Opportunities and Challenges of Community-Based Ecotourism Development for Sustainable Protected Area Management: the case of Gambella National Park

Abstract

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Community-based ecotourism (CBET) initiatives are bottom-up activities that bring different stake holders to work for achieving desired goals of conservation, local livelihood improvement and development of tourist facilities (Ven, 2015). CBET provides a more sustainable form of livelihood for local communities, encourage communities themselves to be more directly involved in conservation and generate more income as well as local communities benefit from the conservation measures in protected areas (PA) (WWF, 2001). CBET as a means of reducing local threats to biodiversity, such as expanding agriculture, unsustainable harvesting of wild plants and animals, and killing wildlife that threatens peoples’ crops, their livestock or themselves. The premise is that ecotourism depends on maintaining attractive natural landscapes and a rich flora and fauna; therefore, helping communities earn money from ecotourism provides both an incentive for conservation and an economic alternative to destructive activities (Salafsky et al., 2001). Community-based Ecotourism has been practiced in many forms, but in the broadest sense includes natural resources or biodiversity conservation by, for, and with the local community through Ecotourism activities (Bhuiyan et al., 2012). The co-existence of people and nature, as distinct from protectionism and the segregation of people and nature, is its central characteristic in ecotourism (Eshetu, 2014). It offers both an opportunity and threat to the communities. If the management and capacity building of local communities are not done in parallel, opportunities will be lost and significant damage will be caused. Protected areas, especially those found in the tropics and in less developed countries, contain many of the world’s greatest ecotourism attractions (Bhoj and Jan, 2007). These attractions may consist of one or a combination of rare or endemic species of flora or fauna, abundant wildlife, high indices of species diversity and unusual or spectacular geomorphologic formations. 2 According to Gray (2003), ecotourism offers a market-based approach for the pursuit of both conservation and development. It promotes sustainable use of biodiversity in order to provide opportunities for revenue generation and employment (Mowforth & Munt, 2009). This is particularly the case with CBET because the host community takes part in the decision-making processes relating to ecotourism development (Zhao & Ritchie, 2007). Active local participation in decision making is a prerequisite if benefits are to reach communities (Li, 2006). The underlying principle of CBET is that the natural environment must pay for itself by generating economic benefits for the local community and the economic benefits derived should foster pro environmental attitudes and behaviors (Kiss, 2004 & Idajati et al., 2016). Ethiopia is a country which is endowed with the vast array of ecotourism resources, cultural, historical, archaeological, protected area and other natural attractions (Tesfaye, 2017). Moreover, strong traditions have long contributed to Ethiopia’s material wealth by producing illuminated parchment manuscripts, pottery, basketry, leatherwork, woodwork, metalwork, and jewelry, and making it perhaps a perfect country for the development of community-based ecotourism ventures (Teshome et al., 2018). Even though community participation is important especially in protected area management, there are several constraints encountered in household participation in community-based ecotourism. Studies by (Kim et al., 2019 & Amare, 2015) have been discussed the lack of financial viability and length of residency in the area. Generally, households are heterogeneous with unequal opportunities and different expectations. For that reason, households face limited information, resources, and access to training. Another constraint pointed out by Ketema (2015) was the lack of human and financial resources as well as the dominance of elite people in tourism participations. 3 Gambella national park (GNP) is one of Ethiopian national park is home to a wildlife potential of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles, some species of which are of internationally importance (Gebresenbet et al., 2018), the region represents a large and important proportion of the wildlife of Ethiopia predominantly require conservation and local community collaboration in the management of national park. Not only natural attraction but also there are lot of cultural attractions which create noble opportunity for the development of community-based ecotourism throughout participating in conservation and management of the park.