Ecotourism in the Mountains of Sikkim, India
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Ecotourism in the Mountains of Sikkim, India |
by The Mountain Institute
Partners: The Mountain Institute (TMI)
G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development (GBPIHED)
Travel Agents Association of Sikkim (TAAS)
The Green Circle1997 Update
In our second year, we have made major strides in training for income generation, capacity building for conservation, biological monitoring and promoting policy dialogue in conservation and ecotourism development.
Project staff and collaborators conducted training for over 200 lodge operators, naturalist and trekking guides, trek cooks, vegetable growers and porters. Lodge operators have recorded increased revenue and are actively using alternative heating and cooking devices that are also more energy efficient than firewood.
Using an innovative participatory planning and action methodology that focuses on community assets, over 200 people in four communities at the project sites have developed and are implementing local ecotourism plans that include activities which are co-financed by community members. Under these plans local people have improved garbage management, carried out tree plantations in local settlements, prepared and distributed visitor education and promotional materials, and conducted trail repairs.
Two highly successful study/exchange tours were undertaken by villagers and travel agents to neighboring Nepal. Sikkimese villagers worked with local residents in a Mountain Institute (TMI) ecotourism project in the Helambu region to learn about tourism development and conservation. All made commitments to share the learning and to carry out conservation activities. Most of these have already been fulfilled. Members of the Travel Agents Association of Sikkim had a workshop with the Trekking Agents Association of Nepal and among other results signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate in marketing, conservation and ecotourism training.
As part of the applied research and monitoring component of the project, GBPIHED began intensive field monitoring of potential project impacts. Additionally, community ecotourism plans using participatory methods are providing participants with useful information on the status and management of natural resources, as well as on project activities that required modification, e.g. design of study tours in order to maximize the benefits for all community members.
This year, efforts to promote constructive policy dialogue between government, the private sector and local communities gathered momentum. The Government of Sikkim (GoS) adopted the project model of participatory workshops to discuss major tourism development proposals, and participated in a project-sponsored gathering of stockholders to discuss conservation and ecotourism management issues in and around Khanchendzonga National Park (KNP) -- the site of the major trekking route in Sikkim. The resulting action plan will be evaluated by participants in 1998.
Successes and Challenges "OK...So What?"
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