Tourism is an economic activity using natural resources. The natural resources, including biodiversity resources, are often important basis for the development of tourist sites. Sapa is one of the most famous tourist spots in Viet Nam. Sapa has favorable conditions for tourism development, including the high biodiversity resources and cultural identity of many indigenous peoples, such as HMong and Dao. There are genetic resources of various local species/varieties of fruit trees, rice, vegetables, and medicinal plants. Thanks to the traditional knowledge of the indigenous peoples in using these natural resources, there are many specialities of Sapa which attracts tourists, such as handicrafts, dishes such as khu khoi, o day, cultivation on terrain rice field, bathing with medicinal plants. However, conservation and use of the traditional knowledge of the indigenous peoples in using these natural resources has not been given adequate attention in biodiversity conservation and economic development in general and tourism development in particular.
The project Conservation and use of traditional knowledge in biodiversity conservation, contributing to tourism development in Sapa has the following objectives.
1. Enhancing understanding and local capacity in collecting and documenting traditional knowledge in biodiversity conservation. Developing traditional knowledge journals to disseminate traditional knowledge to the public and tourists.
2. Developing a tourism development model:
? to promote the role and participation of the community in the direction of benefit sharing for the community in conservation and development traditional knowledge
? to use local biodiversity resources and traditional knowledge
? to contribute to conservation and development of biodiversity resources and traditional knowledge of the indigenous peoples, and of cultural identity
3. Distill lessons learned for the purpose of replicating the models in other areas of Sapa.