3.
The VWB Vision

Vision.
Mission & objectives.
Participants.
Volunteers.
Voluntourists.
Virtual volunteers.
Scientists.
Schools and universities.
Corporate clients
Ecotourists
Adventure racers.
Making it work.
The stakeholder benefit flowchart.
Development plans.

Vision

Over the course of the next decade we intend to develop a viable platform on which the key tourist industry stakeholders and rural village communities of Northern Thailand can, working together, create a network of sustainable ecotourism attractions that are owned and operated by local people - who have been properly trained to run them.

Mission & Objectives.

The VWB Initiative will adhere to the ‘sufficiency economy development model’ preferred by His Majesty the King of Thailand, and will subscribe with the WTO aims of poverty alleviation, environmental protection, and the preservation of local cultures.

We intend to:

Establish a working group of the main stakeholders who will share both the responsibilities and rewards – required and offered - by having the VWB Initiative involved.

Enable the local village (Ban Mae Lai) to generate new income from community owned ecotourism as well as from alternative farming practices.

Implement programmes that work to reverse deforestation, protect the watershed and increase the biodiversity of the Pang Soong area community forest

Work to preserve and celebrate the village’s indigenous culture and knowledge by incorporating it into ecotourism and educational programmes.

Encourage other villages in the immediate area, and beyond to emulate these practices with the ultimate goal being the creation of a truly sustainable ecotourism industry in Northern Thailand.

Participants.

The VWB Initiative works with a broad range of participants.

Volunteers.
Voluntourists.
Virtual volunteers.
Scientists.
Schools and universities.
Corporate clients
Ecotourists
Adventure racers.

Volunteers & Voluntourists.

Volunteers – individuals or groups who are joining us for periods longer than one week. They are sponsored or self funded. They spend their time working alongside local people and or participating scientists (or assistants) on one of our development or environmental projects, (the nature trails project, or within the village/school community). Volunteers generally possess skills in a particular field (eg. teaching, science, construction, marketing) which they will utilise to benefit the goals of the VWB Initiative.

Voluntourists – individuals or groups who are joining us for a shorter period of time – from a day to a week – whilst in Thailand on a conventional holiday. Voluntourists may be skilled or unskilled but must be enthusiastic about contributing their time and funding to a project and want to get involved with the local community.

To learn more about the opportunities for volunteers and voluntourists, see volunteers & voluntourists.

Also take a look at what some of our volunteers had to say about their experiences in Thailand.

Virtual Volunteers.

Virtual volunteers work from their homes in various countries around the world, on a number of supporting tasks as defined in the volunteer & voluntourist section, and communicate with the Initiative via email. Being a virtual volunteer allows participants to maintain contact with the Initiative beyond any time they spend in Thailand and continue to contribute to the Initiative reaching its goals.

Virtual volunteers make a valuable contribution to the Initiative, if you would like to be a virtual volunteer, please contact us for more details.

Also take a look at what some of our volunteers, who are now virtual volunteers, had to say about their experiences in Thailand.

Scientists.

To achieve our goals of reversing deforestation and increasing the biodiversity of the Ban Mae Lai area, and of recording the changes that occur naturally, or that our direct efforts bring, the assistance of scientists is needed to develop ecological studies.

The Pang Soong Lodge, Outdoor Education & Research Centre offers an excellent base, and full logistical support for scientific studies.

We are particularly keen to implement studies that can be continued, with minimal training, by local people, volunteer and visiting school or university students. Involvement with real studies as opposed to field lessons, may possibly provide them with educational credits.

There are opportunities to conduct studies from the habitat to species level. A list of tree and animal and bird species already identified in the area.

The VWB Initiative will provide assistance with information for grant applications, please contact us for more information.

Schools.

School groups are encouraged to combine their outdoor education programmes with contributions to our environmental and development projects. Examples can be found under of outdoor education programmes.

Corporations.

Corporate sector sponsorship is an important aspect of the funding for the VWB Initiative. Corporations can contribute to the Initiative by providing:

• A direct donation to fund a specific VWB Initiative project (eg. Construction of a section of the Pang Soong Nature Trail)
• Sponsorship of a school group to attend a VWB Initiative programme
• Sponsorship of a scientist (or post-graduate student) to conduct research in the region to support the goals of the VWB Initiative.
• Sponsorship of their own employees to volunteer for periods of time with the Initiative (eg. Junior managers working with the VWB Initiative to broaden their project management and cultural experience

Corporations are also able to contribute directly to the Initiative by combining a Track of the Tiger team building programme with a community development project. In undertaking the project, your employees will be able to see first hand the contribution that your company is making as part of its corporate social responsibility efforts. See our corporate team building programmes.

