One of the beautiful waterfalls in the Nam Ha protected area. --Photo Nam Ha Ecotourism Project
The Nam Ha Ecotourism Project in Luang Namtha province received a prize last month recognising its outstanding success in reducing poverty without sacrificing its natural resources and traditional diverse culture.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), as well as various international environmental organisations, including Conservation International and the Federal University for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, awarded the Equator Prize to the project on June 5.
The international organisations conducted a survey to select the best tourism sites located in the equator area, and the Nam Ha Ecotourism project was one of 25 finalists out of the total 150 applicants.
This news came as no surprise at all, because the Nam Ha ecotourism project, in one of the largest protected areas in the country, has won many similar awards already.
In 2001, the UNDP gave the project a UN Development Award for Poverty Alleviation, and in 2002, British Airways acknowledged the project for its contribution to natural heritage protection. In 2005, the protected area was named an official Asean Heritage Park due to its abundance of natural resources.
All of these awards reflect the outstanding contribution of the government and local officials in managing populations that have been settling in the area for generations. The government has encouraged these communities to use natural resources in a sustainable way, to ensure the conservation of the unique surroundings, so that these people can continue living and working in their original environment.
The director of the Luang Namtha Provincial Tourism Administration, Mr Khamlay Sipaseuth, says the Nam Ha Ecotourism Service has received multiple international awards because of the abundance of forests and wildlife, and the ability of locals to subsist on sustainable incomes.
According to the provincial tourism guidebook, there are more than 50 villages settled around the protected area, and locals earn incomes from providing accommodation, food and services to visiting foreigners.
The Nam Ha Protected Area comprises 222,400 hectares, and is home to more than 37 larger mammal species, including three large cat species – the clouded leopard, the leopard and the tiger, as well as a small population of wild elephants.
There is also a diverse selection of birds, with at least 288 species found in the area, including the native silver pheasant, a healthy population of Blyth's kingfishers, and several South-East Asian highland species that have been found in few other places in northern Laos .
Mr Khamlay says that ecotourism project officials have helped villagers to transform their homes into home-stay services, so that visitors can gain an insight into how the local community lives. These villagers are also trained in being guides for tourists.
“Many locals have learned how to lead foreign visitors to trek in the forests, and to share their knowledge of their own community,” he says. “In protected areas, we try not to use tourist guides from other organisations, and instead keep these jobs for local people.”
He explains that once locals discover they can earn an income from tourists, they are more inclined to stay in their hometowns and develop the area, rather than leaving to seek jobs in the big cities or in foreign countries.
Villagers living within protected ecotourism sites are told that if they change their traditional culture, the tourists will not come and the villagers will lose an important source of income. “The villagers understand well about the conservation of their culture, and many of them are happy to keep up their traditional lifestyles for this reason,” he said.
He adds that many villagers still engage in traditional farming activities and wear traditional dress to impress foreign visitors.
However, to prevent an onslaught of tourists who could potentially cause damage and shatter the peaceful atmosphere of the villages inside the ecotourism site, the provincial tourism office has set a limit on the number of tourists allowed into the area at any given time, Mr Khamlay explains.
“They only allow seven people into a village at a time, and only for limited period,” he says. “A new group can only enter once the previous group has left.”
Because of these strict controls on tourist numbers, Mr Khamlay says, only 5,000 tourists are recorded to have visited the villages near the projected areas each year.
And while this relatively small number of tourists doesn't bring the same level of income as other tourism projects throughout the country, the cost is balanced out by the fact that the protected area continues to be preserved, which is the main purpose of ecotourism projects.
By Ekaphone Phouthonesy August 2, 2007 - Vientiane Times
