Climate Change and its Impact on Tourism and Livelihood in Nepal: A Case Study of Manaslu Conservation Area

Abstract

With a special focus to study the impact of climate change in tourism and livelihood, this research was carried out in Manaslu Conservtion Area (MCA) of Gorkha district of Nepal. The study was done with the help of 76 household (HH) survey, 3 focus group discussions (FGD), 5 key informant interviews (KII) and by analysis of secondary data and literature. Regression model was used to assess impact of climate change on Tourism and Livelihood. Socioeconomic variables such as population (age, marital status, size of household), livestock holding status, land holding status, education and occupation of the HH were affecting the living standard of people and tourism participation. Climate change impact was perceived as increase in frequency of landslides, increase in temperature resulting in faster melting of snow, unfavorable weather change phenomenon, snowfall in the month of May, decrease in agricultural productivity and economic instability affecting the livelihood of people. Number of visitors is increasing in MCA in recent years which might be due to the positive impact of climate change and publicity in national and international scenario. Physical capital, square of physical capital, tourism participation and income are positively significant with per capita HHs consumption. It shows that holding more land encourage tourism participation. It helps to earn more money which in turn positively affects the livelihood of the people. Climate change had insignificant impact on livelihood of the people in the study area at present. There was significant impact of tourism in livelihood of the local people in MCA till the date. The scenario might be different if the climate change and its impact increases in the future. So, awareness and education programmes related to tourism, gender empowerment of women towards tourism participation, advertisement and publicity on tourism promotion in national and international level, adequate subsidy and training on ecotourism, skill development trainings on handicraft and further research to identify the relationship between climate change, tourism and livelihood is recommended. Key Words: Climate Change, Tourism, Livelihood, MCA JEL Classification: Q54, L83, D130