Evaluation of the community-based ecotourism development status in the Aksu-Jabagly nature reserve, Kazakhstan

Abstract

Many stakeholders believe that developing community-based ecotourism (CBET) in vulnerable nature reserves is an effective method of ensuring greater conservation of natural and cultural resources, empowering host communities, and improving their socio-economic well-being. This paper assesses the current status of the CBET development in the Aksu-Jabagly nature reserve (NR), located in the south part of Kazakhstan. In order to understand ecotourism development status, 222 representative households from two neighboring communities of Aksu-Jabagly NR were surveyed with 5-point Likert scale questions. At the same time, two tourism relevant experts were interviewed. The results of examining the three indicators (community tourism relevance, community participation rank, and community empowerment), showed that the neighboring community relevance with the tourism in Aksu-Jabagly NR was low, the community residents' participation rank in tourism was also at the lower level, and the community's empowerment status is not ideal. As a result, we initially asserted that the status of CBET development in Aksu-Jabagly NR is not well, in particular, the positive economic and social impact of tourism development is not so obvious.