|
The Namche Conference: May 24-26,
2003
Sessions Report |
Session 2. Sharing Experiences: Global Perspectives on Local Issues
Sustainable Mountain Tourism
The speaker introduced himself as a native of Monju on the border of the Sagarmatha National Park. He was a member of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee and had been awakened to the pitfalls of mountain tourism following the publication of a piece by National Geographic calling Sagarmatha the 'highest junk yard in the world' and the 'toilet paper trail'. He was presenting buffer zone management as a case study as an officer of the Tourism for Rural Poverty Alleviation Program (TRPAP). When the park first opened in 1976, there had been little consultation with local people. Forests were protected and the circa 3,000 people who lived inside the park felt themselves deprived of much of the timber and firewood upon which they were dependent; hence they were skeptical about the establishment of Sagarmatha National Park. Mingma Norbu himself had sent 500 saplings for the school education program on environmental conservation and had actually had his life threatened. His crime—"trying to establish a national park.” The first warden of the Park was a local person and he tried to revive the traditional Sherpa 'Shing Nawa' or Forest Guardians, and gradually people began to be included in what was going on and began to realize that the Park was for everyone's benefit. Mingma Norbu described the program he worked on and the way it worked through different committees in the buffer zone. Its aims were to contribute to poverty alleviation. It was pro-poor, pro-environment, and pro-women. There were three objectives: 1) to demonstrate sustainable tourism models; 2) to establish committees locally, institutionalize them and receive feedback about their interests and needs; and 3) through this feedback assist the government to devise strategies and policies for sustainable development and conservation. The TRPAP was a UNDP-assisted program operating in 6 districts of Nepal: Dolpa,Taplejung, Solukhumbhu, Rasuwa, Lumbini and Chitwan. Mr. Sherpa advised participants to look at the brochure he had provided.
Curriculum Development at Boitekong: Volunteer Work and Tourism
Prof. Ray Basson, South Africa The speaker introduced his case study as one of human capital development related to tourism in a squatters' community in South Africa. In South Africa many informal squatter communities grew up around cities and people thought of them traditionally as breeding grounds for violence, criminal activities, and unemployment. This was a case of one community that went against the orthodox view of such communities. Through the work carried out the Boitekong community managed to raise 20 million rand (about 2.7 million dollars) to purchase the land they were squatting on, which was next to the Mission of Jean Baptiste La Salle. Although they still lived as squatters they managed to build 3 schools and a community college. The methodology consisted of 15 years of trust building through establishment of different groups that could express their 'felt needs' and which then led to action. Professor Basson described this as curriculum development in the sense of what people could do or were capable of doing once they were freed of economic and other constraints. He saw curriculum development as a natural process: meeting together to discuss what they wanted and then deciding upon a strategy through which to realize the same. People were trained in cultural production in order to produce outputs for tourism and proceeds raised had led to establishment of a crèche, clinics, and a hospice for AIDS victims. Through these methods, in Africa, ordinary people become exceptional, and this is strongly related to democracy and democratic practice.
Struggle for Community-based Conservation and Eco-tourism in Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve
The Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in Uttaranchal, India, has a number of small organizations known as Janadhar working to address critical development issues. An umbrella organization called Alliance for Development (AD) was created to manage and coordinate the activities of the smaller groups. AD is an advocacy group and its concerns are trafficking of women, forestry conflicts, food adulteration, and so forth. Nanda Devi is one of the areas where AD has a member. Mr. Dhan Singh Rana has been working for 20 years to restore the traditional rights over the forests and their natural resources to the people of the area. Nanda Devi is in Chamoli, next to Tibet (TAR, China). The traditional inhabitants are the Bhutia. It was originally notified in 1939 and they lived on herding and trade between the area and Tibet. However in 1962 trade with Tibet closed and the traditional economy collapsed. In 1982 it became a national park and this had a further adverse affect on the economy, and finally in 1993 it became part of the MAB program and was proclaimed a World Heritage Site, as is Sagarmatha National Park. The movement to reclaim the people's rights is focusing on regulated tourism based on building community capacity in tourism, strengthening the mechanism for capacity building. The principal issue they see is "if landscape is a product – who owns it? Isn't the landscape a common property resource of the indigenous people?"
