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Our group agreed to develop ecotourism because...
1. ...
2. ...

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One group member proposed... because...
Two members agreed because...
One member suggested...
The final decision is...

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We all agreed that... because...
Pros and cons...

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Our group agreed to develop ecotourism because...
1. it can bring economic benefits while minimizing the damage to the natural environment
2. it can educate the locals and the tourists to increase their environmental awareness
3. it helps preserve local culture when more and more people know their traditions and culture by the natural-based ecotourism
4. it can help combat climate change and enhance sustainability development
5. ecotourism can also provide job opportunities to the local community

# data[].attributes.body
Our group agreed to develop ecotourism because...
1. it can increase the income of villagers
2. it can reduce environmental destruction by villagers
3. it can promote local development and improve the livelihood of villagers
4. it can encourage the villagers to have more environmentally sustainable practices in agriculture (converted from slash-and-burn)
5. it can allow tourists to get known to the indigenous culture and have the awareness to preserve it

# data[].attributes.body
Our group agreed to develop ecotourism because

1) When tourists buy the crops it helps develop the local economy (improves the local's income)

2) Ecotourism could help to introduce cultural diversity to the local community (only to the extent that the locals want it)

3) Ecotourism also helps promote the local culture to tourists

4) Ecotourism development will require teaching the tourists how to respect the locals (e.g. not taking photos of the locals if they don't like it)

5) Ecotourism could provide incentives to reduce locals from "slash and burn", which could help the environment (slow down/stop land degradation)

# data[].attributes.body
Our group agreed to develop ecotourism because
1. We want to earn more income in order to allow people to become richer and have better life.
2. We want to promote our local culture in order to to provide people a sense of community. Also, if we can become famous, and if there are more tourists, there could be a chance to develop and improve transportation so that we can transport to other places more efficiently.
3. We want to modernise our community as we are still outdated that we rely on hunting and fishing for living.

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Our group agreed to build an ecolodge because...

1. It is a way for tourists to learn about the local people and the environment surrounding them

2. It is a main income source when the community decides to develop tourism

3. It is a way to preserve local culture by introducing it to more people, if successfully implemented, it can attract more tourists

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Pros:
1. They can promote ecotourism which helps increase the income of villagers significantly
2. They can introduce more environmentally sustainable practices to villagers to help conserve the environment
3. They can promote the local development of indigenous villages by promoting ecotourism and cultural exchange
4. Different from travel agencies, they will consider less about making a revenue and more about improving the livelihood of villagers

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Our group agreed to introduce NGO because...

- Balancing the interest of the local community (Earning Money & Preserving Local Culture) while protecting the environment

- Stressed more on environmental protection, can introduce more sustainable practices that can protect the well-being of the community.

- Enhancing some of the soft skills (e.g. Simple English, Presentation Skills) so as to raise the competitiveness of the indigenous people

However...

The NGO should be trustworthy and introduce effective communication to the local community. Otherwise, ecotourism cannot be run in the long run.

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They bring education to the local community as they teach them English and knowledge about environment protection.

- teaching them English is one way to enhance their skills level so that in the future they can have more job opportunities
- the environment protection knowledge is to help the community to be able to live more sustainably on their own in the future

Also, the education is mutual since the people from NGO also learn the local language and culture from the community.

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Our group members all disagreed with building an ecolodge, as the construction of ecolodge may ruin the environment. Also, a better and bigger ecolodge could become a new attraction which attracts more tourists and crowd, which also affect the quality of life of local.

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The local people should consider the opinions of NGOs.

It is because the local people may lack professional knowledge about how to develop a sustainable ecotourism. NGOs can provide useful advice and educate them how to minimize the environmental impacts while organizing ecotourism.

Without relevant knowledge, the local people may destroy their native culture to cater to the interests of the tourists. (over-commercialize their culture)

Besides, they may use more natural resources to satisfy the needs of increasing number of tourists (building more accommodations, growing more food) which put more pressure on the environment.

.

# data[].attributes.body
Some members agreed to develop ecolodge by our community because the international organisation wasn't respecting our culture. Therefore, all our community decided to build the ecolodge by ourselves.
Yet, others worried about the construction of ecolodge will destroy the local environment and cause pollution.

