This research aims to: (1) explore the role of public in preservation of Air Manis Beach tourism environment, (2) map and describe public awareness in preservation of the tourism environment, and (3) produce draft guidelines that can be used by public, local government, the environment agents and the tourism officers to collect and preserve the beach tourism environment. Public participation in preservation of the tourism environment is expected to keep the beach tourism object from being damaged and preserved for the sustainability of tourism. This research was conducted at Air Manis Beach Padang City. This type of research is Research and Development (R&D). In this first year, there are some procedures carried out in this research: (1) Formulation of the problem of the research, (2) Needs analysis, (3) Data collection and analysis of empirical findings, and (4) design draft guidelines for public participation in tourist areas, (5) doing a Focus Group Discussion (FGD), (6) revise the proposed guidelines, (7) validate the guidelines by experts, and (8) revise the guidelines by researchers. The technique of data collection was implemented by in-depth interviews with the subjects and informants of the research. To complete the data, the observation was conducted to the local community. To construct a guide to public participation, a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was conducted. The data is tested by means of triangulation extension of the involvement of researchers in the field, if the data found is still lacking. Triangulation of sources was conducted to the parties that understand the public participation for the sustainable environment in Air Manis Beach. Subjects and informants who participated in this research were determined in purposive sampling, involving tourism officers, and environment agents. Article visualizations