Mountaineers as Ambassadors for Tourism in Nepal The speaker explained that he was a Forester by profession. His interest in ecotourism and his travel for study in New Zealand and later Japan led him to write this case study on mountaineers as ambassadors for Nepalese tourism. He recounted his experiences in New Zealand where streets were named not only after Hillary, but also after Tenzing Norgay and Everest itself. It was a revelation to realize how many people knew about Nepal through the mountaineering experience. Later in Japan he heard a lecture by Junko Tabei on her mountaineering feat and felt that mountaineers are excellent ambassadors for tourism in Nepal. This led Dr. Gautam to surf the internet and he presented his statistics to the floor. They are as follow. He received 4 million links to Nepal and 285,000 links to 29 sites about Nepal. Of these 85% were related to tourism, out of which 98% were related to mountaineering and only 14% to embassies of Nepal. Mt. Everest itself was the focus of many links. Dr. Gautam pointed out that Nepal has a good reputation because of Mt. Everest and that should be exploited. Questions and Answers Session 2a Sjoerd Neinhuys (to Basson), Question: As an organization for development, don't you think school curricula should be related to the particular area? Basson, Answer: They are, but in the beginning one has to provide an institution for instruction, curriculum comes afterwards. The curriculum can be localized but first we focused on cultural goods, tying education with production of these goods. The first years use a local curriculum, but afterwards that feeds into the national curriculum. Freake (to Basson), Question: In Phortse the children speak Sherpa as their mother tongue. However the teachers speak Nepali and kids are not allowed to speak Sherpa in class - shouldn't instruction be in the mother tongue? Basson, Answer:In South Africa there are 12 or 13 languages and it is the law that children should be instructed in their own language. However after 5 years, communities prefer to be taught in English as a language of universal communication. There were several questions for Mr. Mingma Norbu Sherpa from Mr. Hikmat Singh Ayer, Mrs. Greta Rana and Ms. Alka Sabharwal. These were presented collectively and answered as a group of questions with a similar focus:
Answers: Mingma Norbu said that there was no provision in law for using the National Park funding for other VDCs outside the national park. There was then some discussion about how they ought to be engaged and to benefit. It was mentioned that they had access to funds through the Local Self Governance Act. Regarding private sector collaboration, most of the tourism Sherpa families handled business in Khumbu and they were private entrepreneurs. The UNDP Quality Tourism project had been involved in helping set up lodge and porters' committees etc. This was the project that had led to the establishment of the Nepal Tourism Board and had a focus of institutionalizing sustainable tourism models. Institutional modalities were guided by the Tourism Acts. Mingma Norbu described the process prepared by UNDP for Buffer Zone Management through different committees. Some participants thought them quite tortuous and complicated. Management regulations ought to be more straightforward. Mingma rejoined that they had prepared a 5-year buffer zone management plan of their own. If the government endorses this before July then 50% of the proceeds from the NP will come to the Buffer Zone Management Program (BZMP). Sonam and Ang Dorje mentioned that 70% would be used for management and conservation, and 30% for projects promoted by the different committees under the BZMP. The Nanda Devi team was asked to respond to some of the questions raised in respect to their work. Most of the questions were regarding tourism marketing. Answer: They replied that they weren't interested in simply promoting tourism, but in offering a diversified package in ecotourism. They didn't want to create new institutions. There were so many NGOs that sometimes in a village of only 40 families one could find 15 new institutions. Their wish was to align with traditional management institutions. A Nanda Devi Ecotourism Authority was to be established and representation would be 80% from the community, 10% from the government and 10% from resource institutions. Sunil commented about the private sector: "We don't want to open the area for travel agents from the cities. The community will own it, and manage it." When asked how they would market it, he replied that it required niche marketing. "Travel agents outside only give us garbage and porterage”. In concluding there was a lot of general discussion about this idea of niche marketing. It was noted that SNP had been established in 1976 and it became a World