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Community-Based Mountain Tourism:
Practices for Linking Conservation with Enterprise
An email conference of the Mountain Forum
April 13 - May 18, 1998
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With the rapid increase of tourism worldwide, mountain
communities are experiencing increased pressure to balance
conservation efforts with development. Properly understood
and implemented, community-based tourism has potential to
improve community welfare and promote conservation of
ecosystems and cultural heritage.
The main objective of this conference is to achieve a
better understanding of the relationship between sustainable
mountain development, conservation and community-based
tourism. More specifically, it aims to identify gaps in the
conservation/enterprise relationship and locate promising
approaches to sustainable community-based tourism in
mountain regions. We hope to achieve this objective through
participants' sharing of personal case studies and/or
experiences.
WEEKLY DISCUSSION THEMES:
April 13: The Good, the Bad, the Balance: Managing Mountain
Tourism Impacts through Effective Marketing
April 20: Working Together: Organizational Structure of
Community-Based Mountain Tourism
April 27: Local Knowledge: Linking Tradition with Enterprise
May 4: The Gender Balance: Women and Community-Based
Mountain Tourism
May 11: Reinvesting Tourism Revenues in Conservation and
Community
May 18: Conference Wrap-up
OUTCOMES:
- identification of mechanisms that lead to more
successful community-based sustainable tourism ventures in
mountain regions, including heightened conservation efforts,
strengthened revenue management skills and improved community
welfare.
- a printed summary report of conference proceedings and
case studies which will be distributed to interested
participants, community organizations and policy makers.
- an online database of manuals, training materials, codes
of conduct and curricula currently used to inform community-
based tourism in mountain communities worldwide.
- a complete archive of the conference on the Mountain
Forum's World Wide Web site.
PARTICIPATION:
This discussion is being facilitated through the Mountain
Forum, a non-profit global network in support of equitable
and ecologically sustainable mountain development. The
Mountain Forum welcomes participants working with, or
interested in, community-based mountain and highland
projects: local community members, development project
implementers, entrepreneurs, academicians, and policy and
decision makers.
Please be thinking about your contributions, questions, and
potential case studies as we approach the conference dates.
We also encourage you to send us any reference materials
related to mountain tourism for our on-line library. All
contributions will be credited in both the email discussion
and the printed proceedings.
To join in discussion, send an email message with the words
"subscribe mtn-forum" to <mfmod@mtnforum.org>. For further
information, please contact the conference moderator group.
We look forward to a lively and enriching discussion!
____________________________________________________________
Pam Godde, Guest Moderator, <pgodde@mountain.org>
Wendy Lama, Pre-conference Planning, <wendy@lama.wlink.com.np>
Elizabeth Byers and Jason Espie, Moderators, <mfmod@mtnforum.org>
Mountain Forum Global Information Server Node
The Mountain Institute
P.O. Box 907
Franklin, WV 26807 USA
Tel: 1-304-358-2401
Fax: 1-304-358-2400
web: http://www.mtnforum.org
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