COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN ECOTOURISM: SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT THROUGH REGULATORY AND MANAGEMENT REFORM

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COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN ECOTOURISM
SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT THROUGH REGULATORY
AND MANAGEMENT REFORM

• By,
• Nuraisyah Chua Abdullah
• Faculty of Law
• Universiti Teknologi MARA

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INTRODUCTION

• Previously, the Federal government had adopted a
  self-effacing attitude towards tourism due to the
  negative image of tourism.
• Recently, the interest of the poor is included in
  the brokerist policy equation through for
  example, homestay programmesbut the success of
  such pro-poor policy in the tourism industry is
  still at infancy.
• The paper provides suggestions for
• the betterment of community based
• ecotourism through regulatory and
• management reform.

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REVIEW OF EXISTING ECOTOURISM-RELATED REGULATIONS

• National Ecotourism Plan not sufficient to
  ensure a more proactive role of the community in
  tourism policy-making.
• Such soft law would not be effective relies
  mainly on informing and persuading regulatees,
  where obligations are either not formally backed
  up by sanctions, or are so generally defined that
  they cannot be enforced as such.
• Soft regulation instruments can be regarded as
  something between recommendation and
• command-and-control regulation, which
• may be either a deliberate or unconscious
• choice of the legislator.

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• Homestay Guidelines less regulated tourism
  product is viewed as a positive step in reducing
  bureaucracy.
• However, it does not assist or encourage homestay
  operators to register their tourism products as
  many unregistered homestay operations have been
  conducted everywhere in Malaysia.
• Reason ignorance of the homestay operators.
• More comprehensive law which regulates the
  homestay programme in areas of safety measures
  and rights and liabilities of homestay operators
  would better assist the local community in their
  participation in the ecotourism industry.

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EMPOWERMENT THROUGH REGULATORY ECONOMIC
ENHANCEMENT

• Travel and tour agencies have been paying the
  indigenous peoples a small sum of money after
  they has displayed their cultural identity.
• Giving indigenous people a say in park
  management.
• Contracts between indigenous people and the
  government, which contain specific details about
  the rights, responsibilities, and obligations of
  all parties, as well as a commitment to respect
  the terms of the contract.
• Should be an intermediary between the government
  and indigenous people someone they could trust
  to act on proxy and who could accurately
  represent their culture and needs, and for the
  government this person could explain rules and
  policies to the indigenous people.
• Ideally this person would be from the indigenous
  group, but would have expertise in law and public
  policy.

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• Zimbabwean Governments Communal Areas Management
  Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE)
  through 1975 Parks and Wildlife Act 1975
  include the local communities in the wildlife
  tourism.
• Under CAMPFIRE, the Zimbabwe Department of
  National Parks and Wildlife Management is
  statutorily authorized to give district councils
  appropriate authority, which provides district
  councils in communal lands with full custodial
  rights over local wildlife.
• Council can collect revenues from safari hunting,
  photographic tourism, and the culling of game for
  meat, hides and tusks.
• Devolution of appropriate authority occurs on
  condition that the district council develops a
  wildlife management planwith the participation
  of the local community for its
• jurisdiction.
• District councils are expected to use the
• profits for local development projects and
• share a fixed percentage of the revenues
• with the local people.

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• US Native American Business Development, Trade
  Promotion and Tourism Act 2000 requires the
  Secretary of the Interior to offer assistance to
  American Indian businesses, including market
  analyses, financing and promotional assistance.

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• Local community and indigenous people should be
  allowed to impose entrance fees to profit from
  tourists in order to be able to use the profit
  for the future development of tourism in the
  place. (Markowitz, 2001)
• Khao Rao Cave Development project in Lao PDR, a
  revenue-sharing scheme was enforced villagers
  can retain 50 of the entrance fees, provided
  that they must ensure that the cave formations
  are not damaged, a local guide accompanies all
  groups into the cave, and the 200 metres of
  forest between the cave and roadside is not
  degraded.

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• Lao PDR Luang Namtha province Nam Ha Ecotourism
  Project was launched in October 1999.
• tourism revenue sharing scheme, the development
  of public funds for tourism management, village
  development and conservation activities.
• As soft regulation builds on information,
  persuasion and guidance, it is also less likely
  to generate acceptability problems and as such,
  Malaysia may achieve the success desired if
  information, persuasion and guidance are properly
  channeled.
• More education and guidance must be provided for
  the stakeholders involved in ecotourism in order
  to secure better participation of local
  communities in ecotourism.

