Back to news
23 Mar 2018 | HI-LIFE

Promoting Ecotourism in the Hkakabo Razi Landscape, Myanmar

Local people, district government representatives, and representatives from the private sector in Myanmar gathered together to discuss prospects for ecotourism in the Hkakabo Razi Landscape at a two-day stakeholder consultation workshop in November 2017.

1 min Read

70% Complete

Titled Ecotourism Plan for Hkakabo Razi Landscape, the event provided stakeholders an opportunity to voice concerns and communicate directly with conservation professionals.

The first day of the workshop focused on tourism planning in Putao, especially outside of the Hkakabo Razi Landscape protected area. The second day focused on the protected area itself.

The importance of the Hkakabo Razi National Park, which is one of Asia’s heritage parks, was discussed during the workshop. The participants were also asked to identify good things about life in Putao and note five development opportunities to improve life in the district over the next five to ten years.

The participants were aware of the potential of ecotourism in the region and the benefits of establishing an ecotourism sector in the district. They talked about promoting the region’s culture and securing the sustainability of its natural resources after the promotion of tourism in the area.

Over 70 participants including local community leaders, officials from different ministries, and representatives from Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Myanmar and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the private sector (local tour operators, hotels, tour guides, etc.), and the Myanmar Responsible Tourism Institute (MRTI) attended the event.

ICIMOD, under its Landscape Initiative for the Far Eastern Himalaya (HI-LIFE), is promoting tourism development, as an alternative livelihood option for local people in the Hkakabo Razi Landscape. It has established a Community Information Resource Centre (CIRC) and separate community managed accommodation facility and resource centres for tourists and locals to empower the local community empowerment and strengthen capacity for conservation and livelihood development. The CIRC will be owned and managed by the community with technical and financial support from ICIMOD, WCS, and the Forest Department, Myanmar.

Stay current

Stay up to date on what’s happening around the HKH with our most recent publications and find out how you can help by subscribing to our mailing list.

Sign Up

Related content

Continue exploring this topic

4 Feb 2016 Climate change
Myanmar Journalists Learn Climate Change Communication

A five-day training for 20 Myanmar journalists on reporting climate change adaptation was organised by the International Centre for Integrated ...

11 Oct 2015 News
Translating Koshi Basin Programme research into actionable policies

  Discussions on the preliminary findings of a recent socio-economic survey conducted on 1,600 households in 11 districts around the Koshi ...

8 May 2015 News
ICIMOD maps earthquake-affected settlements to aid relief and recovery efforts

Responding to a request from the Ministry of Home Affairs, ICIMOD has deployed a task force made up of GIS ...

11 Feb 2019 Water
2nd Regional Upper Indus Basin Network (UIB-N) Workshop

Glaciers in the upper reaches of the Indus River basin are an important source of freshwater. However, as climate change ...

E-Paath and E-Paathshala classes for brick workers’ children at Dhading school

Brick workers, both women and men, face numerous vulnerabilities without any form of social protection. The seasonal migration that this ...

13 Oct 2015 News
Let the Music Play on

  ICIMOD has band of very accomplished musicians who play theme songs or regional songs. It is blessed with great capacity ...

28 Sep 2015 News
Investigating Lemthang Tsho (Lake) outburst in Bhutan

Early in the evening on 28 June 2015, a yak herder ...

14 Aug 2017 Climate change
Living in the Shadow of Climate Change

These days, readers frequently come across headlines spelling of the approaching doom and gloom of climate change. In South Asia, ...