St.

Vincent College of Cabuyao

Barangay Mamatid, Cabuyao City, Laguna

Ecotourism Management Process

Ecotourism is one of the strategies being pursed as a tool for sustainable development in
the Philippines. It is regarded as a business, tourism products, and tool for conservation, and
socio-cultural development.

Ecotourism primary objectives include:

1. Conserving nature and cultural heritage especially in protected areas
2. Spurring economic development through business partnerships between the government
and private sectors
3. Promoting equity of socio-economic benefits among local communities including
indigenous people
4. Encouraging community participation among men and women in tourism planning

Ecotourism as a Business
As a business, ecotourism is involved in the process of identifying long-term goals,
identifying alternative strategies, and choosing the best option to attain it business goals.
Business planning covers marketing, operations, and environmental management.

The ecotourism products is composite of resources, facilities, activities, and services. The
success of the ecotourism products or destination is very much dependent on the quality of the
ecotourism plan.

Site Assessment in a Protected Areas

According to the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act (RA7586 of 1992), a
“Protected Areas refers to identified portions of land and water set aside by reason of their unique
physical and biological significance, managed to enhance biological diversity and protected
against destructive human exploitation.”

Protected Areas Classified as:

1. Strict Nature reserve
2. Natural Park
3. Natural Monument
4. Wildlife sanctuary
5. Protected Landscape and seascape
6. Resource reserve
7. Natural Biotic Areas

Any forms of tourism is prohibited in a strict nature reserve. Hard and soft tourism may be allowed
in a natural park, natural monument, protected landscape or seascape. Hard tourism activities,
“involve specialist interest or dedicated activity, and a willingness by the visitor to experience
outdoors or wilderness with few comforts. Soft tourism involves activities where are more casual,
less dedicated approach is taken to the activity or natural attraction, and a desire to experience it
with some basic degree of comfort.

Protected areas may have different management zones as follow:

1. Strict Protection Zones – off limits to all human activities except for scientific studies and
religious use by indigenous communities.
 St. Vincent College of Cabuyao
Barangay Mamatid, Cabuyao City, Laguna

2. Multiple Use Zone – allow different activities within the prescribed management plan such
as settlement, traditional and sustainable land use, agriculture, agroforestry, extraction
activities and livelihood activities.
3. Sustainable Use Zone – natural areas where habitat and biodiversity are conserved in
line with the Protected Areas Management Board (PAMB) management plan. Only
indigenous community members, tenured migrants, and buffer zones resident are allowed
to enter, collect, and use the natural resources using traditional and sustainable practices
that enhance biodiversity conservation.
4. Restoration Zones – environmentally degraded zones that need to revive their natural
habitat and biodiversity.
5. Habitat Management Zones – contain natural habitats, particularly rare, threatened, and
endangered species that require periodic maintenance and management
6. Special use Zone – set aside for special uses such as telecommunication facilities,
irrigation canals, or electric power lines and are retained upon mutual agreement among
the concern parties involved.
7. Cultural Zone – contain significant cultural, religious, spiritual, and anthropological values
where traditional rites exist and cultural ceremonies and practice take place.
8. Recreational Zone – promote recreational, tourism, educational, and environmental
awareness values. Sustainable tourism, recreational conservation education, and public
awareness activities are allowed.
9. Buffer Zone – located outside and adjacent to the protected area that is still under the
control of the PAMB. These are effective multiple-use zones that serves as a social fences
to prevent human intervention and other threats into the protected areas

Phases of Ecotourism Management

The ecotourism management process entails four main phases.

1. Assessment Phase, which covers two stages:

a) Preliminary Site Evaluation – is carried out to determine if a site has the potential
to be developed into an ecotourism site. The PSE usually entails the conduct of a
focused group discussion involving local community representatives and tourism
experts. The group will be responsible for making the recommendation whether to
proceed to full site assessment or not. The allocation time for doing the preliminary
site evaluation is one week. If the proposed ecotourism site passes the criteria in
the preliminary assessment, then a full site evaluation will be carried out.

