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A nha dai or communal house of ethnic groups living at the Cat
Tien National Park has opened its doors to welcome tourists visiting the park in
Ta Lai Commune, Tan Phu District in the southern province of Dong Nai.
The house, which took five months to complete in a project funded by the World
Wide Fund (WWF), is the first community-based tourism guest house in the region.
Located near the forest's edge at Cat Tien National Park, the 125sq.m communal
house is made from environmentally-friendly materials such as bamboo, wood, palm
leaves and rattan. The house is the result of the hard work of ethnic people
from the Ma, S'tieng and Tay community, who directly participated in the
designing, planning and building of the house.
The house is a part of the community-based tourism model, which is one of the
key activities of the Eco-tourism Development in Viet Nam's National Reserves
project implemented by WWF in collaboration with the Cat Tien National Park
since 2008.
According to chairman of Ta Lai Commune Dang Vu Hiep, the house offers not only
cultural meaning but also economic value to the ethnic groups living in the
region.
"Community-based tourism will create stable livelihoods for local people by
helping to reduce pressure on natural resources, raise people's awareness on
environmental protection and promote the cultural characters of the ethnic
community," he said.
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