Achievement

Trainee John Zinda is studying efforts to promote biodiversity conservation and improve rural livelihoods through tourism development. He collaborated with Yunnan-based scholars to conduct a household survey on the effects of tourism participation on forest resource use and economic inequality. They surveyed 119 households in five communities to assess patterns at household, community, and regional scales. Preliminary results suggest that labor and material requirements of tourism activities explain variations in resource use. In accounting for resource use and inequality within communities, whether tourism is community-based is less important than whether it is organized to equalize participation. Regionally, uneven distribution of tourism generates a complex local economy as residents of communities without tourism operations sell labor and farm products in tourism attractions. These connections are stronger where tourism is community-based than where it is run by an outside firm.