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• In the absence of anti-competition laws which
  allows the flow of arts and crafts from
  neighbouring countries, the local artists and
  artisans have difficulty to remain marketable in
  the local marketplace especially when the local
  products are more expensive due to the relatively
  higher cost of
• living in Malaysia as
• compared to the
• neighbouring countries.

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IMPLEMENTATION OF SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT

• Many of the ecotourism projects are developed
  without consulting the local community.
• Perak State government developed the National
  Botanical Garden Project in Kampung Chang, Sungai
  Gepai, Bidor without consulting the local Semai
  community. Ironically, the state government
  claimed that allowing tourists to roam the
  settlements to capture pictures of the Orang Asli
  for a token sum would be a spin-off of the
  project
• Tourism projects have proven to have caused the
  denial of the natives rights of their customary
  land.
• Temuan forcibly evicted in 1995 by the federal
  government, the Selangor state government, the
  Malaysian Highway Authority (MHA), and United
  Engineers Malaysia (UEM), the engineering firm in
  the project to build a highway to the new Kuala
  Lumpur International Airport.

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• Although the National Botanical Garden and the
  highway could be perceived as public interest
  projects which facilitate the ecotourism
  industry, however, the refusal of the government
  to hear the opinions of the Semai and Temuan
  communities obviously does not
• portray the adoption of the utilitarian
• definition of public interest.
• National Urbanisation Policy (NUP)
• SIA studies must be conducted when
• undertaking the planning and approval of all
  public and private development activities, BUT
  SIA is not widely used in development projects.
  (Lim, 2009)
• Absence of sanction or remedy unlike those
  provided in many strict liability regulatory laws.

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• SIA should be made compulsory under respective
  planning laws with the participation of local
  community.
• Zuni government survey in 1965 to get a feel for
  the publics enthusiasm for developing
  attractions like recreation areas, motels and
  archaeological sites.
• The Zuni tribal members rejected the idea because
  they did not feel that they were properly
  consulted and advised.
• 1894 Tongariro National Park was established
  in New Zealand by
• agreement with the Maori people,
• a place that was, and still is,
• important to them for spiritual reasons.

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• REVIEW OF MANAGEMENT OF LOCAL AND STATE
  AUTHORITIES IN ECOTOURISM SITES
• The inefficiency of the local authority also
  became the obstacle in the development of
  ecotourism in Kampung Rantai (Sabah)
• The ecotourism activity in Kampung Rantai had
  trouble in conserving the water catchment from
  the surrounding area, which was threatened by the
  logging industry, Although the surrounding area
  of the water catchment was finally gazetted as
  Virgin Forest Reserve Class I, logging dispute
  continued to threaten the water catchment at the
  whole Bundu Apin-Apin area.
• The legal battle has dire consequences on the
  ecotourism activity in Kampung Rantai. Ecotourism
  activities were virtually stopped while the legal
  battle continued as time and resources were
  devoted to the court proceedings.

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• National Heritage Act 2005 other general
  statutes concerned in Malaysia should also
  incorporate relevant provisions to ensure the
  preservation of cultural heritage of the local
  community.
• US 1992 National Historical Preservation Act
  Amendments tribes now have the statutory right
  to be consulted by the federal agency when a
  proposed undertaking would affect a historic
  property that holds religious and cultural
  significance for the tribe.

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• Limitations of income of states (federalism)
  structure Kedah
• state government proposed to
• introduce heli-logging in
• Ulu Muda.
• The state and local governments should be more
  active in playing its role as the guardians of
  public interest of the local communities.

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CONCLUSION

• Regulators should strike a balance among diverse
  interests in the development of the ecotourism
  industry in Malaysia.
• The challenge therefore is to make that balancing
  act transparent. Under the watchful eye of the
  courts, the executives and the legislatures,
  public interestthe determining standard that is
  elastic and versatilecontinues to provide
  safeguard to those charged with protecting it or
  to those who are served by it.
• While supporting the fact that the courts do make
  laws, the participation of public interest groups
  and public participation in the proceedings of
  the court should be acknowledged.