Original Research

Good governance and tourism development in protected areas: The case of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, central Vietnam

Anna Hübner, Lý T. Phong, Trương S.H. Châu
Koedoe | Vol 56, No 2 | a1146 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/koedoe.v56i2.1146 | © 2014 Anna Hübner, Lý T. Phong, Trương S.H. Châu | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 17 February 2013 | Published: 24 June 2014

About the author(s)

Anna Hübner, German Corporation for International Development, Dong Hoi, Viet Nam
Lý T. Phong, School of Hotel and Tourism Management, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Trương S.H. Châu, German Corporation for International Development, Dong Hoi, Viet Nam

Abstract

Protected areas are increasingly expected to serve as a natural income-producing resource via the exploitation of recreational and touristic activities. Whilst tourism is often considered a viable option for generating income which benefits the conservation of a protected area, there are many cases in which insufficient and opaque planning hinder sustainable development, thereby reducing local benefit sharing and, ultimately, nature conservation. This article delineated and examined factors in governance which may underlie tourism development in protected areas. Based on Graham, Amos and Plumptre’s five good governance principles, a specific analysis was made of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in central Vietnam, which highlighted challenges in the practical implementation of governing principles arising for nature conservation, sustainable tourism development and complex stakeholder environments. Despite the limited opportunity of this study to examine the wider national and international context, the discussion facilitated an overview of the factors necessary to understand governance principles and tourism development. This article could serve as a basis for future research, especially with respect to comparative analyses of different management structures existing in Vietnam and in other contested centrally steered protected area spaces.

Conservation implications: This research has shown that tourism and its development, despite a more market-oriented and decentralised policymaking, is a fragmented concept impacted by bureaucratic burden, lack of institutional capacities, top-down processes and little benefit-sharing. There is urgent need for stakeholders – public and private – to reconcile the means of protected areas for the ends (conservation) by clarifying responsibilities as well as structures and processes which determine decision-making.


Keywords

Tourism; Protected Areas; Management

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Crossref Citations

1. Collaborative Governance of Protected Areas: Success Factors and Prospects for Hin Nam No National Protected Area, Central Laos
Mirjam de Koning, Tin Nguyen, Michael Lockwood, Sinnasone Sengchanthavong, Souvanhpheng Phommasane
Conservation and Society  vol: 15  issue: 1  first page: 87  year: 2017  
doi: 10.4103/0972-4923.201396