English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...

The Remake of a Statethrough appreciative participatory planning and action (APPA) methodsto mainstream and decentralise tourism at the community level and inthe local governance system (Hummel et al. 2003; Pandey 2008; Sherpa2006; SNV Nepal 2000). The TRPAP had targeted the upliftment of socioeconomicallydeprived people with special emphasis to women in sixdistricts of Nepal. The programme was launched following the formulationof the government’s objective of the poverty alleviation through tourismthereby mainstreaming it institutionally in the local governance operations.However, the achievements of TRPAP could not sustain or be replicatedin other districts.Some initiations are taken to spread trekking tourism by opening newareas like Greater Himalayan Trails (GHTs) in upper northern area,Tamang Heritage Trail in central northern area, Chepang Heritage Trail incentral southern area, Budanilikantha – Gosaikunda Trek in central area,Indigenous Trekking Trails in central region, and Machhapuchhre ModelTrek and Ghalekharka Sikles Ecotourism Circuit (also known as the royaltrek) in western area. Other efforts are on the way to expand mountaintourism by deducting and waiving the royalty on mountaineering todiversify the access to and benefits of tourism to disadvantageouspeople in new regions. Yet, more effort is needed to foster the growthof this sector especially in far flung rural areas in mountainous terrain byencouraging self-empowerment at local levels. These scenarios show thebottleneck for the sustainability of tourism from the view point of equity,growth and environmental friendliness.One of the guidelines of national tourism policy has provisioned to ploughcertain amount of the revenue back to the area from where the revenuewas generated. There are four kinds of framework introduced to effectuatethis system which are as follows:a) Authorisation to non-government agencies like AnnapurnaConservation Area Project (ACAP) and Nepal MountaineeringAssociation to collect revenue and recycle it locally for communitydevelopment work in an integrated approach.b) Authorisation to national parks and its committee formed withthe participation of local committees of the buffer zones torecycle 30-40 per cent of the total revenue colleted from tourismrelated activities.c) Authorisation to designated agencies like National Trust forNature Conservation (NTNC) to recycle 60 per cent revenue97