Promotion and Implementation of Conservation-oriented Ecotourism in Pangi- Lahaul Landscapes of Himachal Pradesh under SECURE Himalaya Project

Areas of Implementation: 

Project Donors & Partners: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Global Environment Facility (GEF); Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change - Government of India (MoEF&CC - GoI) 

Project Type: Government 

Duration: August 2021 - November 2022

About Project:

We worked in collaboration with the SECURE Himalaya Project, by GoI-GEF-UNDP, under its ecotourism study in the Lahaul-Pangi conservation landscape, to promote the sustainable management of alpine pastures and forests in the high range Himalayan ecosystems that secures conservation of globally significant wildlife, including endangered snow leopard and their habitats, ensures sustainable livelihoods and community socio-economic benefits. We seeked to explore ways of promoting livelihood options for the community through low impact eco-friendly tourism products, keeping conservation as the core objective, with a special focus on nature and adventure tourism. The SECURE Himalaya Project has adopted a unique approach of landscape level conservation of forest resources and biodiversity in the high-altitude trans-Himalayan region of Lahaul and Pangi.

We focused on improving "Diversified livelihood strategies and improved capacities of community and government institutions for sustainable natural resource management and conservation.", in order to promote community-based, low impact, nature and adventure tourism by conducting a baseline study to document the existing tourism activities in the landscape as well as to explore and understand the potential to develop ecotourism.

Our role was to develop a sustainable ecosystem for the marginalized, indigenous communities across rural India by providing sustainable travel solutions through controlled and responsible tourism. We worked on promotion of offbeat locations to encourage more impactful methods of traveling while promoting cultural exchange between the traveler and the host family or village.

Impact Generated:

- 150+ trainings programmes conducted based on social, cultural, nature and adventure aspects on ecotourism

- 50+ ecotourism guides identifies to facilitate the whole project after completion

- Exposure visits for 30+ people across GHNP area

- Conducted first snow leopard and snow festival along with HP government with participation of more than 50+ people altogether

- 150+ training materials and certificates distributed under basic and advance level ecotourism training

- 10+ documents created based on biodiversity guidebooks for flora and fauna

- Identification of 5+ flora and fauna trails across the regions to promote and preserve biodiversity

The trained Nature Guides associated with NotOnMap are as follows:

NOM Team conducting trainings and exposure visits