TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluating the Contribution of Community-based Ecotourism (CBET) to Household Income and Livelihood Changes
T2 - A Case Study of the Chambok CBET Program in Cambodia
AU - Lonn, Pichdara
AU - Mizoue, Nobuya
AU - Ota, Tetsuji
AU - Kajisa, Tsuyoshi
AU - Yoshida, Shigejiro
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by a grant from JST-RISTEX for Future Earth.
Funding Information:
We thank the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Japan International Cooperation Center (JICE), who provided a scholarship for Lonn Pichdara. We also thank the staff of the Forestry Administration and the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries of Cambodia based in the provinces and in Phnom Penh, as well as the Mlup Baitong staff in Phnom Penh. We are grateful to the local authorities, the Chambok CBET members, and the leader of Chambok Commune, who cooperated with and supported this study. We thank Scott Lloyd, PhD, and Geoff Whyte, MBA, from Edanz Group ( www.edanzediting.com/ac ), for editing drafts of this manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2018/9
Y1 - 2018/9
N2 - Community-based ecotourism (CBET) has become a popular tool, especially in developing countries, for biodiversity conservation and livelihood improvement, but there is a lack of studies that use quantitative data to evaluate the effectiveness of CBET using a before-after-control-intervention (BACI), BA, or CI design. We conducted a case study of the flagship Chambok CBET program in Cambodia to quantify the contribution of CBET to household income and livelihood changes for CBET and non-CBET members. We conducted an interview survey of 173 households (77 CBET and 96 non-CBET members) that were selected systematically from every two households along roads within the same villages. There was no significant difference between the total income of member and non-member households; the median CBET income was 1.22 USD per month, which is only 1.65% of the total income. The inequality of income from CBET among the CBET members was higher than that from other income sources. The perceptions of livelihood changes differed considerably before and after the establishment of the Chambok CBET program, although this difference was not attributed to CBET but rather to general socioeconomic changes in the country. We conclude that it is challenging to employ CBET to achieve poverty reduction and livelihood improvement.
AB - Community-based ecotourism (CBET) has become a popular tool, especially in developing countries, for biodiversity conservation and livelihood improvement, but there is a lack of studies that use quantitative data to evaluate the effectiveness of CBET using a before-after-control-intervention (BACI), BA, or CI design. We conducted a case study of the flagship Chambok CBET program in Cambodia to quantify the contribution of CBET to household income and livelihood changes for CBET and non-CBET members. We conducted an interview survey of 173 households (77 CBET and 96 non-CBET members) that were selected systematically from every two households along roads within the same villages. There was no significant difference between the total income of member and non-member households; the median CBET income was 1.22 USD per month, which is only 1.65% of the total income. The inequality of income from CBET among the CBET members was higher than that from other income sources. The perceptions of livelihood changes differed considerably before and after the establishment of the Chambok CBET program, although this difference was not attributed to CBET but rather to general socioeconomic changes in the country. We conclude that it is challenging to employ CBET to achieve poverty reduction and livelihood improvement.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.04.036
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.04.036
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85046745385
SN - 0921-8009
VL - 151
SP - 62
EP - 69
JO - Ecological Economics
JF - Ecological Economics
ER -
