Conservation Awareness and Ecotourism

For the PARC landscape ecology approach to integrated conservation and development to succeed, there must be good awareness of the benefits of effective conservation amongst local stakeholders. Local people and government agencies must share an understanding of different conservation issues.

Parallel with enhanced awareness, the project needs to demonstrate to local people the potential economic benefits of conservation. One way of achieving this is through community involvement in tourism focused on the national park, its natural environment and landscape. Tourism also offers the opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of Yok Don amongst a larger national and international audience.

Environmental education means doing as well as learning

Environmental Education

Even with a loose definition of Environmental Education there have been few formal efforts at Yok Don National Park to date:

annual forest protection meetings by rangers;
some environmental content in schools; and,
media coverage of environmental issue.

There is obviously much scope for improved dissemination of environmental information within the area. Since February 2002, PARC Yok Don has concentrated on facilitating Yok Don National Park and the local education authority to establish a collaborative Environmental Education Programme.

This programme centres on the teaching of a new environmental subject, designed by stakeholders, in the buffer zone of the park. In addition, park rangers are developing community awareness activities with project technical and financial support. In this way, these institutions gain valuable experience of implementing environmental education activities that they have defined themselves.

Based on this, the project will also seek to conduct targeted campaigns, which may or may not involve capacity building of local agencies. Hunting, for example, has been identified as a major conservation issue in Yok Don. Understanding the exact nature of hunting and possibilities for awareness raising to tackle it are imperative.

Thus, the desire for sustainability will be weighed against the need for immediate action to tackle pressing conservation problems. The provision of tourist information may also fall in to this category.

Ecotourism

Yok Don has considerable tourism potential: Thanh Ha 'Seven Braids Waterfall'

It has been increasingly acknowledged that the development of ecologically sustainable tourism - also know as 'eco-tourism' - can positively contribute to conservation efforts (see sidebar). In order to realise this potential, the PARC project is working with Yok Don National Park and local communities to:

increase community involvement in tourism (e.g. guiding, selling local products);
provide visitor information (e.g. signs, guides, printed materials;
promote tourism within defined carrying capacities (e.g. regional and national advertising); and,
providing infrastructure (e.g. trails, visitor interpretation centre).

It is believed that realising the economic potential of the park from tourism will stimulate a rationale for its conservation. Once this direct linkage is established, the less obvious benefits of conservation can be explored, such as the protection of watershed functions and other less tangible benefits. This will hopefully support long-term stewardship of the local environment.

What is ecotourism?
Ecotourism refers to a type of tourism which has positive connotations for the environment. There are four main ways this can occur: Linking a healthy environment with income for local resource users; Providing revenue for conservation activities; Raising awareness of conservation issues amongst tourists; and, Generating local pride. There is also the potential for tourism to reinforce local culture. Realising these opportunities whilst avoiding the negative aspects of tourism, however, is a major challenge

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Ecotourism Promotion / Development for Yok Don
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