Environmental policy and administrative management

The proposed project relates to promotion of community based eco-tourism for conservation of Khewra Salt Mines and creating an enabling environment where local communities are able to develop their livelihoods through revenue generation. Immediate objectives of the project include: - Promotion of community based eco-tourism through capacity building of the local communities as part of participatory development approach - Establishment of a replicable model of community based eco-tourism enterprise. Expected project deliverables include: - Preparation of 05 community based eco-tourism training modules consisting of a comprehensive training manual - Awareness raising of eco-tourism for 20 selected community members as well as about 200,000 tourists with publication of relevant, brochures, leaflets and video clips - Enabling the selected households / community members for establishment of a replicable model of community based eco-tourism enterprise - Linking the selected community members / households with the private sector tourist industry as well as relevant public sector organizations for effective marketing - Monthly revenue generation of approximately Rs.30,000/- per eco-tourism enterprise The project would be able to have long lasting impacts on the community beneficiaries, tourists and the tourism industry. Community would be able to develop their livelihoods through eco-friendly revenue generation, tourists will be able to enjoy the pleasures of nature under hospitality of the local community, academia will have more opportunities to study the interaction between tourists & community and industry will be able to up-scale such efforts in other parts of the country. With the improvement in attitude of tourists and community, local environment of the area such as land, air and water resources would be protected having good impacts on the human health. In addition to this, responsible tourism will tend to reduce carbon emissions due to their changed and refined interactions with the host community. This will also result into development of quality of life as a whole. The potential risks or bottle necks of the project could include lack of interest in the community or relevant stakeholders, security arrangements in the area, low literacy rate in the area. To address these bottlenecks, awareness, training, education and effective social mobilization will be carried out. In addition to this, local administration will be coordinated on regular basis for maintaining proper security arrangements in the area. The use of Information, Communication Technologies (ICTs) will be effectively exploited to monitor and evaluate the progress as well as disseminate project progress to secondary adopters.

Pakistan