Governance and Management of Protected Areas in Vietnam: Nature-Based Tourism in Mountain Areas

Abstract

Conservation of protected areas (PAs) in Vietnam received scant attention until the early 1990s. The current system of PA governance contributes to the protection of biodiversity, albeit in an overlapping and complicated manner. The greatest contribution of policy towards PAs is the decentralization and delegation of additional powers to provincial and municipal authorities. Decentralization triggers diverse forms of investment for tourism, which is commonly espoused as a solution to balance the concurrent needs of economic development and biodiversity conservation. However, more recently, by analysing resource politics in the mountain area of Hoang Lien National Park (HLNP), the authors contend that a recentralization of resource management is evident in a new form of partnership investment in mega tourism projects. In addition to analysis of resource governance and management, the chapter highlights major challenges to the promotion of nature-based tourism in and around PAs as a sustainable livelihood for locals. Having discussed these challenges in the context of HLNP against the backdrop of tourism development, issues concerning tourism policy, governance, and livelihoods are addressed in the context of PAs’ fragile ecological systems.