Using Forest Cover Maps and Local People's Perceptions to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Community-based Ecotourism for Forest Conservation in Chambok (Cambodia)

Increasing attention has been given to evaluating the effectiveness of forest conservation projects, but it is not well known whether different methods yield similar results when evaluating changes in forest resources. The present study compares forest cover maps and local people's perceptions for evaluating the effectiveness of the Chambok community-based ecotourism (CBET) programme in Cambodia. We assessed forest cover changes from 2000 to 2012 using published global maps and used a covariate matching method to compare forest sites in CBET and non-CBET areas. We also analysed local people's perceptions of forest resource changes by interviewing 174 households. The forest cover maps showed that the Chambok CBET was effective at reducing deforestation, although the outcome was not completely robust to unobserved heterogeneity. Local people's perceptions concurred with the effectiveness observed in the forest cover maps, in that 64% of the people perceived that forest resources increased and 75% thought that the local community could protect its own forest resources. We conclude that the Chambok CBET performed effectively for forest conservation and suggest that mixed-method approaches are essential for evaluating the effectiveness of conservation programmes.