The development of a tourism management framework for the conservation of national parks in Rwanda

Abstract

This study sought to develop a tourism management framework for the conservation of Rwanda’s national parks to ensure the upliftment of surrounding communities through tourism projects. The research, carried out between 2015 and 2018, specifically sought to establish the effect of local community capacity building, decision-making processes, reporting channels, compensation processes and local community involvement and participation as possible components of a tourism management framework for the conservation of the national parks in Rwanda. The study used a mixed methodology with surveys and semi-structured interviews, on a population including local community members, termed “households” in this study, government officials and experts in areas of tourism and conservation (government officials and conservation experts were interviewed). For local communities, a sample of 993 households spread across the three national parks under study was used. To collect data from local communities the researcher developed a structured questionnaire that was administered with the assistance of two research assistants. A pilot study was carried out in two different villages with 10 households in each village. It revealed that some people did not know how to read, or they simply lacked the knowledge to answer the questions, though they ought to have had the information required. Data processing and analysis is essential to ensure that all relevant data is gathered for making sound comparisons. The research used descriptive, correlation and regression analysis to analyse the data. The data collected from the open-ended questions were analysed using content analysis. The study developed and validated a tourism management framework for the conservation of Rwanda’s three national parks using conservation of national parks as the dependent variable, while community capacity building, the decision-making process, reporting channels, compensation and local community involvement and participation were used as the five independent variables for the framework. The results of regression estimates indicated that community capacity building, reporting channels, compensation and local community involvement and participation had a positive and significant effect on the conservation of Rwandan national parks, while decision-making had an insignificant effect on the conservation of national parks in Rwanda. In addition to the developed tourism management framework, the study identified a communication gap amongst stakeholders and the research proposed a communication strategy that could be adopted to ensure the framework was successfully implemented. Finally, recommendations were made to specific stakeholders for the effectiveness and efficiency of the developed framework. The recommendations addressed action for policymakers, local communities, and the private sector.