With a special focus to study the impact of climate change in tourism and livelihood, this
research was carried out in Manaslu Conservtion Area (MCA) of Gorkha district of
Nepal. The study was done with the help of 76 household (HH) survey, 3 focus group
discussions (FGD), 5 key informant interviews (KII) and by analysis of secondary data
and literature. Regression model was used to assess, impact of tourism in livelihood and
impact of climate change and tourism in livelihood.
Socioeconomic variables such as population (age, marital status, size of household),
livestock holding status, land holding status, education and occupation of the HH were
affecting the living standard of people and tourism participation. Climate change impact
was perceived as increase in frequency of landslides, increase in temperature resulting in
faster melting of snow, unfavorable weather change phenomenon, snowfall in the month
of May, decrease in agricultural productivity and economic instability affecting the
livelihood of people. Number of visitors is increasing in MCA in recent years which
might be due to the positive impact of climate change and publicity in national and
international scenario. Physical capital, square of physical capital, tourism participation
and income are positively significant with per capita HH consumption. It shows that,
holding more land encourage tourism participation to earn more money which in turn
positively affects the livelihood of the people. Climate change had insignificant impact on
livelihood of the people in the study area at present.