Eco-tourists.

Tourists are encouraged to come and use the facilities developed by the VWB Initiative through ecotourism programmes provided by Track of the Tiger t.R.D. By using these facilities, tourists are making a direct contribution to the Initiative, and helping to ensure its future.

They may also contribute directly by buying, planting, or providing maintenance of plants along the trail they are walking.

Adventure Racers.

Adventure racing is a popular past time in South East Asia. With its naturally rugged terrain, the area around Pang Soong Trails is ideally suited to the sport.

For fear of damaging the environment the VWB Initiative will be running small group challenges for individuals and small groups on the Pang Soong Nature Trails network, allowing them to race against the terrain and the clock, recording their times on the wall of fame.

Making it work.

Our analysis of several failed or ineffective ecotourism development projects shows that although the potential existed, many ventures floundered because:

• They were either designed from the top down, with little regard for the villagers real needs, or perhaps just as bad, were designed from the bottom up – but without enough vision or a proper feasibility study.

Although we do not subscribe to the ‘top down’ development model, we are equally opposed to the mantra that states the ‘bottom up’ model is the only acceptable option.

As a stakeholder – (an ecotourism operator) with 22 years on the ground, we know the villagers desperately want a solution to their seemingly perpetual poverty, but lack the world vision or business acumen (at present) to design, then implement a sustainable solution themselves.

Our role is to provide that vision, table solutions for their acceptance, and subject to that acceptance, commit to a 10 year development agreement that will allow then ownership of combined ‘community based ecotourism business’ and agroforestry based alternative revenues streams.

Over the course of that agreement, we will help secure the resources and custom to develop the project with them, whilst providing training to the old and young, in order that they may acquire the skills to manage the project successfully themselves.

• They were run more as development aid programmes than ecotourism businesses – dependant on continued grant funding and incapable of becoming viable stand alone businesses.

From the outset, we can bring business to the project in the form of trail entrance fees and guide payments.

We have designed programmes – to be run along the axis of the nature trails - and aimed at our well established client base spread over the ecotourism, educational tourism, corporate team building and adventure racing markets.

The alternative revenue streams – added value agro-forestry / NTFP related – allow for a controlled balance between tourism (volume / revenue / environmental and social impact) and earnings from a more traditional lifestyle.

• They did not establish ‘responsibilities and rewards’ for all the stakeholders – including those along the supply chain.

There have been almost as many cases of the ‘sending or placement agency’ reaping huge rewards and contributing very little funding to projects, as there have been of funds received not being spent where they were really needed by the project management.

We have put a system in place to address this by:

(a) Building a modest per diem commission for the placement agency into our programme cost, and being transparent about exactly what that fee, and the overall programme cost breakdown is.

(b) Allowing for the fact that some individuals will want to book direct and do not want to go through an agency (pay placement fees) – but would willingly pay that same amount, into the VWB Initiative development fund, whilst understanding our need to have the placement agencies in the supply chain.

The Stakeholder Benefit Flowchart

Development Plans.
Initially the VWB Initiative will focus on its pilot project, the development of the Pang Soong Nature Trails, and the supporting projects directly related to it.

Our immediate priorities are listed below but we have a more detailed list available.

1. The physical development of the main trail – a mixed earth & concrete walkway, steps, bridges
   and river crossings that follow a route app, 4kms in distance along the Mae Lai stream.
   
   
2. The identification and recording of the biodiversity around the Pang Soong Lodge & Outdoor
   Education & Research Centre, and along the main nature trail.
   
   
3. The completion of a nature trail guide book for the trail, with comment and photography of the flora and
   fauna cross indexed to observation viewing points, and individual points of interest along the route.
   
   
4. The development of ‘interactive’ English language lesson plans for 4 local schools, based on the
   existing curriculum, and in a format that can easily be used by non teacher qualified voluntourists and
   volunteers assisting in the VWB Initiative’s local schools English language progamme.
   
   
5. The construction and stocking of a nursery at Pang Soong Lodge & Outdoor Education & Research Centre
   to facilitate the implementation of biodiversity augmentation and NTFP / Agro-forestry programmes.(non timber forest product)
   
   
6. The survey and route marking of 4-5 secondary ‘jungle trails’ radiating out from, and returning to the Lodge
   or the main trail.
   
   
7. The completion of a nature trail guide book for the ‘jungle trails’, with comment and photography of the flora
   and fauna cross indexed to observation viewing points, and individual points of interest along each route.