MIMAROPAhayagan 2018 1st Sem

of life with visitors. While
increasing local income and
building local economies,
community-based tourism
allows communities to
participate in the modern
global economy while
cultivating a sustainable
source of income and
maintaining their way of life.
Participants are now
empowered through local
leadership by creating plans
and encouraging clear and
transparent decision-making.
Community members
actively make decisions on
strategies and acceptable
levels of tourism based
upon the community’s
culture, heritage, and vision.
Strategies also equip local
communities with the tools
and knowledge necessary
for decision-making, and to
build effective structures
to enable the community
to influence, manage, and
benefit from ecotourism
development and practice.
Puerto Princesa, the Eco-
Tourism Center of the
Philippines, received a
remarkable increase in the
number of tourists in the past
few years bringing with them
trade and businesses in the
city.
The Department of Social
Welfare and Development
(DSWD), in partnership with
Local Government Unit,
began the communitybased
ecotourism as part of
supporting the advocacy of
the municipality.
They designed the
Sustainable Livelihood
Program (SLP) to alleviate
poverty through livelihood
projects and employment
facilitation. Communitybased
ecotourism in
Palawan proved the power
of sustainable livelihood and
biodiversity conservation to
alleviate rural poverty.
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