Community based ecotourism planning.

Promotion of ecotourism in protected areas of Nepal is a priority for encouraging local people’s support for biodiversity conservation and minimizing the negative impacts of tourism (MoFSC, 2014). Bardia National Park (BNP) serves as a potential ecotourism destination with global significance in part due to its role in conserving endangered wildlife such as tigers. This project aims to promote ecotourism in BNP and its buffer zone area through active involvement of local communities from the planning stage.

The long term goal of this project is to empower local communities to lead inclusive ecotourism development process in BNP and buffer zone areas in such a way that ecotourism could provide entrepreneurship and income generation opportunities for vulnerable section of community as well as encourage them to adopt pro-conservation behaviors. Promotion of tourism through institutional strengthening, local capacity building and visitor management strategies as proposed in this project will introduce a holistic approach to ecotourism development in lowland parks of Nepal. Through locally driven, planned and well managed ecotourism development in emerging destination like BNP, the project aims to contribute to minimize possible negative impacts of tourism development on wildlife and its habitat.