05-04-2004 : Following a regional programme workshop organized by UNESCO partner the Royal Society for the Protection of Nature (RSPN) in Thimphu, Bhutan, ending on 2 April 2004, two new project sites have been added to the network established under the UNESCO project for the Development of Cultural and Ecotourism in the Mountainous Regions of Central and South Asia.

The new sites, in the North Indian states of Himalchal Pradesh and Sikkim, bring the total number of sites at which the project is working up to ten in eight countries in Central and South Asia: Bhutan, Indian, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan and Tajikistan. In addition to the eight established sites, project activities implemented by UNESCO partners the Snow Leopard Conservancy and the Ecotourism and Conservation Society of Sikkim, will now be extended to Spithi in Himalchal Pradesh and to Gangtok, Sikkim.

Field activities under this regional cultural and ecotourism programme began in seven regional countries in 2002 as part of the UNESCO strategy for the eradication of poverty, especially extreme poverty, and they are designed to develop ways in which the growth of tourism in the region can bring tangible economic benefits to members of some of the region’s most remote and poorest mountain communities.

The programme is financed both from UNESCO regular funds and from a generous grant from the UNESCO / Norwegian Funds-in-Trust. In 2003, the Government of Andorra made a smaller voluntary contribution to the programme.

Activities sponsored by the project and implemented by local partners include training for young people as cultural, mountain or environmental guides, training in community homestay operation, the appropriate design and production of traditional handicrafts, and advice on the organization and management of cultural and sports festivals as ways of reinforcing the cultural heritage and bringing opportunities for income-generation through tourism.

In addition to agreeing the extension of project activities to new project sites in 2004, the recent Bhutan project workshop brought together participants from the eight regional countries to review activities and plan future initiatives, as well as to meet with representatives of the Bhutanese tourism industry, government representatives, international organizations working in tourism development and NGOs.

The UNESCO ecotourism project in Bhutan, implemented by RSPN, is working to develop ecotourism activities in the Phobjikha Valley, 2,900 metres above sea level, the largest of Bhutan’s wetlands and home to the threatened black-necked crane.