Sustainable remote and rural eco-tourism: Applying a systemic, holistic, a interdisciplinary and participatory (Ship) approach

Long Lamai is a remote and rural Penan community in the interiors of Borneo in Sarawak, Malaysia. It is only accessible by either an 8-hour 4- wheel-drive on the logging road or an hour's flight via a 19-seater Twin Otter, and then a mandatory hour's river ride upriver. Long Lamai is being developed as an eco-tourism site, given the existence of natural attractions such as untouched flora and fauna, and the unique Penan's culture. A telecentre (which provides computing facilities and Internet connection via a satellite system, and using solar-power), was established in 2009. The management committee, which is running the telecentre, is also spearheading the use of ICTs in establishing Long Lamai as a tourist attraction and hence, to improve the socio-economic status. In addition to this, there are many aspects which need to be addressed, for example, the issues of environment, e-commerce, handicraft development, transportation, sourcing of food, sourcing of raw materials for the handicrafts, tour guiding, and development of tourism activities. One approach to the design and development of sustainable eco-tourism industry is by viewing the whole socio-economic transformation process as a complex system. The complex system comprises the various "sub-systems" such as those described above, e.g. environment, e-commerce, and handicraft development. All these subsystems interact and affect each other, and has to work effectively and efficiently together. To understand this complex system, we take the SHIP (systemic, holistic, interdisciplinary and participatory) approach. This paper thus details a study of Long Lamai as an eco-tourism site from the SHIP perspective

Evaluation of Fadama II Road Infrastructure among Rural Communities in Adamawa State, Nigeria

This study analyzed the role played by Fadama II on road development in Adamawa State, Nigeria. The data were obtained from 300 respondents who were randomly selected from Fadama II beneficiaries, non-beneficiaries within Fadama II communities and non-beneficiaries outside Fadama II communities. Based on propensity score matching (PSM) and double difference estimator (DD), the data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages and balancing test (t-test). The results showed that 30% of the roads were funded by Fadama II Project. Most of the roads were constructed and rehabilitated after the establishment of the project. Fadama II roads were found to be important for the beneficiaries’ activities. The analysis established that beneficiaries’ travel distance, travel time, waiting time and transport fares were reduced relative to non-beneficiaries. Road development has boosted marketing services for both farm and non-farm economic activities. Spill-over effect also manifests in the adjoining communities