[pp.149_156]
Ayako TOKO* (* Faculty of Regional Development Studies, Dept. of International Tourism Studies, Toyo University)
Abstract:
Argments on the best scheme of conservation and natural resource management (NRM) have been developed for more than half a century. Each period had its own challenges, which were recognized later, and decentralized approaches incorporating the concerns of local communities gained attention since the eighties as a consequence of past failures. However, community-based approaches also have challenges, especially lacking of financial and human resources in local communities. On the other hand, ecotourism emerged in the early eighties as an effective tool to provide financial resources for conservation and for local communities as well as to improve environmental awareness of local people. Summarizing the theories of these two approaches, community-based ecotourism (CBET) is supposed to be a good tool for NRM by contributing toward meeting the challenge of community-based approaches. Therefore, in order to examine the hypothesis, this study focuses on CBET in Cambodia where 73% of people still live in rural areas and are directly dependent on natural resources. The result from a model case indicates that CBET has a potential for support sustainable NRM; on the other hand, it is revealed that most of CBET sites in Cambodia are poorly assessed and still under development. Further research on CBET is urgently needed in Cambodia for the nation’s sustainable NRM.
Key Word:
Community-based ecotourism, natural resource management, local community, Cambodia