Bhutan?s second largest revenue generation has been tourism, with direct revenue of almost USD 23.420 million in 2020. Since 1980, Bhutan has made concerted efforts to promote ecotourism with ?High Value Low Impact? model. Bumthang has been one of the tourist attractions for its cultural and historical richness. It receives about 50,000 international visitors annually, with 30,000 staying overnight, besides huge number of domestic visitors on spiritual pilgrimage. The influx of visitors has huge impact both socially, culturally and environmentally. Although Ura is just 50kms away from the main Bumthang town, due to lack of tourism services and initiatives, only few tourists make a visit to Ura, that too for a day visit which does not benefit the community as such.
The total population of Ura gewog stands at 1724 with 871 males and 853 females (PHCB, 2017). Of the 379 house holds in the gewog, Ura Dozhi chiwog has 65 households constituting approximately 20% of the total. Ura village

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constitutes over 1/4th of the total gewog population.

For the residents of Ura, they have little or no role in management and awareness on impacts by visitors on their immediate world. Therefore, aligning to national vision, the project targets to create awareness and education on ecotourism to develop sustainable tourism approaches in Ura. Secondly, women play minimal role in community development process although we have substantial number of literate female population. Through various trainings on community asset and women leadership, it is targeted to empower and enhance women roles in community development process and management.

Ura is culturally very rich and vibrant, providing scope for many tourism operating agencies to market Ura as the tourist destination and in particular ecotourism by virtue of it environment and ecological pristineness. The Ura village falls at the fringe of the Phrumsengla National Park (PNP) that adds natural value to the culturally rich valley. The potential for the community benefits are huge through the ecotourism activity.
Further, Ura is located in alpine vegetation, with elevation of about 3100masl. It also remains very vulnerable to climate change impacts like forest fire, pest and diseases and unpredictable weather conditions. The core environmental challenge is the nearby forest suffering from acute bark beetle attack. Erratic rainfall pattern, extreme seasonal shift through climate change adversities are observed by the local residents in the recent years. The drying water sources and the community victimized by the prevailing human wildlife conflict issues on both crops and livestock remains as a major challenge.
Most of the women are farmers who have little knowledge on climate change, biodiversity conservation and its impact on their livelihood. The climate change impact also directly correlates to sustainable approaches to tourism activities.
The proposed project would help empower women in taking roles to lead communities in promoting and developing ecotourism approaches and understanding the climate change impacts on their livelihood and ecotourism. Through homestay development, it is expected that the culturally and historically rich village culture can be save and secured. The project is also expected to encourage organic farming through the approach of serving organic meals to the visitors. Through this project, it is expected that at least 40 women, 20 men and 20 youths will be engaged positively. It is also expected to contribute toward promoting domestic tourism and also serve as an example to other communities to adopt similar initiatives.

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