The Namche Conference: May 24-26, 2003 People, Park, and Mountain Ecotourism Participants and Presentations: Mr. Syed Husain Ashraf

Mr. Syed Husain Ashraf (Aligarh, U.P., India) Professor, Department of Commerce, Aligarh Muslim University; email: shashraf@bharatmail.com Abstract Rural Tourism - Panacea for Environment and Resource Sustainability. Sustainable development is best understood as a process of change in which the use of resources,the direction of investments,the orientation of technological development and institutional change,all enhance the potential to meet human needs both for today and tommorrow.The first claim on natural resources falls on to the local community and it is their birth right.It is a symbolic relationship in which nature offers them all for their survival,while they display on impressive heritage of traditional knowledge which helps in the conservation of the natural resources.The community,who live in the vicinity of those resources also guard them for others to use.Since environmental issues begin from the villages, it is inevitable to involve the local community in every process of development leading to improve environmental conditions. India's economy is predominantly rural in character with nearly 80 per cent of its population living in villages. Programmes for substential development need to focus on sustainable livelihood. A decentralised people oriented environment friendly set up alone can sustain resource management. This is only possible by concentrating on rural areas and providing economic activity to the people. Tourism is one of the most booming sectors in any country's economy. But unfortunately rural tourism has been a neglected area as the concentration so far has been on urban tourism. It hence improtant to develop village tourism in order to tap this potential source of income and development. Economic security of the village community and the people could form the basis for ecological security and resource conservation and maintenance. This paper seeks to discuss the potential perspectives and strategies for resource based tourism in rural areas for maintaining environment protection and resources.

Email: info@namche.net