Polimiforkarakorum

This paper presents the project Polimiforkarakorum, that, on the one hand, originated from the UNESCO instructions on the fight against poverty and on the development of ecotourism in central and southern Asia and, on the other hand, from the experience of a research group at the Politecnico di Milano, which has long been active on the same case-study. The objective was to provide local communities, the Central Karakorum National Park (CKNP) and NGOs active on the ground with a concrete tool for heritage conservation and enhancement. This was also meant as a way to promote the population’s socio-economic development through its involvement in the management of activities related to sustainable tourism, as prescribed by a Community Based Tourism (CBT) approach. The research was structured in two parts, a theoretical one and an experimental one, strictly interacting in the different phases of study, verification and application.