Feature article

Ecotourism in Lao PDR | by Joanna McLeod

Feature article No. 7 | 5 June 2007

With a landscape ranging from rugged mountain to lush plains, and with 21% of the country set aside as protected areas, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR)is a very beautiful and unique country. It makes sense then, that tourism is seen as vital to the economy of Lao PDR which is still slowly recovering after decades of war and conflict.

The team at the National Centre for Women and Children in Tonga.

30% of mines in Xieng Khouang are still unexploded.

“Lao PDR has a really interesting focus on tourism,” says NZAID environment advisor Roger Cornforth, “they only opened up their borders to free travel ten years ago. This means they’ve had a chance to learn from the experiences of the tourist trade in neighbours Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Laos wants to maximise the niche that it has in ecotourism and avoid the unsavoury activities and over-commercialisation that some associate with tourism in Thailand.”

So what is NZAID’s role in establishing eco tourism in Lao PDR? Roger has recently returned from Lao PDR with new insights.

The socialist government of Lao PDR sees ecotourism as the key means to alleviate poverty. The government’s poverty reduction and development strategy identifies rural ethnic communities as the poorest in the country, and both its National Tourism Strategy and National Investment Strategy direct greatest investment in these areas. Laos uses the term “ecotourism” very broadly – it also includes tourism based on local culture and history.

New Zealand has for some years been supporting the development of the Nam Ha ecotourism project in the north-eastern province of Luang Namtha, working with the Lao National Tourism Administration (LNTA) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Beginning in December 1999, survey work to identify potential trekking routes and river trips in and around the Nam Ha was carried out. With data provided by the Wildlife Conservation Society, two promising activities - an overnight trek and a 1-2 day boat trip on the Namtha River – were selected, based on villager interest in developing the activity and their willingness to host international tourists. The aesthetics and cultural attractiveness of the routes as also considered, as well as the trail and safety conditions.

Future work in the region will continue to use community-based ecotourism as a tool for conservation, rural development and poverty alleviation. It will strengthen the capabilities of the provincial authorities and private sector to regulate, coordinate and expand sustainable community-based ecotourism programmes in Luang Namtha. It will provide the provincial tourism office, local guides and private sector operators with essential training in community-based ecotourism management and operations, while increasing the number of women and ethnic minorities who work in this area.

Village in Xieng Khuang province, Lao PDR.

Since 1997, NZAID has spent $1.07 million on the Lao Nam Ha Eco-Tourism project. The project now has been recognised internationally, with a United Nations Development Award for Outstanding Contribution that the team made towards poverty alleviation, a finalist in the British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow awards, and as a finalist in the 2006 Equator Awards – a prestigious award that recognises outstanding local efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Based on this experience the Lao government has sought NZAID’s help in developing their national capacity to support ecotourism in the provinces and particularly in those areas of greatest poverty.

“An interesting issue for NZAID is how we make the link between the theory of pro-poor tourism, and the practice of it” says Roger.

The challenge for donors of development assistance to tourism initiatives is to strike a balance between partner needs and priorities, and international theory and good practice. For example one model of pro-poor tourism advocates a focus on ‘sustainable mass tourism’ but this is often not what poor, small rural communities want. NZAID is working with its Lao partners to meet their needs, in the context of on-going dialogue on pro-poor issues.

NZAID’s programme of support is still in the early design stages. It is proposed that NZAID enter into a long-term strategic partnership with the Lao National Tourism Agency (LNTA). The LNTA, with input from NZAID, is soon to begin the formal design of the initiative.

“The Lao National Tourism Administration have some wonderful leaders,” says Roger, “but they need to build capacity, and that is what we can help with”. NZAID has proposed core support to the LNTA in implementing the National Tourism Strategy which may also include mentoring and specific technical assistance when sought by the LNTA.

The Lao government is in the process of setting up an Ecotourism Support Unit. This will manage all donor support to the work of the LNTA in alignment with the National Tourism Strategy. The Unit will also manage NZAID support to the sector. “This is a great example of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in operation, says Roger, “as it will enable the LNTA to achieve its own goals, using donor funding to best effect, within its own system, rather than always scrambling to meet the often very different needs and procedures of many donors.”

As well as supporting the national tourism effort, NZAID has been asked to also focus support on four of the principal tourism provinces: Luang Namtha, Xieng Khouang, Bolikhamxay, and Khammouane. It is proposed that Nam Ha will act as a training area for guides in other provinces.

The next stage of NZAID work will be for the LNTA to complete the design of the initiative. NZAID hopes to be able to start providing support to implement this in the 2008/09 financial year.

NZAID is already supporting work in Xieng Khouang, on the “Plain of Jars”. There are 54 ‘jar sites’ in the province. Created some 2,500 years ago, these sites contain clusters of up to 300 carved stone jars ranging from one to over 3 metres high. It is not known what purpose they served, although current speculation is that they were associated with funerary rites. Given they were transported to their current locations over sometimes quite considerable distances, they were clearly of major importance to the people living here at that time. Today their significance is recognised by World Heritage cultural site status.

NZAID also supports ecotourism projects in the Pacific, such as Bouma
Heritage Park in Fiji.

You would think, this world heritage designation provides a perfect opportunity for eco tourism – except that the sites are very dangerous due to the fact that during the Indo-Chinese (Vietnam) War, the province was carpet-bombed and it’s estimated that over a third of the bombs remain unexploded. It is for this reason NZAID together with UNESCO is funding the Mines Advisory Group to de-mine some of the jar sites to enable tourism-based livelihoods to develop. NZAID is forecast to spend $672,000 over the next year on clearing mines in this area.

“It’s the most extraordinary area now,” says Roger, “you can walk through it and look at these huge jars, but you have to stay strictly on the paths because of the danger of unexploded mines.

“In effect over the last 2,500 year two hugely significant things happened here – the making of the jars, and the impact of the Indo-Chinese War, which is a rich vein for tourism to draw on. Currently the focus has been on the jars, but with 25% of the land area of the province contaminated by unexploded ordinance, hindering not just tourism, but livelihoods based on agriculture and many other forms of development, the people of Xieng Khouang are still living with the direct effects of a war that ended over 30 years ago.

“Not only is this a story needing to be told, but the returns from tourism will help the people manage their way out of this legacy.”