Local perspective on community based ecotourism : a case study in Ban Na in Phu Khao Khoay national protected area, Lao PDR : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Environmental Management at Massey University, New Zealand

In 2002 the Lao government adopted a policy for nationwide economic growth based&#13;\non the development of tourism as a priority sector. This aims to alleviate poverty&#13;\nthrough ecotourism and pro-poor tourism, through community based projects such as&#13;\nBan Na community based ecotourism (CBE) project. This research aimed to&#13;\ninvestigate factors influencing household involvement in CBE projects in Laos. The&#13;\nimpacts of the project within the village were also identified. To date little research&#13;\nwith this focus has been undertaken in Laos. The findings and recommendations of&#13;\nthis research will provide important information to the Lao Government for the future&#13;\ndevelopment of strategies and initiatives concerning community participation in rural&#13;\necotourism. This is particularly important for Laos as they are in the early stages of&#13;\ndeveloping their ecotourism industry, especially CBE projects in rural areas. To&#13;\nachieve this, a single case study was undertaken focusing on Ban Na CBE project&#13;\nand field data was collected using semi-structured interviews and observations, and&#13;\nadditional secondary sources. Qualitative data analysis methods were used to extract&#13;\nthe key findings.&#13;\nThis research confirmed that CBE has the potential to enhance socio-cultural, socioeconomic&#13;\nand environmental benefits for rural communities in Laos. In socio-cultural&#13;\nterms CBE increased household awareness of the value of their traditional culture,&#13;\nand in socioeconomic terms CBE allowed local households to improve their&#13;\nlivelihoods through financial benefits. The benefits have taken place at both&#13;\ncommunity and household levels. At the community level, public infrastructure has&#13;\nbeen improved such as water supply upgrading. At the household level, households&#13;\nactively involved have gained direct income from guiding and homestays. The new&#13;\nsource of income has enabled households to improve their housing conditions, to&#13;\npurchase farm materials and investing in their children’s education. Those&#13;\nhouseholds that have not been actively involved in CBE (that include the very poor)&#13;\nalso benefit from selling local products and through access to the CBE village fund.&#13;\nCBE has resulted in enhanced conservation outcomes for the protected area. This is&#13;\na consequence of increased household awareness of the environment and their&#13;\nimpact on it. However, CBE has also had negative impacts including an increase in&#13;\nsolid wastes and dust and noise associated with the increasing number of tourists.&#13;\nFindings from this research indicate that the majority of households can benefit from&#13;\nCBE projects when the management of the project includes rules that limit the level&#13;\nof participation of any one household, thereby ensuring maximum household&#13;\nparticipation and subsequent resulting benefits. In a CBE project, there is no&#13;\nrequirement for all households to be involved in providing services to tourists&#13;\nbecause it is not possible for some households to provide the types of service&#13;\npreferred by tourists. Although, not all households can actively participate in CBE, the&#13;\nbenefits can be accessed by all those in the community. CBE has the potential to&#13;\nprovide benefits across the community to both households who are actively and not&#13;\nactively involved in the project. This equitable benefit is a result of the CBE project&#13;\nrules that ensure assistance through the community fund, spread benefits from&#13;\nactively involved households and ensure those households not actively involved are&#13;\nable to access benefits.&#13;\nThe findings from this research also illustrate that a local structure such as village&#13;\ncommittee can manage and establish rules for CBE projects without support from&#13;\noutsiders. The committee also has the potential to manage the allocation of benefits&#13;\nacross the community. Further, rules within CBE projects have the potential to assist&#13;\nlong term sustainability and ensure the equitable distribution of benefits throughout&#13;\nthe community.&#13;\nCBE provides an opportunity for community members with different circumstances to&#13;\nparticipate in the project due to the range and nature of ecotourism activities such as&#13;\nguiding, hosting tourists and producing handicrafts. This is also the case for a&#13;\nhomestay option which offers women an opportunity to be actively involved and gain&#13;\ndirect benefits without leaving their children and household responsibilities. However,&#13;\nlike other community based development projects, poorer households are limited&#13;\nfrom being actively involved as a result of lack of facilities, time, labour and lack of&#13;\nawareness of the rules around the project and potential benefits as well as personal&#13;\nconfidence.

Topic: Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies
Subfield: Political Science and International Relations
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences