People-First and World Forestry

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Today I had the pleasure of presenting the People-First Tourism concept to students in a colleague's World Forestry class with engaging students from all across the NC State campus.  While their academic backgrounds varied from social sciences to biological sciences and engineering, they all seemed captivated by our attempts to identify a people-centered model for community development and environmental conservation.  I've invited them to visit this blog and voice their impressions, advice and questions.  Can't wait to see what they say!

The People-First community is growing  :-)   Duarte

PS:  In Shangri-La, Yunnan, PRC, Tibetan communities had to quickly create cooperative tourism and non-timber forest product businesses to adapt to the government's prohibition of logging in the headwaters of the Yangtze river.

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