Institutional Co-Operation for Eco-Tourism Management in Royal Belum Forest State Park (RBFSP), Malaysia

The management of eco-tourism in Malaysia is experiencing a period of transition, fromcommercially-driven towards sustainable focus management. The shift has caused the authority to prepare a comprehensive development plans as the means to achieve sustainable developments. However the implementation of the programs are in the purview of the respective states as the ‘land is a state matter’. The stakeholders’ reaction to this current phenomena are varied. Some of them are receptive while others are sceptical. In this light, a survey was conducted with participation of 26 respondents among RBFSP stakeholders. They includes the 12 local authorities, eight tourism service providers, one private and four local community (NGO and community). Questionnaires were design to gauge their perspectives of co-management, its importance and to evaluate their current practice of eco-tourism in the RBFSP. In-depth interviews were also carried out on selected stakeholders. The overall result from the stakeholders’ perspective of co-management in RBFSP indicates that 15 stakeholders are ready for co-management to be implemented, while the other 11 stakeholders are quite reluctant. However, all of them including the 11 stakeholders agreed that co-management is important in sustaining the eco-tourism resources. Moreover the cooperation among stakeholders is much needed to ensure the eco-tourism resources are sustainably managed and maintained.