Addressing Community Income Generation Needs through Tourism
Local communities live around the National Park and are generally poor, rural farming communities whose populations are reducing as children grow up and move away because there are few employment and/or income generating opportunities in the communities. The communities are seeking to improve their livelihoods and living standards. If National Park management can help by introducing and facilitating environmentally and economically sustainable livelihoods which promote the preservation of natural and cultural heritage then it benefits both National Park management and the local communities. This is the case in our most successful communities where two quite different sustainable tourism ventures have developed with some assistance from the National Park with project funding e.g. facilitating national level skills training and certification, provision of computer and office furniture, provision of small grants to assist with improvement of tourism ventures. The tourism ventures (attractions, cultural activities, guided trail tours) also link to the agricultural produce in the area e.g. provision of meals, sale of fruit juices and wines.
Short-term successful projects with direct benefits to the communities
Introduction of these community groups to the relevant government and other agencies so they can access additional support
Do not assume that all income–generating ventures can and will work – this will depend on the interest of the community and the building of their capacity. On-going monitoring keeps Park management involved in success and sometimes Park management may play the lead role until the community shows interest and/or capacity to take over.
The ventures must support preservation and promotion of cultural and natural heritage and this will require training/awareness raising to familiarize the groups with opportunities and best practices.
Preparing business plans will likely be challenging as the community groups may not want to share/discuss financial information. Therefore the group must be provided with the tools and skills to prepare their own plans with external technical assistance. Only request information that the Park management organization would also be comfortable providing to others.