“Resource Rich and Income Poor”: Payment for Access to Protected Areas in Nepal

This paper explores the economic valuation of protected areas in Nepal, specifically focusing on two recently published willingness to pay (WTP) studies conducted in the Annapurna region (Baral et al. 2008; Nepal 2007) and a contingent valuation study by the authors exploring tourists’ willingness to pay for access to Chitwan National Park (CNP) (Cook & Bardecki 2012) (Table 2). In each case the focus of the research was on foreign tourists

The impact of road construction on commercial activity in the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal

This paper previews the general issues related to the road construction in the ACAP region, particularly focusing on the character and extent of the adaptation of commercial activity in ACAP to the anticipated environment of greater ease of access, reduced costs, fresh competition, the shifting of population demographics, and changing visitor profiles resulting from the completion of the road links to Jomsom and Chame. It proposes a structural framework for the analysis of commercial change

Stakeholders\u27 perceptions of foreign aid and an NGO-driven project: A case study of Sagarmatha National Park Forestry Project in Khumbu, Nepal

Even though foreign aid and NGOs were established with good intentions, the results associated with NGO-led development in developing countries are mixed. Nepal is an ideal location for studying the impact of foreign aid and NGO involvement in rural development as the numbers of NGOs grew from just 293 in 1990 to more than 27,000 in 2010 (SWC, 2010). NGOs in Nepal have established themselves as important stakeholders in the development process. They claimed to have positively impacted the lives of rural communities and are established as partners in the development process of the country. However, several scholars disagree with this claim (Acharya, 1997; Siwakoti, 2000; Bhattachan, 2004). Bhattachan (2004) argues that, despite more than two decades of NGO involvement in rural development, rural areas in Nepal have changed very little. However, due to the lack of a good evaluation, Nepal\u27s NGO sector challenges many generalizations about the role that NGOs play