Phortse Village - Community led Initiatives Brings Desired Results

Ek Raj Sigdel

Published in NTTR

Phortse village has been considered as a relatively backward settlement in Khumbu region. It is situated about 4-hour walking distance towards north-east from the Park Head Quarter in Namche. The area is endowed with rich floral, faunal and cultural diversity. The settlement is encircled by birch; rhododendron and junipor forests. While walking around the settlement, one can see closely the globally endangered wildlife species, especially in dusk and dawn, like musk deer and pheasants. Local communities are of homogenous, enthusiastic and active. There are 80 households, with 370 populations.

Although, the Sagarmatha National Park, a world heritage site receives a considerable number of tourists every year, the settlement, situated relatively far from the main trekking trail is yet to realize tourism benefits. Therefore, with the aim of diverting some of the tourism benefits to this village, Tourism for Rural Poverty Alleviation Programme (TRPAP) / UNDP have supported the local communities with an integrated program since 2003. One of the objectives of the TRPAP / UNDP was to promote Phortse, as a model ecotourism village in Sagarmatha National Park.

A wide range of community development activities, including, infrastructure development, training, Tourism and Environment Awareness Programme (TEAPs), women development, and natural resources conservation has been implemented in this village. The infrastructure development activities, include recently completed 60 Kw micro-hydro project, drainage, drinking water, Chorten maintenance, and trail improvement. Similarly, in the capacity enhancement front, the local communities have got training on hotel and lodge management, front office management, ecotourism and biodiversity conservation, eco-tour guides and cookery and bakery. As part of the TEAPs, local communities have put rubbish bins and sign boards here and there at the village. Local communities were also taken to Royal Chitwan National Park, Annapurna Conservation Area and Lumbini as exposure visit.

Because of these activities, the local community has realized various positive changes in their socio-economic, cultural, and environmental settings. According to them, after having drinking water facility in their own village last year, their lifestyle has been changed greatly. For instance, prior to establishment of the drinking water scheme, local people, especially women had to spend about one hour for fetching a pot of water. However, after having the potable water in their own village, they can fetch the same amount of water within 10 minutes. As said by the local communities, the time saved from the drinking water has been utilized to agricultural development activities. Because of this, local communities were able to harvest increased quantity of potato this year, compared to the last year. Similarly, people are becoming more conscious towards health and sanitation these days.

Likewise, after having electricity at their settlement a few months back, the villagers have witnessed higher number of tourists in this season as against the same season last year. According to the local communities, it is estimated that the number of tourists increased by more than 30% this year compared to the last year. Numbers of wildlife based tourists have also increased more or less in the same proportion. In addition, because of having electricity, school children are encouraged to spare more time in studying at night. According to a teacher at Phortse School, these days they are checking more homework compared to the days before having electricity at Phortse Village.

In response to the impact of the various training programmes, local people said that the trainings, received by them over the years have contributed to empower them greatly. According to Mrs. Pashang Diki Sherpa, until two years ago they had a fear of talking with outsider (Rongba), however these days they do not hesitate to talk with Rongba. She further added, the women participation in various local development works has increased gradually. Now a day, women are also involved in a regular clean up campaign of the village. There are some cases where the direct impact of training could also be observed. For instance, two local youths, after receiving 8-week long basic and advanced electricity training in Kathmandu, have been engaged in managing electricity in their own village. Each of them is receiving Rs. 8,500 from the electricity work. According to locals, they have a confident that they have qualified local technicians in their own village and hence do not need to rely on outsider technicians.

One can notice some changes in local environment as well. These days, local youths at Phortse are organized in eco-clubs. Through eco-clubs, they have been initiating various environmental activities. They have placed sign boards at various places in their village, describing the higher conservation value of wildlife species, especially musk deer. In addition, with the initiation of local clubs, the villagers undertake a regular village cleans up campaign. They have placed rubbish bins here and there. It was reported that the dependency of locals on forests for firewood has decreased considerably, especially after having electricity at their village. Though the National Park opened its forests to locals for firewood for a period of 15 days, very few people have shown interest to gather firewood this year, said buffer zone user group chairperson, Mr. Ang Chhiring Sherpa. According to locals, the relation between national park and local communities has further improved, because of electricity and other development activities in their village.

While asking the underlying causes for getting success in implementing various activities and bringing a positive impact on the lifestyle of local people and their environment, the local community said: the main cause was increasing people participation towards development work in their village. As said by Mr. Chhring Sherpa, Buffer Zone User Group Chairperson, TRPAP’s strategy of releasing budget in a transparent manner has helped to establish a good rapport between local leader and local communities. Easy approachable and friendly project staff member was another reason for leading development work towards a success. Timely availability of overseer was another cause for timely completion of development work in their village. Moreover, creation of environment for involving local communities in project planning to implementation to monitoring cycle was another reason for extending community supports for the various development activities.

In conclusion, TRPAP has got a tremendous success in its stated objectives of increasing tourists' number at off the main trekking trail in Khumbu region within a short span. Because of this, the avenue for increasing local employment and income generation opportunities ha been increased. In can be learned from the Phortse that development programme in Nepal should be planned and implemented based on the locally available resources, including human and natural capital and supporting local initiatives.