Heritage Site not only Mt. Everest but because of the natural and cultural assets it had. In spite of this, 98% of the tourism was related to mountaineering and seeing Mt. Everest. Perhaps more proactive niche marketing should be undertaken in village tourism. The examples of Ghalegaon and Syrubari were cited by Mr. Hikmat Ayer. Margaret Jefferies shared with us an answer that she was given by a Sherpa when she asked what would happen if Everest disappeared. The Sherpa replied that if Everest disappeared people would still visit the hole in the ground where it had been. Bruce remarked upon the draw that icons had, citing his own visit to Yellowstone National Park. However idealistic we would like to be, still icons had their use. People who returned a second or third time often widened their scope. There was some discussion on equity. Participants were worried about the equal spread of benefits and how this could be effected. Emphasis was often on protection and not on an equal spread of resources. Mingma said that this could only be implemented by bottom up planning and agreed that there were other groups that had contributed but which were not taken into account, because of the way the laws were written. Alka Sabharwal asked about public private partnership and Mingma said that through Community Organizations every household was involved in the park. Bruce Jeffries wondered if "the values of the park are not pushed aside while one deals with management issues." The response was that all the committees were only established to protect and serve the park. Even within the Park it should be remembered that 30% of households were still poor. It was thought this was changing with a change from top down to bottom up management. The session concluded with a statement by Dhan Singh Rana in Hindi. "All of you are here from so many different countries. Usually an elite club of intellectuals decides upon the fates of tribes and ethnic groups living in parks and protected areas. A few people sitting often quite far away take it upon themselves to decide what our destiny should be. We should give the people of the parks the right to determine their own destinies." Session 2B. Natural Resources:Impact and Management Facilitator: Dr. Pema Gyamtsho Pema Gyamtsho reiterated that natural resources are at the core of all of the issues being discussed in this conference. Natural resources make possible tourism, the energy sector, and ultimately form the environment.
The Pyramid: A Unique Facility for High Altitude Research Dinesh Bhuju: The Pyramid is a unique facility for high altitude research supported by Ev-K2-CNR, Italian National Research Council. Dr. Bhuju began his presentation by revisiting the history of the Pyramid Research Laboratory, and highlighting its long standing collaboration with Nepali scientists through RONAST. The idea came about when Dr. Dezio (a renowned Italian Geologist and Scientist who had worked on K2, and who had been one of the scientists to recommend the formation of the Sagarmatha National Park) had a vision to establish a semi-permanent facility to collect scientific data at high altitudes as temporary camps were just not sufficient for this purpose. The building was completed in 1989 and since that time the Pyramid has become a main international cornerstone of high altitude and remote area scientific research. The Pyramid Research laboratory houses many unique scientific facilities; facilities are available for the study of: environmental and climatic change, medicine and human physiology in remote conditions, geology, geophysics and seismic studies, flora, fauna and high altitude biology, hydro biology, and paleolimnology, and anthropology and ethnographic studies, clean technologies and environment management systems. Since its inception it has housed over 500 missions of international scientist who have produced over 889 scientific publications. Dr. Bhuju’s talk ended with a reminder to all present that this unique facility is available to all the bonafide researchers free of charge and extended a welcome to all. G.P. Verza: Mr. Verza, himself a summiteer, has been involved with this project since its inception. The Pyramid Laboratory has a GPS Master Station which can help climbers identify altitudes in the vicinity to within one meter, and with some additional inputs even to within a few centimeters. It also houses other unique facilities which can be used to study human physiology and conduct studies on the human immune system. Mr. Verza emphasized the importance of communication and the fact that a good and effective communication system can safe lives in the mountains. On many occasions the Pyramid Laboratory has also offered critical medical assistance to climbers in danger and here the key has always been effective communication facilities.
