Community based ecoturism as a nature conservancy tool - a permacultural perspective

• Author(s): Gomes, Filipa Benvinda Ramos
• Date: 2017
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/21017
• Origin: Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra
• Subject(s): Ecoturismo; Comunidade; Fazenda
• Document Type: Master thesis
• Language: English
• Advisor(s): Amaral, Pedro Sergio Rosas Bingre do
• Contributor(s): Repositório Comum

Description

Abstract The world is facing a new transition. Environmental impacts are on the order of the day and its consequences are no longer a far distant prediction. The United Nations with the cooperation of governments, organizations, private companies and individuals are already making the effort to urge environmental protection and nature conservancy, intervening in different sectors. Tourism is not an exception and especially this year an important boost is being given with the announcement of the 2017-International Year of Sustainable Tourism Development from UNWTO. Representing 10% of the world’s GDP and 30% of services exports (UNWTO, 2016), tourism is one of the biggest world industries and creates a huge impact on environment, which can be very positive or extremely negative depending on the way it’s managed. Gladly, the growing awareness and concern about Man’s environmental impacts on planet earth has created a global trend where concepts as sustainability, local economy, resilience, organic farming, permaculture, self-sufficiency, clean energy, renewable resources and 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) have become popular and every day better and renewed solutions arise. Connecting sustainable practices with a newly born Community-Based Ecotourism (CBET) project in Malaysian Borneo, a program was developed with the attempt to improve both, nature and human life, creating a crescent environmental awareness among local communities in Kiulu and proving that CBET can act as a nature conservancy tool when, through capacity building, a business opportunity is given to empower remote rural areas with decaying livelihoods. Key-words: Community Based Ecotourism, Kiulu Farmstay, Perma