12992 WPC2014 EPOSTER tourism in PNKB 141028

Tourism on the Fast Track: Challenges for Sustainability and Development in Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park, Central Vietnam Anna Hübner 1 , Pham Thi Lien Hoa 1 , Dinh Huy Tri 2 , Vo

Tourism on the Fast Track: Challenges for Sustainability and Development in Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park, Central

Vietnam

Anna Hübner 1 , Pham Thi Lien

Hoa 1 , Dinh Huy Tri 2 , Vo Van Tri 2

1 Gesellschaft für Internationale

Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ)

2 Phong Nha – Ke Bang NP Management

Board

We kindly acknowledge the support of

the Phong Nha – Ke Bang NP

Management Board, the Provincial

People’s Committee of Quang Binh, the

KfW Development Bank and other

partner institutions in the ‘Nature

Conservation and Sustainable

Management of Natural Resources

Management in the Phong Nha – Ke

Bang National Park Region’ Project.

Stream 5: Reconciling Development Challenges Mainstreaming Solutions for Protected Area Tourism, Part I

Why/ What?

c

• PAs are important aspects within the travel decision-making

• Different expectations on Parks and their meaning by both

visitors and other stakeholders involved in tourism

 Different viewpoints and considerations about ´sound´

tourism development

• Cannot ´profile´ a best practice, but through this case delineating

critical (´balance´) factors which may foster integration of

tourism development into nature conservation and local benefit

sharing

© Bui Quang Thinh

Tourism on the Fast Track

• UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site

• Main visitor attractions: caves, karst landscape,

(biodiversity)

• ~90% domestic visitors

• Communities around the Park among the poorest in

the country, lack of alternative income sources

• Tourism considered one of the (future) economic

drivers of the Province

© British Cave Association

Revenue Sources

• Publicly financed, but

Tourism Centre self-financing

through ticket sales and other

charges

• Park budget based on

´Provincial Tax´ income

Partnerships

• Cave site lease: 2% annual

forest renting fee

• Concessions for hiking

routes to cave sites

• Environmental fee on

selected tours within the PA

• Gaps in lease agreements

• Human capacity

• Transparency of expenses

• Conflicting stakeholder interests

Challenges

© British Cave Association

© Bui Quang Thinh

© Li Migura

Critical Success Factors and Challenges for Reconciling Development in PNKB ?

• Coordination between the PA and the Provincial decision-makers

• Awareness raising and capacity building with provincial leadership

• Standard concession agreements and their monitoring

Balancing

Visitors´ values

Management/Decision-makers´ values WHS and local decision-makers´ values

local economic development and external

drivers and leakage

Challenges for Sustainability and Development

How does this case contribute

to showcasing Best Practice?

• how PAs still struggle in balancing tourism developments and

conservation/local benefits

• extent to which tourism development is also dependent on political

decision-makers and visitor demands

• the extent to which a WHS title is also considered a recognition of needs for

nature conservation

• high brand value doesn´t necessarily follow recognition of a destination’s

long-term sustainability

• PNKB can financially sustain its activities by tourism income alone, but

financial mechanisms have so far not clearly contributed to resolving

development challenges surrounding the Park area

• PNKB recognized driver for development and highly recognized within Quang Binh and Vietnam,

but development criteria, also those which surround a Park’s population (and its biodiversity) are

often neglected

• To understand the role of PAs for reconciling development challenges, need to understand meaning

of a PA and the meaning of ‘development’ and it´s impacts on a PA of different stakeholder cultures

• seemingly financial sustainability doesn´t automatically lead to (better) conservation inputs

Thank you.