Households’ Assets Dynamics and Ecotourism Choices in the Western Highlands of Cameroon

Abstract

Ecotourism is increasingly accepted as a suitable alternative for sustaining rural livelihoods. In spite of this trend, quantitative assessments of relationships between household assets and ecotourism choices, and the policy implications thereof, currently account for only a negligible number of studies in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper contributes to this evidence gap by analyzing the extent to which households’ assets drive ecotourism choices on a representative sample of 200 households in Cameroon. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Human Development Index (HDI) were used to construct indices for ecotourism choices. The ordinary least square and logit models were also employed to estimate the effect of various household assets on ecotourism choices. A high preference was observed for the production and sale of arts and crafts items and the promotion of cultural heritage sites as key ecotourism choices. More women are found to participate in conservation education, as opposed to culture-related activities such as arts and crafts. Access to education and training were inversely related to cultural festival promotion. The results suggest the need to: (i) stem the overdependence on conservation sites for wood supply to the arts and crafts sector, (ii) enforce endogenous cultural institutional regulations, including those that increase female participation in guiding future ecotourism choices. This paper contributes to ecotourism development and conservation theory, with regards to unbundling household level predictors of ecotourism choices, and has implications on the design of policies to implement environmentally less-demanding ecotourism activities.

Stakeholders’ Interaction and Sustainable Rural Development Implementation Challenges in Kom, Western Highlands of Cameroon

“…In this case, they include private individuals, government, civil society groups, donors, academics, development agencies, international organizations and leaders, and the business community that form broad-based global coalition to make the reduction of rural poverty a corporate social responsibility. It equally highlights the social and environmental concerns of this highland community in consonance with the stakeholder approach popularised since the mid-1980s by Richard Edward Freeman [7].…”

“…Such rural development encompasses environmental, economic and socio-cultural dimensions in the Kom Highlands focusing on the disadvantaged rural poor, and promoting broad-based rural growth and service provision with all stakeholders. Despite the difficult topography, this landscape, like other parts of the North West Region, demonstrate significant potentials for tourism [6,7].…”

“…The objective of this article is to suggest a coherent cross-sectoral approach for the sustained reduction of rural poverty in which rural development stakeholders overcome the shortcomings of earlier top-down, non-inclusive approaches and thus reduce the short-term and sector-by-sector approaches. This article considers stakeholders as any group or individual who can affect or are affected by the achievement of the organization's objectives [7]. In this case, they include private individuals, government, civil society groups, donors, academics, development agencies, international organizations and leaders, and the business community that form broad-based global coalition to make the reduction of rural poverty a corporate social responsibility.…”

“…Stakeholders' knowledge and experience in development management, participation in development planning and development processes and long-term community involvement have played an important role in rural area management. Though some stakeholders are more important than others in determining the outcome of development activities [10] in the Belo community of the Kom Highlands, Freeman [7] contends that it is necessary to evaluate all persons or groups who have interests in development planning. Sustainable rural development therefore involves both personal and contextual components, meaning what is perceived as sustainable practices in one location may well differ significantly when compared to another.…”

An Analysis of Human Survival Strategies in Difficult Environments: A Case Study of the Kom Highlands in Cameroon

“…Fundong is the head quarter of Boyo Division (the Kom Highlands). The area forms part of the Western Highlands of Cameroon [9,10,11] and occupies the central portion of the North West Region of Cameroon and it is located some 65km away from Bamenda, with a total surface area of about 37000 km 2 [12]. It is bounded to the west by Wum Sub-division and Bafut Sub-divisions, to the east by Noni and Belo Sub-divisions, Fungom and Bum Sub-divisions share its boundary at the north and to the south, it shares boundaries with Belo and Njinikom Subdivisions.…”