Ecotourism project to promote conservation and local development at Daoyin village, Yinggeling Nature Reserve, Hainan China
ECOTOURISM PROJECT TO PROMOTE CONSERVATION AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT AT DAOYIN VILLAGE, YINGGELING NATURE RESERVE, HAINAN CHINA
Project Status: One year
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Goal: To bring alternative for local minority villagers, so as to lever their initiatives of conservation in mountain area of Hainan tropical forest. Collaborate with conservation NGO (Kadoorie Conservation China) and Yinggeling Nature Reserve (local government), train nature reserve staff and local rangers as guides and environmental interpreters, build their capacity of hosting eco-tourists and scientific expeditors. Involve in artists to help locals transfer traditional handcrafts into souvenirs. With alternative of ecotourism to live on, locals are motivated to protect the nature resources and sustain their culture.
Objectives
- Bring sustained ecotours with capacity controlled (2000 tourists per year) to bring income for villagers, which benefit as many villagers as possible. All the income will be used for community development projects.
- Build capacity of interpretation (10+ villagers as guides).
- Help young locals learn the traditional cultures, especially handcrafts making, to motivate young people to sustain the tradition.
- Build a channel for selling local handcrafts.
HOW DOES IT CONTRIBUTE TO MOUNTAIN PROTECTION
Contribution 1. Boost local’s sense of pride as a host, bring them direct income, so as to motivate them to protect the homeland and nature resources 2. Educate young generation in participatory activities with environmental awareness.
How 1. All the activities are deliberately designed to help participants (both locals and tourists) to appreciate the beauty of nature, and to improve their awareness of environmental protection. 2. Locals are the key of any conservation story. 3. Local culture is essential of locals’ daily life, which mostly emphasize the harmony with nature. To make cultural handcrafts into souvenirs is to motivate locals to sustain the culture, appreciate traditions.
COLLABORATION WITH LOCAL COMMUNITIES AND AUTHORITIES
There will be first a direct financial benefit, reserve staff will work with villages. Besides the direct engagement, all the income will be directly used for community projects to benefit every villager. Second this project brings a sense of pride to local communities. It will train locals to be guides, interpreters and rangers, it will help them build confidence and tell their stories to visitors themselves.
Peng Luo, EcoAction works with Hainan Yinggeling National Nature Reserve, which help communication with locals, and educate the locals with environmental protection.
GOING FURTHER THAN BUSINESS AS USUAL
Eco Action is aiming to the maximum engagement and participation of locals. From the very beginning of the project development, the agency encourages local participation with activity design and decision making. This fundamentally builds the trust of locals, and motivate them to initiatively protect their homeland as a host, which is the very strong foundation of sustainable projects. Besides, Eco Action requires our collaborators, nature reserve and village leader to keep the transparency, which promise the villagers trust, involvement and benefit. All these local participations encourage villagers to protect their homeland initiatively and sustainably. In the other hand, Eco Action activities embrace the environmental education for each participant, which promote the awareness of mountain protection.