Building community capacity for locally managed ecotourism in Northern Thailand

Abstract

This paper provides an approach for building community capacity and two case study examples of improving locally managed ecotourism in Northern Thailand. It provides an analysis of the practical application of the approach and the implications for community development. Nine 'operational domains' were used to build and measure community capacity at the community level. This allowed community- based organizations to scrutinize their achievements, to address their constraints and to measure their progress over time, enhanced by a simple means of visual representation. Experiences in Northern Thailand demonstrate that the key to this approach was in the use of strategic planning to initiate community actions towards sustained locally managed ecotourism. The knowledge, skills and competencies gained by the two communities led to an improvement in their ecotourism enterprises.