Community-based ecotourism: Local families gain extra incomes while taking care of the environment

Based on the principle that local communities have both the opportunity to make use of resources sustainably and the power to protect local natural environment, the ecotourism model with a special homestay program in Mui Ca Mau National Park (MCMNP) was developed.  “Income from sustainable livelihoods relieves pressure on the park resources,” said Mr. Dang Minh Lam, Deputy Head Park Ranger. “To support the park, we must support the people.”

With funding for ecotourism development coming from the HSBC Water Programme, a 5-year global initiative to secure healthy flowing rivers in 5 priority areas around the world, including the Mekong river basin, WWF helps the homestay hosts in MCMNP improve their facilities, provides hospitality training, and connects the park with tourism agencies to promote the homestays. Also in the project, WWF has supported MCMNP to achieve the ‘Ramsar’ title, which is used to certify wetland areas with high-value ecosystems and managed accordingly with certain standards. This has brought great opportunity for the park to attract more international tourists.

The ecotourism model has been changing the way local hosts view and treat the environment. “I understand better now our responsibility to protect the forest and biodiversity of the forest,” Mr. Nguyen Van Nhuan, one of the homestay hosts in the park, said. His family now takes much greater care of the environment in the national park, by releasing small fish they catch back to the water to avoid overfishing, protecting the mangrove forests, and disposing of garbage properly instead of throwing it in the water. MCMNP therefore can effectively manage and conserve the park’s ecosystems.

“We see how ecotourism can improve lives here. It creates new job opportunities, not just for my family but for nearby families as well” Mr. Nguyen said. Along with Mr. Nguyen’s four adult children, the family often hires neighbors to help serve the larger groups, and for other tasks as needed. In the year his family has been homestay hosts, they’ve made $100 million VND ($5000 USD).