Andaman Discoveries Blog
Shared via AddThis
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Activities, stories, and analysis of a sustainable communities and ecology program in Southern Thailand, Isthmus of Kra, Chumphon, Ranong, Phang Nga and Phuket Provinces.
Followers
Blog Archive
-
▼
2009
(42)
-
▼
July
(16)
- surin farmers, sustainable farming
- Andaman Discoveries Blog
- Student Presentation: Sustainable Livelihoods, Wom...
- Beluga School for Life - Sustainability Education
- Ko Phra Tong: Student Research Project
- Amy, Liz, Terri, Christine & Christina In the Jungle
- Kuraburi flood
- Home & Life: Sawasdee krap. Welcome to Home & Life
- July 15th and 16th Home & Life: a family place o...
- Confessions Part 1: David (aka Dave) Loyst
- Pets of Thailand
- Elephant Trekking in Khao Lak
- Excursion: James Bond Island and Sea Canoing
- Segment 4
- Din Dang
- Bangkok to Chumphon
-
▼
July
(16)
About Me
Labels
- batik (2)
- beach (1)
- buddha (1)
- culture (1)
- eco-tourism (1)
- elephants (1)
- HIV/AIDS (1)
- http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KxxcFPKf1qg/SoTXZLEQ19I/AAAAAAAAARw/60hS-wlFHs4/s320/5450_842897574366_2535725_48307646_2056788_n.jpg (1)
- jump (1)
- Kamphuan (1)
- knitting (1)
- liz (1)
- maggots (1)
- Muslim community (1)
- sewing (1)
- surin (1)
- sustainability (1)
- sustainable livelihoods (1)
- temple (1)
- Thailand (1)
- tie dye (1)
- tie-dye (1)
- trekking (1)
- Tsunami Relief and Recovery (1)
- WILL (1)
- women's group (2)
There is not a specific blog of Andaman Discoveries, but I wanted to enhance the work of Ecotourism and travel agencies like Andaman Discoveries in helping conserve communities and their both culturally and ecologically.
ReplyDeleteAndaman Discoveries is a travel agency with a little twist. Its interest is not to make profit by exploiting the different touristy areas s of Thailand, but to encourage tourists to discover and live the real Thailand, the Thailand of the little hard working and friendly communities who will open their doors and hearts for you to explore their traditional culture and diverse ecosystems.
This is a premier example of a new kind of tourism. This responsible tourism encourages conservation and development of the local communities through sustainable development based on ecotourism. Moreover, it is consciously designed to be sensitive to the environment and in some cases, to explicitly benefit the communities in which tourist establishments were located and it emphasizes the need to make tourism attention to environmental and cultural concerns and to incorporate benefits for the region’s residences
Because environmental degradation is thought to stem from the poverty of local residents leading them to overexploit natural resources, ecotourism activities have the potential to alleviate this situation and to provide development by offering residents alternative income sources. The availability of economic alternatives is assumed to decrease pressure on natural resources, in this case the marine environment, thus, leading to enhanced conservation.
Andaman Discoveries offer ecotourism tours that involve community based experiences, volunteering and adventure tours. Indeed, this was the agency who organized the main portion of our study tours around Thailand this past summer. They work with the local communities, and teach them to be more open to the tourist, to show them their livelihood, to do activities with the guest and get experience. At the same time, the community member can gain another source of income and thus, improving their way of life. The organizations also donate 20% of the community fund for homestay, and the money the tourist pay goes to other community projects. Furthermore, residents hope that tourists would buy their products or crafts, that tourism industry would encourage investment in their villages and that it will bring jobs.
On the other hand, they guide the tourist to focus more in the environment, people and village and not only in luxury, so they can learn to enjoy this type of tourism. And, indeed, the tourists do enjoy this type of tourism, and they gain a different perspective and experience the real world, the real life that the villagers are happy to share. Also, the villagers pride in their community increases, and they really like having people in their village who are willing to help them out and really interact with them
(continue in next comment -AF)
As we experienced in the different places we went, Andaman Discoveries tours are centered around the creation of “participatory” projects that sought to produce sustainable development through ecotourism and that focused on the need to generate “alternative income” sources for the communities. From Din Dang and Runs Roses to the Koh Ra Ecolodge and Kuraburi, we interacted with the communities, saw their conservations and restoration projects and helped them out with their micro credit projects like the batik making, soap making or rubber plantations.
ReplyDeleteFrom my own experience from doing a Home Stay at Ban Talae Nok, I can say that this form of tourism gives both the host family and the tourist and guest a rich cultural experience where the tourist will get a closer look to the everyday local traditions and experience their livelihood, and the family will get a source of income and also open their eyes to another culture. Both develop bonds and learn from each other. And the best benefit is that it is small scale and it won’t have a major effect on the local environment.
As we can see and experienced, tourists and locals can interact and work together to maintain and conserve a self sufficient approach to life and at the same time enjoy the beautiful landscapes that surround us. We should continue supporting these responsible tourism activities and help out with everyone involved.
-Angela Forero
Our research project at Koh Ra let us delve further into issues regarding ecotourism and sustainability, two issues that Andaman Discoveries especially focus on. Angela, Thomas, Kevin, Cathi and I worked on various aspects of sustainability at the Koh Ra Ecolodge, including both ecological and social/economic dimensions. As for as the ecological section goes, we found that there may be a relationship between human presence and change in hornbill distribution, though more research is needed, especially given the rainy weather we experienced. Hornbill distribution is important because hornbills as well as strangler figs are indicator species. This ties into the social/economic dimension, because as a Ecolodge, people are attracted to healthy environments. A healthy business, when it comes to ecotourism, relies on a healthy ecosystem.
ReplyDelete-Stephanie Cash