Dhokos and Dauri Tourism Related Firewood Use in the Makalu Barun Area Nepal Bodhi Himal Garrett Environmental Sciences Program University of California at Berkeley Abstract Despite regulation efforts tourist related resource consumption continues to be a problem in many parts of Nepal Using recall based surveys of 78 porters and 26 lodge proprietors the current status of firewood use by porters in the Makalu Barun National Park and Conservation Area is examined This study finds that porter consumption of firewood continues More wood was used in the conservation area than in the national park This difference in wood use patterns leads to greater porter wood use in the part of the protected area where local inhabitants already face wood shortages An average of 0 7 baris 21 kilograms of firewood is used daily by a group of five porters for cooking and warmth Two thirds of surveyed porters are local kitchen users and a total of 92 of respondents buy firewood from lodges The prevalence of firewood sales and porter use of local kitchens for food preparation causes community members to have an economic interest in porters wood consumption In the national park firewood consumption decreased by 0 22 baris 7 kilograms per night and the number of porters using no fire at all increased by 55 The direct enforcement of the firewood ban in the national park and the local role in wood use in the conservation area cause increased firewood use in the national park While the role of porter shelters is inconclusive blanket rentals are successful in reducing firewood use by one bari 30 kilograms per group of five porters The intended benefits of both programs however are directed more towards the national park than the conservation area Community woodlots are suggested as an alternative that will help to alleviate pressure on forests while capitalizing on instead of seeking to curtail the connections between community and porter firewood use Introduction In recent years tourism has become the worlds largest and fastest growing industry Gossling 1999 Scholars of tourism point to the predominantly unsustainable and unregulated nature of this growth Boo 1993 Many conservation organizations such as the World Conservation Union have recognized tourism as the one of the major threats to protected areas worldwide Goodwin 1996 In developing nations resource demands generated by the growth of tourism are often at odds with sustainability and conservation efforts Sharma 1998 found that mountain societies such as Nepal experience strong socio economic pressures to increase tourism flow while neglecting environmental issues especially in protected areas Mountain environments due to the limited availability of many resources are ecologically sensitive to the increase in human presence associated with tourism Inmann and Luger 1998 Nepal a longstanding and popular tourist destination is one of the most mountainous nations on earth Nepal attracts large numbers of foreign visitors every year 34 of whom go trekking in the mountains Mountain trekking brings 10 million a year directly to local inhabitants making it the predominant source of monetary income in many rural communities Nepal Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation cited in Odell and Lama 1998 Trekking defined as mountain tourism not involving technical climbing typically brings tourists into contact with at least one of Nepal s 14 protected areas Wells 1994 Trekking especially in sensitive areas is often coupled with an increase in local resource consumption Banskota and Sharma 1998 identify waste generation forest degradation and changing land use patterns as three main categories of environmental degradation caused by tourism in Nepal Studies have found that the majority of these impacts are focused on Nepal s protected areas Zurick 1994 In particular deforestation due to firewood needs has been a long standing concern in Nepalese national parks Odell 1998 Tourism related use of firewood leads to a decrease in the amount of forest harvest available to locals during the off season This is compounded by a short growing period for trees and the fact that forest product harvest levels are already unsustainable in many areas As one of his two major conclusions to his 1997 paper Wantanabe recommends that in order to reduce tourist impacts on Nepalese forests a reduction in wood consumption along trails by local porters is necessary Although studies have estimated fuel wood consumption in specific parks very little analysis exists regarding the effects of conservation efforts in reducing tourist related use of this vital forest product Traditional conservation regimes have failed to curb tourism related use of firewood In fact most traditional protected area management strategies and have not placed sufficient emphasis on tourist resource use Nepal 1999 Recently however support for ecodevelopment programs has been growing Ecodevelopment is aimed towards an ecological transition in which the current unsustainable paradigms converge toward a less anthropocentric and more sustainable interaction with our surroundings Gurung 1998 Tourism serves as a component not the central focus of development strategies Ecodevelopment programs attempt to link the conservation of protected areas with the social and economic development of local communities near or sometimes within protected area boundaries Ecodevelopment projects aim to achieve their conservation goals by promoting development and providing local people with alternative income sources that sustain rather than threaten the flora and fauna in natural habitats Munasinghe 1994 The Annapurna and Makalu Barun parks are examples of protected areas where ecodevelopment concepts are being applied in conservation and development regimes Mehta and Kellert 1998 The Makalu Barun National Park and Conservation Area MBNPCA Nepal s newest national park is among the nation s largest protected areas with a conservation regime based in ecodevelopment The MBNPCA s management plan was designed to proactively counter the negative implications of mountain tourism observed in other trekking areas Peniston 1999 In this study I will concentrate on firewood use by trekkers in the Makalu Barun National Park and Conservation Area An improvement in fuel wood supply for inhabitants and reduction of ecosystem damages caused by excess wood gathering are integral and explicitly stated components of the project s mission statement MBCP Task Force
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