The Future of Livestock in the High Himalayan Region Pema Gyamtsho emphasized the importance of livestock to the whole Himalayan region. Livestock provides a range of socioeconomic services, it converts otherwise unusable resources into usable goods and has a vital role to play in the environmental health of the whole region. Livestock can not be underestimated; it features in social, cultural and religious beliefs and practices as well as providing needed goods and services. Livestock determines the special and temporal distribution of vegetation and determines the diversity of bio-culture. While managed grazing can be beneficial for the environment as a whole, uncontrolled overgrazing can have catastrophic consequences. The emerging challenges include a decreasing interest in pastoral life style and threats from globalization. Possible opportunities can be explored by integrating livestock with tourism and culture and in this way keeping livestock as an integral part of the bio-system. The main concept here is to exploit the ecotourism market by bringing tourists to the yaks and yak herders. Dr. Gyamtsho concluded by stating that livestock will continue to be important in this region and that there is a need to deliver an approach which is inclusive.
Impact of Cattle Treading Hill Pasture Dr. Pandey reminded the audience that cattle can cause damage not only by over grazing pastures but by treading on them. Cattle hoofs can cause pitting which leads to degradation of vegetation and eventually soil erosion. The most severe damage occurs when cattle tread on delicate water logged soils. Dr. Pandey went on to discuss what could be done to limit the damage. These included different strategies to maximize the effects of grazing and number of cattle while minimizing the effects on wet rangelands and pastures.
Historical Research on Re-vegetation in the Alpine Region in Japan
Mr. Kurita discussed different examples of the re-vegetation process in several of Japan’s national parks. The problems here are quite different from those encountered in the Himalayas because while even their highest peaks are only about 3500 meters the number of tourists they house annually is considerably greater. Mr. Kurita gave the example of Mt. Fuji National Park, which annually receives over a hundred million visitors. It is only two hours drive from Tokyo, a large urban center, and it is only a two-hour climb to the top. Under the heavy pressures of this large number of tourists, the trails have been seriously eroded. An additional complication that leads to soil erosion is the very heavy annual rainfall (over 3000 mm/yr). Over the past 14 years there has been a serious interest among mountain enthusiasts and youth group volunteers to rehabilitate these areas. Mr. Kurita showed several graphic examples where successful re-vegetation had taken place through mulching and other techniques implemented by the efforts of youth volunteers.
The Role of Local Communities in Natural Resource Management
Ms. Gurung discussed how buffer zones create opportunities for local communities to be involved in the management of national parks and their related resources. The pressures that exist on forests included in national parks have been passed on to the forest areas directly outside the park and are affecting the livelihoods of the people who live there. These people need to have a voice in the decision making process since park policies also indirectly affect them. She gave the specific example of the formation of the Sagarmatha National Park Buffer Zone which was created in 2002. Mr. Rajendra Gurung who was personally involved in discussions with 28 different community groups in this buffer zone discussed the organizational structure. The community groups themselves have been involved in different aspects of the planning including: conservation – efforts such as nurseries, sustainable tourism management, awareness generation, and development needs of the communities. The result has been that the communities themselves have developed a five-year overview plan with a one-year operational plan. The creation of this buffer zone affirms that local communities are the real managers of the forest natural resources.
Garbage along the Mt. Everest Trek: The Best Way of Viewing Garbage Mr. Beza has been observing (and documenting) garbage within the Sagarmatha National Park and people’s behavior and responses to different issues of waste disposal. The problem of waste ranges from the occasional candy wrapper forgotten along the trail to garbage heaps near small urban areas to garbage left by mountaineers at high altitudes. Mr. Beza interviewed both Western tourists (mostly Australians) as well al local Sherpas. In the worst instances the Australian respondents argued that the garbage problem was created by a lack of education by local people on how to deal with it while the Sherpas interpreted the garbage problem as other people’s fault. In the best instances (where garbage is managed properly in designated pits and in garbage cans) both sets of respondents agreed that the situation was indeed under proper control.
|
 |
 |
 |