The Holiday and Travel Magazine: FEATURED MEMBER OF THE EXPERIENCE MEKONG COLLECTION: WILDLIFE ECOTOURISM

Saturday 3 February 2018

FEATURED MEMBER OF THE EXPERIENCE MEKONG COLLECTION: WILDLIFE ECOTOURISM – NAM ET, LAO PDR

Travel Experience

The Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area (NEPL NPA) is the largest national protected area in the Lao PDR, and is remarkable for its rich wildlife biodiversity with a wide range of species, many endangered, including the critically-endengered Northern White-Cheeked Gibbon, 6 cat species, 2 bear species, a wild dog dhole - to name few. Altogether there are 19 carnivore species including six species of wild cats, roughly fifty species of mammals and 299 species of birds. The NGO Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has been supporting the NEPL Management Unit since 2003, and has assisted with the development of ecotourism products commencing in 2009/10. In 2017, two ecotourism products offer visitors the opportunity to visit the NEPL NPA: the Nam Nern Night Safari (since 2010), and a series of wildlife conservation trekking tours (since 2016). Video credit: Tiger Trail Travel

Responsibility

There is a long history of human settlement in and around NEPL, with local people relying heavily on natural resources for their subsistence. Living inside or immediately adjacent to the NPA are 30,000 villagers from 98 communities, many in some of the poorest districts of the country. To balance the protection of wildlife biodiversity, ecotourism has been developed as alternative livelihood opportunity for local people. The ecotourism activities at NEPL NPA have been developed to provide an alternative livelihood opportunity for local people, and designed to create a direct link between conservation and tourism so that the money that visitors pay has a positive impact on encouraging local people to protect endangered wildlife.

Business Case

The NEPL NPA national protected area is located in one of the most remote and poorest areas of the country. The NEPL NPA’s wildlife conservation tours create additional livelihood activities, and incentives for 26 communities to protect wildlife. All tours are non-profit ventures with the majority of the income directly benefiting the local communities. Visitors pay one fee for tours, however this payment is distributed in a number of ways to: a) Village service provider groups in 4 villages, b) The Ecotourism Benefit Fund for participating 26 villages, c) The Protected Area through the entrance fee, d) The local government office through the district tourism fee e) Tour operators through commissions, and f) The operations account ( Maintenance, Marketing, Trainings, etc).