Tourism and Payments for Environmental Services: The Outlook for a Stronger Business Case to Develop Rural Tourism in Bhutan

This article focuses on a PES pilot on tourism in the Jigme Singye Wangchuk National Park of Bhutan in 2006.  A Village Development Fund (VDF) was set up by collecting campsite fees which was used to pay for community development and activities as  alternative energy sources, compensation for damage of harvest by wildlife and any other environmental activity. Village Tourism Management Committees (TMC) were responsible for the management of funds and minimizing negative effects of tourism and raised awareness of communities. Revenues  from five villages along the trial increased from USD 10,000 (2006-2007) to USD 12,000 (2008-2009) . This pilot project shows that communities can benefit from community managed tourism development. PES mechanisms were implicitly included and might be explicitly in future product and service designs.