b) Full Site Assessment Criteria – will entail one month. This phase is also done by
the DENR group composed of the PASu and local tourism stakeholders, with the
PASu acting as the leader. In the full site assessment process, evaluation will
consider the following criteria
• Access – it includes (1) distance of site from the nearest town or city, (2)
travel time. (3) mode od transport, and (4) number of transfers.
• Zoning – it includes (1) setbacks, (2) buffers, and (3) built-up zones.
• Tourism Build-up area – can be designated as the location for the reception
area, visitor center, restaurant, parking, and administrative office.
• Development Limitations – refers to (1) building height limits (2) the type of
man-made structures that can be built, (3) maintaining line of sight of
natural views, (4) distance of roads to sensitive areas, and (5) habitats of
endangered species.
 St. Vincent College of Cabuyao
Barangay Mamatid, Cabuyao City, Laguna

• Ecotourism products – it will be evaluated include both natural and cultural

resources. Natural resources could become ecotourism products through
a process called product development.
• Ecotourism Operations – could be: (1) community-based, (2) by the local
government unit, (3) by commercial tour operations, (4) by partnership and
other modes.
• Community Participation – enables the equitable distribution of benefits
from the utilization of resources, encourages ownership of ecotourism
operations as everyone get involved in decision-making, and involves
everyone including men and women in protecting natural assets.
• Skills and Trainings – the skills in the ecotourism area need to be evaluated
in terms of availability and quality. Training activities could be sending local
people for internship or bringing trainers/experts to conduct seminars,
workshop, demonstration in the community, which could be the more cost-
effective strategy
• Marketing
• Site Management
• Visitor Management – is about managing the volume of visitors, directing
them where to go in the ecotourism site, and controlling their behavior to
minimize the impact.
• Partnership

The assessment and recommendation based on the full site assessment will serves as inputs
to the next stage, which is crafting of the Ecotourism Management Plan.

2. Planning Phase, which should produce two outputs:

1. Ecotourism Management Plan (EMP) – after finishing the full site assessment, the
DENR groups proceeds with crafting an Ecotourism Management Plan. The group
may start referring to an pre-existing protected area Management Plan. The
Committee should look for zoning guidelines, impact monitoring activities,
organizational structures and staffing level. Ecotourism Management Planning
must involves relevant stakeholders. These stakeholders include the LGU, the
Department of Tourism, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA),
local community, indigenous people, and the private sector, the EMP is to be
finished in three months.

After finishing the EMP, the documents is submitted by the DENR group to the
Regional Ecotourism Committee (REC) for review. The review process is
supposed to take one month. After the review, the REC sends the documents to
the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB), which issues the approval for the
EMP. The waiting time for securing the approval will take one month.

The full cycle from the preliminary site assessment (PSA) up to the start of the
implementation of the ecotourism management plan is six months and one week.

2. Ecotourism Business Plan – once the EMP has been approved by PAMB, the
ecotourism business plan can now be drowned up. The business plan is to be
formulated by the local government unit and the private sector in two months. The
 St. Vincent College of Cabuyao
Barangay Mamatid, Cabuyao City, Laguna

business plan is sent back to the Regional Ecotourism Committee for review, which
will entail a period of one month. After the review, the business plan is again
forwarded to the PAMB for approval. Waiting time to get the approval is one
month.

The content of an ecotourism business plan is the following:

• Executive Summary
• Product or Services Description
• Ecotourism industry analysis
• Marketing Strategy
• Financial Projections
• Monitoring and evaluation

The full cycle from the preliminary site assessment to the start of the
implementation of the business plan is ten months and one week.

Ecotourism business may be categorized into

1. Community-based ecotourism enterprises
2. Private Concession
3. NGO ecotourism enterprises
4. Joint Ventures by NGO, private sectors, and LGU
5. Business ventures by minority group, such as women, indigenous people,
out of school youth, and others.

3. Implementation Phase
a) Implementation of the Ecotourism Management Plan – rest on the DENR through
the Protected Ares Superintendent (PASu). Based on the Ecotourism
Management Plan (EMP), the PASu prepares an annual work plan specifying the
activities to be conducted, the persons responsible for conducting such as
activities, the location and timeframe of activities, and the resources to be used to
accomplish the activities.
b) Implementation of the Ecotourism Business Plan – the responsibility of the LGU
and it private sectors partners. Partnership between the LGU and private investor
are to be formalized through Special Use Agreement in Protected Area (SAPA)
and Protected Area Community-based Resource Management Agreement
(PACBRMA)

4. Monitoring and Evaluation