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Our group disagreed to build an ecolodge. We choose to build a tourist cabin.

1. Building a tourist cabin helps boost the economic growth and accommodate more tourists

2. building a ecolodge may take up a lot of space, and may be followed by more development of infrastructure, implying more land which are originally residential or agricultural use will be turned into commercial land. This has hindered the local community if they want to restore their farmland. Also, more development will cause more destruction to the environment, affecting the visual landscape too.

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Yes at first,
1. As we do not have experience to develop ecotourism. To reduce any potential risk, we decide to follow expert’s opinions.
2. They may have more scientific knowledge and evidence to develop well our environment.

But after gaining experience, we decide remove NGO
1. NGO takes away the authority of our community. They said that the forest is a part of the world, but we think that the forest is ours.
2. They begins to ear more income for themselves, but not for us. This could lead to the leakage effect, which means that though the developing areas bought the imports in order to facilitate the development, but the profits gained from the development is also lost due to the imports, as the imports bring away the benefits.

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We all disagreed that NGO should be introduced because

Pros
1. The local community can stick to the agriculture practice (more stable income)

2. Locals can have more control over their resources

3. Prevent them from further forgetting their local culture and traditions

4. introduce them to the modernized global community, teaching them basic english skills in order to connect with the world.

Cons
1. Although tourism provides more income for locals, it is a less stable source of income

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We prefer not to build it because...
1. the influx of tourists may exceed the capacity of the indigenous villagers, thus affecting their daily lives
2. the construction works and increased number of tourists will lead to environmental destruction
3. there may be more acute conflicts between the villagers and tourists

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Our group agreed to develop ecotourism because
1. Economic aspect: the tourists will buy the local crops which helps to boost the local economy (Increase local income and increase job opportunities)
2. Cultural aspect: Increase cultural diversity and promote their unique local culture globally (e.g. local language, local food, knowledge of local plants and animals)
--> preserve traditional local culture
3. It helps to promote local development and increase livelihood of the community
4. Increase local awareness in protecting their community and the importance of sustainability

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Our group members all disagreed to build an ecolodge because…

1. The construction of ecolodge will damage the environment nearby. Since the construction need to cut down trees in order to get more land resources, this will lead to the destruction of living environment of the indigenous people and habitat of animals. This will cause lots of pollution, likes water and sound pollution and so on.

2. Although the ecolodge will facilitate the place to be a tourist attraction, the local people may not have enough resources and ability to face the rapid development of ecotourism. For example, the tourist hotels may not be enough to meet the increasing number of tourists, meaning that the instant grow of development of ecotourism exceed the capacity of indigenous people.

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We agree to develop ecotourism because...
1. Creates employment opportunities: tour guide

2. Direct and indirect revenue: sell crops and tourist attraction

3. Diversifies economy: primary production (agriculture) to tertiary production (tourism)

Lowers economic risks to the society

4. Increase the level of recognition of their culture, reach a broader group of people

Citizens: Cultivate a sense of pride and belonging to the community

5. may stop the slash and burning culture in the community to have a good reputation in tourism

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Our group agreed to develop ecotourism because...

1. In terms of economics, their income will increase which is double from their original because of an increase in the quantity of corp. Also, they can earn the additional income from tourists. The additional income can increase resources for the locals to improve their quality of life.

2. In terms of culture, they can promote their special culture when tourists come to visit. Also, they can get to know other cultures from tourists. And, they can maintain their culture easier by promoting to the visitors.

3. In terms of sustainability, they can learn a more environmental-friendly way to farming.

4. The locals can learn English or other languages from tourists.

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We agree to build the ecolodge because...
1. ecolodge is more eco-friendly than the tourist compound

Can accommodate more tourists to promote the tourism

maximise the preservation of the environment, land use and culture

strike a balance between tourism and local accommodation

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We agree to develop ecotourism regarding the economic, social and environmental perspectives.
A. Benefits
1. Economic:
- it can increase the income of the locals
- the revenues from ecotourism can be channeled to both community and the ecotourism projects --> increasing the living standard of the locals
2. Social:
- it promotes local culture to tourists (e.g., music, traditional dance, local language, clothing, living environment, eating habits - cassava)
3. Environmental:
- it can conserve the environment by keeping the scale of ecotourism within the carrying capacity of the environment --> ensuring the living standard of the locals

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We agree to introduce NGO because...

