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

Vietnam

Anna Hübner1, Pham Thi Lien Hoa1, Dinh Huy Tri2, Vo Van Tri2

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 ChallengesMainstreaming 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

• Data

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

Conclusion

• 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.