Policy Arrangements for Ecotourism

This case study was carried out at Lawachara National Park (LNP), Bangladesh. The aim of the study was to recognize and analyze the interactions among different actor coalitions to attain their competing interests with particular reference to achieve the expected ecotourism outcomes under the LNP management plan. Policy Arrangement Approach (PAA) was used as theoretical framework and mixed methods following semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the field data. Different actors of different levels (local people to higher officials) were interviewed face-to-face. LNP is now being managed by a co-management approach-based five years management plan. 19 different ‘Alternative Income Generation (AIG)’ strategies were developed to achieve the main interest i.e. biodiversity conservation. Ecotourism development was one of these AIG strategies. LNP was subjected to various competing claims from different interests (groups viz. government, non-government and private) due to her rich and unique natural resources. There was lack of coordination among different actors which impaired the forest condition of LNP. There were four actor coalitions focusing the natural resources of LNP.