mesocosms (2 replicates of each), the initial addition of Microcystis sp. cells doubled the starting cell abundance from 500 000 to 1 000 000 cells mL⁻¹, but there was no detectable effect on microcystin quotas. Two further cell additions were made to the high-cell addition mesocosms after 60 and 120 min, increasing densities to 2 900 000 and 7 000 000 cells mL-1, respectively. Both additions resulted in marked increases in microcystin quotas from 0.1 pg cell-1 to 0.60 and 1.38 pg cell⁻¹, respectively, over the 240 min period. Extracellular microcystins accounted for <12% of the total microcystin load throughout the whole experiment. The results of this study indicate a relationship between Microcystis cell abundance and/or mutually correlated environmental parameters and microcystin synthesis.

year: 2012

title: Boat electrofishing salvage of fish in the Lower Mangamahoe Dam reservoir

authors: Hicks, Brendan J.

abstract: The aim of the survey was to salvage fish from the Lower Mangamahoe Dam reservoir before dewatering and dam removal. We used the University of Waikato’s 4.5 m-long, aluminium-hulled electrofishing boat to catch a total of 140 fish weighing an estimated 37.0 kg along 8 fishing tracks sites on 24 February 2022. These tracks comprised 2,807 lineal m and 11,228 m2 in area. Shortfin eels (Anguilla australis) and common bullies (Gobiomorphus cotidianus) were the only fish species present. Mean density of eels caught was 2.9 fish 100 m–2 and mean biomass was 7.84 g m–2. The eels and bullies were transferred to sites downstream in the Waiwhakaiho River by iwi members of the two hapū - Ngāti Te Whiti and Ngāti Tawhirikura. Water clarity, expressed as black disc distance (BDD, 1.05 m), was good for a shallow lake, and water temperature and water conductivity were close to optimum for electrofishing. Poor water clarity can reduce the efficiency of electrofishing, so we left time after fishing each track for the sediment suspended by the propellor wash to sink before refishing a track.

text: Boat electrofishing salvage of fish in the Lower Mangamahoe Dam reservoir The aim of the survey was to salvage fish from the Lower Mangamahoe Dam reservoir before dewatering and dam removal. We used the University of Waikato’s 4.5 m-long, aluminium-hulled electrofishing boat to catch a total of 140 fish weighing an estimated 37.0 kg along 8 fishing tracks sites on 24 February 2022. These tracks comprised 2,807 lineal m and 11,228 m2 in area. Shortfin eels (Anguilla australis) and common bullies (Gobiomorphus cotidianus) were the only fish species present. Mean density of eels caught was 2.9 fish 100 m–2 and mean biomass was 7.84 g m–2. The eels and bullies were transferred to sites downstream in the Waiwhakaiho River by iwi members of the two hapū - Ngāti Te Whiti and Ngāti Tawhirikura. Water clarity, expressed as black disc distance (BDD, 1.05 m), was good for a shallow lake, and water temperature and water conductivity were close to optimum for electrofishing. Poor water clarity can reduce the efficiency of electrofishing, so we left time after fishing each track for the sediment suspended by the propellor wash to sink before refishing a track.

year: 2022