Fighting poverty through forms of Community Based Tourism in the territories of Central Karakorum

The paper discusses the outcome of a recent project to develop tourism in the territories of CKNP (Central Karakorum National Park) in northern Pakistan called "Polimiforkarakorum". The project was among the winners of Polisocial Award 2013-2014 and, as such, was funded by the Politecnico of Milan. For nearly a decade, I coordinate a work group that conducts research and planning for the protection and enhancement of the territories of CKNP and its surrounding villages, as part of an international cooperation projects (in particular, Karakorum Trust and SEED). Our approach of study and addresses of intervention is based on the belief that great are the potentials of the history of the territory, of the city and its connective tissue, of the material culture and social organization of the inhabitants. We are focused on the dynamics through which it is possible to make heritage more known and accessible, in the awareness that tourism is a crucial resource either to preserve some of the cultural resources and to allow a socio-economic development of the population living on the site. Starting from the potential of "sustainable tourism" as a specific tool for the activation of the dynamic of socio-economic development of populations in extreme poverty, we have identified a number of actions to promote the development of a "community tourism" within an overall project of enhancement of areas in northern Pakistan. The territories of the Karakoram tell a millenary history of exchanges and meetings, crossed by the silk roads, but also the site of passage of the ancient carovan routes that linked the Indian subcontinent to Central Asia. Karakorum has always been a meeting place of people and a melting pot of cultures, where the reception of the ''other” has long been considered as a value. The built heritage is the witness of the stratification of influences of different cultures and civilizations. The villages of the mountain valleys adjacent to CKNP are very poor, their living conditions are extreme and one survives thanks to a subsistence economy linked to the minute portions of arable land and few animals that live in symbiosis with men. At the same time, they have an environmental heritage and a cultural-historical one, which requires appropriate measures to protect and use, and are a popular destination for thousands of climbers willing to challenge the highest peaks in the world. Our project includes a plan for coordinating tourism promotion activities and interventions aimed at tackling social segregation, to reduce environmental and socio-cultural degradation, to facilitate the distribution of income and the development of entrepreneurship within the local communities. It aims to show how, through the introduction of forms of social and economic development linked to Community Based Tourism, will activate new models of tourist development involving, first, the local communities as protagonists in the project for the protection and enhancement of their territories and their culture not only being beneficiaries of development actions, but also being proactive in the process of recognition of their identity and their resources (Bottom-Up Approach).