In the beginning, we thought that...
1. NGO can strike a balance between economic profit and environmental sustainability, they are also more experienced than locals in this aspect

2. Local travel agencies mainly focus on earning profits, and might sometimes neglect the negative impacts on the environment when they are overly focused on expanding the tourism industry.

3. There is the problem of rampant corruption in the government, which might affect our plans adversely for their personal benefit. Furthermore, they only give funding and offer no concrete solutions on how to expand the tourism industry.

However, we later kicked NGO out of the project and developed ourselves because...
1. NGO started to impose too many restrictions on the daily lives of the locals, changing the original culture there.

2. We have already learnt the basics of ecotourism development from NGO experts so now we have the experience to start doing it ourselves in the way that is most beneficial to society.

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1. effects of tourism after expansion VS restricted community growth and tourist access

2. introduction of foreign culture VS introduction of local culture

3. Split revenue between agriculture and tourism (concentrate resources) VS Distribute to the whole community

4. Continue focus on tourism VS restore local environment after earthquake

# data[].attributes.body
We agreed that NGO should be introduced because

1. NGO can provide relevant knowledge and experience in balancing the interests of local residents, local economy as well as the environmental impacts caused under ecotourism
2. NGO can provide education and introduce sustainable methods for local residents to on one hand develop the ecotourism, and on the other hand learn to conserve the natural resources and environment
3. NGO can take good use of their global influence to promote the importance of tourism conservation and educate the public (e.g. the visitors) to protect the village and reduce putting pressure on the environment
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However, the premise of introducing a NGO is that local residents should always be put in the first place and should be trustworthy.

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Our group disagreed to build an ecolodge because...

1.  From environmental perspective, building an ecolodge will bring harm to the environment. Due to the demand of land, a lot of trees will be cut for developing.

2. From the economic perspective, building an ecolodge is expensive. Even an ecolodge is build, there may be some incidents such as earthquakes or pandemics to affect the number of tourists. It means that building an ecolodge does no t guarantee profitability or they may even have the economic burden because of the loans from the government.

3. From the lifestyle perspective, although building an ecolodge may benefit the tourists, it does harm the local people. Since the local community are used to the old-traditional living style, they may feel disturbed. For example, they will complain about the noise from generator.

Instead of building an ecolodge, tourists living with the local people may be a possible solution. :)

# data[].attributes.body
We disagree to build an ecolodge.
1. Social:
- Building an ecolodge may lose the opportunity of promoting the local culture (esp. living environment and habits)
- Social conflicts may be triggered. The lifestyle of tourists and locals may not be the same.
- Since the children are trained to be ambassadors to serve the tourists, their life may be affected. e.g., time for leisure/ study
2. Environmental: adverse impacts
- Biosphere: Opening up the forest will lead to loss of biodiversity and habitats.
- Lithosphere: Opening up the forest will lead to exposure of soil to sunlight, resulting in loss of soil moisture and soil degradation.
- Atmosphere: Exposing soil to sunlight may lead to the increase of surface temperature on a micro-scale.
-  Hydrosphere: Opening up the forest lead to the loss of trees, resulting in reduced infiltration. This may affect the level of groundwater.
3. Economic:
- Building an ecolodge may lead to further expansion of ecotourism. This may lead to economic homogeneity.

--> The way to balance the economic, social and environmental perspectives:
- Providing guest huts to tourists can help promote local culture and minimize adverse environmental impacts while generating revenues for the local livelihood.

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NGO should be introduced.
1. NGO can act as an advocate for the locals, pointing out the potential problems of ecotourism on local life.
2. NGO can act as a collaboration platform between the local government, overseas government and the locals. This can facilitate the provision of funding by government to support the development of ecotourism.
3. NGO can provide up-to-date research regarding ecotourism. This can help with our development of ecotourism since generally the locals have a lower education level.
4. NGO can provide public opinions on ecotourism by campaigns, including how to increase the sustainability of ecotourism and the opinions of the locals and tourists.

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Our group disagree to develop ecotourism because

1.  Self sufficient resources --> no need depend on other financial resources from visitors (X extra investment )

2.  Avoid cultural invasion --> maintain local culture (cultural intrusion, cultural hegemony)

3. Consumption of resources might increase due demand of the product from the tourist --> Lack of resources

4. Affect ecological system because of the demand from tourist --> pollution Eg. Solid waste pollution, water/air pollution , disturb wildlife

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Our group agreed to develop ecotourism because
1. Economic:
- the ecotourists would buy crops which increases the income of the local people and the local economy
- the locals earn money from being the tourist guides
2. Socio-cultural:
- promote local cultural (e.g. fishing, language
- tourists from developed countries would bring western culture which improve cultural diversity
- improve quality of life (by earning money from the tourists
3. Environmental:
- tourists would improve their environmental awareness

# data[].attributes.body
Our group agreed to develop ecotourism because..
1.  Economically, it can create more revenue to improve our living. Although we are self-sufficient at the moment by eating Guinea pig and farming, but it would be beneficial if we can improve our financial situation. Introducing ecotourism will increase our revenue by providing hostel and selling crops, and provide more employment opportunities
2. Also, it can improve our infrastructure. Now, it takes hours to travel to other city. Introducing ecotourism can improve our transportation infrastructure and other related infrastructure in the village.
3. Socioculturally, it will also foster the bonding of the community. By promoting our culture to others, and appreciated by the foreigners, it will help to increase the pride of our culture and enhance our identity, thus the stability and wellbeing of the community.
4. Even if we don’t introduce ecotourism, there might still be self-initiated tourism from parties. Without the control, the harm might be larger and we might lose the potential revenue

# data[].attributes.body
Our group agreed to develop ecotourism because:
1. Economic
Higher income of local people

2. Social
Spread and preserve the local culture by introducing them to more people
Knowledge from developed area can help develop the community

3. Environment
Tourist have a better understanding about the environment

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our group disagree to build an ecolodge because

1. the facilities in the community can't meet capacity of visitors after building an ecolodge, this created huge pressure to the village

2. the ecolodge may be built in more modernised style that will be quite different with the original houses in the village. This may affect the overall view of the village.

3. high cost to build the ecolodge eg building materials, transportation of materials to the village, advices from professionals, maintenance fee etc...

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1. One member suggest to allocate a designated land for tourist to limit the harmful impact of tourism on the environment and local people.

2. Better infrastructure attract more tourist.

3. Tourist can learn to coexist with the nature.

4. The profit from ecotourism can compensate the building cost of the ecolodge.

The final decision is we agreed to build an ecolodge.

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Our group members disagreed to build an ecolodge because...
1. Land pollution:
- the construction work would destroy the farmland and the forest
- the influx of tourists would exceed the land capacity
2. Water pollution:
- the tourists would produce domestic waste e.g. sewage/ mistreatment of waste -> affect water supply + pollution
3. Conflicts:
- land-use conflict
- between tourists and the locals
4. The new modern style of ecolodge would not blend into the original style of the village
5. Increase burden to the local community:
- cost: construction, maintenance, electricity and water fee

# data[].attributes.body
We all disagreed to because
1. Environmentally, it will reduce the area of forest and farms, potentially lead to deforestation, soil erosion, and reduce ecological value of the community. A modern ecolodge will also increase pollution.
2. Socially, it might reduce social harmony in the community. As some of the villager still oppose to ecotourism, having such a large project and introducing more visitors might bring opposition and conflicts within the community
3. It might exceeds the carrying capacity of the community. Building a ecolodge might increase visitors, yet the supply of food and resources might not meet up to the demand, which eventually cause exploitation of the resources.
4. It may reduce attractiveness to visitors. The selling point of the community is its indigenous culture and its way of living. Building a ecolodge and not let visitors stay in villagers house might reduce the attractiveness to villagers.