Mount Everest

Question 1

Where is Mount Everest?

Answer 1

South Asia between India to the south and China to the north

Question 2

What made tourist numbers suddenly increase on Mount Everest?

Answer 2

Nepal was opened to foreign visitors in 1950 after two centuries of isolation. Annual tourist visit was as low as 10,000 until 1965 but dramatically increased in the following decades.

Question 3

Economic opportunities (resource exploitation, recreation and tourism) What has created the change in employment on Mount Everest?

Answer 3

• High, steep mountains provide beautiful scenery (majestic landscape) which attracts tourists who create a demand for tertiary employment in hotels leading to a multiplier effect.
• Tourism based activities has been primarily been used to buy local agricultural products from low altitude areas

Question 4

Economic opportunities (resource exploitation, recreation and tourism) What economic opportunities are created by tourism?

Answer 4

Opportunity for climbing the mountain: stores selling food, souvenirs and selling or renting trekking or mountaineering paraphernalia sherpas trekking agents, tour operators, sirdars (trekking field managers) high altitude climbers, porters and cooks Owning lodges

Question 5

Economic opportunities (resource exploitation, recreation and tourism) Describe the Sherpas jobs on Mount Everest.

Answer 5

• Sherpas (who are involved in higher altitude work) earn average of $7000 = increasing prosperity for indigenous population. [Employed in trekking and mountaineering activities as group leaders (sirdars), porters and cooks as a part of trekking groups or mountaineering expeditions].
• Most of the Sherpas are employed throughout the year by the mountaineering and trekking agencies based in Kathmandu. Their income from seasonal work is sufficient to sustain themselves for a year

Question 6

Economic opportunities (resource exploitation, recreation and tourism) How does the whole of Nepal benefit from tourism on Mount Everest?

Answer 6

Mountaineering in Khumbu region is a source of substantial foreign exchange for the government of Nepal. $50,000 is charged for a team of 7 people and additional $20,000 is charged if the team wishes to scale Mount Everest from East Ridge route

Question 7

Economic opportunities (resource exploitation, recreation and tourism) How are Yak used on Mount everest?

Answer 7

• female Yak called Nak used for dairy product and to cross-breed with Tibetan Bulls to produce Urang Zokpio in order to sell them in Tibet (manure for dried dung – fuel)
• urang zopkio for transport

Question 8

What economic opportunities are there primarily for women on Mount everest?

Answer 8

women are employed as kitchen or camp crews or as pack-stock drivers

Question 9

How much can lodges earn on Mount Everest?

Answer 9

lodge can earn as much as $10,000 a year, and most lodges earn at least $2000 annually

Question 10

Give an example of an area that is especially benefitting from tourism.

Answer 10

Nauje, one of the villages in Khumbu located at the entrance of Khumbu area has 70 percent of the total shops in Khumbu and almost all the lodges are also located here Households in Nauje have benefitted highly due to its prime location

Question 11

How is the area of Mount Everest economically active apart from tourism?

Answer 11

• Forests are also a source of foods and medicines, timber and building material, firewood and grazing (timber and firewood) – wood = main cooking and heating fuel
• Subsistence farming (sherpas cultivated potatoes, barley and buckwheat)

Question 12

How has money from tourism benefitted the local area of Mount Everest?

Answer 12

Tourism related funds have contributed towards schools being built in the area, such as the Himalayan Trust. Future generations of children will be educated for adulthood & can find employment

Question 13

Environmental challenges caused by tourism in Mount Everest How has tourism directly impacted the environment?

Answer 13

• Bottles and litter are not biodegradable
• Trees are cut down for fuel wood to use in lodges for cooking meals for tourists
• Footpaths in the mountains get eroded
• thinning of forests in Khumbu especially in the villages of Nauje, Khumjung and Kunde (source of fuel energy used for cooking, heating and campfires by lodges as well as trekking and mountaineering expeditions)

Question 14

Environmental challenges caused by tourism in Mount Everest How has tourism indirectly impacted the environment?

Answer 14

• has increased pressure on grasslands and inhibited forest regeneration due to intensified grazing leading to depletion of vegetation making it incapable to hold the soil
• The Sagarmatha National Park is suffering from pollution and deforestation (sherpas use for subsidence farming and managing inns)

Question 15

Economic challenges caused by tourism in Mount Everest What is challenge to the workers on Mount Everest?

Answer 15

Seasonal employment of tourism Jobs in lodges are poorly paid

Question 16

Economic challenges caused by tourism in Mount Everest What are the problem caused to the local community?

Answer 16

• Tourists push up the price of food products at Namche Bazar market • the cost of building a lodge is increasing because of the high cost of land and rising cost of materials especially wood
• Inflation of some of the primary commodities as lodges and mountaineering groups buy larger quantities of supplies pushing up the demand
• Inflation in food and fuel prices has especially put pressure on the low income groups that are not involved in tourism activities

Question 17

Economic challenges caused by tourism in Mount Everest How has the area as a whole been affected?

Answer 17

• Income inequality (not all households have been able to enter the lucrative business of tourism). These households are struggling as they earn significantly less than people involved in trekking/mountaineering/ tourism.
• Money spent on products and supplies from low altitude areas and Kathmandu & pilgrimages to Kathmandu, India and Tibet and on sending children to Kathmandu contributing to leakage from the local area of Khumbu

Question 18

Social challenges caused by tourism in Mount Everest

What are the social challenges faced by the inhabitants of Mount Everest?

Answer 18

• Local people’s drinking water is polluted by camp site toilets • Stress on family life by sherpas spending long periods away from family
• Traditional way of life is eroded
• Increasing focus on tourism has marginalized the traditional local subsistence agriculture shifting it to transitional agricultural system
• Human faeces left at base camps pose spread of disease risk (no real toilet facilities)

Question 19

Management to ensure sustainable deveopment

How is rubbish being collected?

Answer 19

• clean up campaigns at various base camps
• constructing rubbish pits and distributing litter bins
• employing litter collection staff
• 2014 – a new law that hikers must bring their waste down

Question 20

Management to ensure sustainable development

How is rubish being removed form the mountain?

Answer 20

• The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, set up in 1993 has been highly effective in improving waste management (issues of waste at peaks and base camps)
• 25 tonnes of rubbish was removed from Everest last spring – including 12,000kg of paper and plastic and 11,250kg of human waste

Question 21

Management to ensure sustainable development

How has the incentive to preseve mount Everest be spread?

Answer 21

• school environmental education lessons
• giving out leaflets and booklets
• Creating tourist information centres.

Question 22

Management to ensure sustainable development

What prevents hikers from leaving stuff up the mountain?

Answer 22

• Groups must pay a $4,000 (£2,500) deposit on their equipment to prevent equipment being left on the mountain
• 2014 – a new law that hikers must bring their waste down

Question 23

Management to ensure sustainable development

How has the Cleaning Up Mount Everest project (initiated by the local population), educated the users?

Answer 23

• Conducting information and awareness raising activities on biodiversity conservation, modern waste management and climate change to at least 70% of local people
• 2011 -29 Sherpa mountaineers were trained in collection, sorting and treatment of solid waste
• Lodge-owners, shop keepers and farmers have been trained in waste prevention and awareness on waste management has been raised in the region and country wide and new strategies have been produced by local people to minimise waste in the region though increased use of local products.

Question 24

Management to ensure sustainable development

How has the Cleaning Up Mount Everest project tackled rubbish being left on Mount Everest?

Answer 24

• remove approximately 8 tons of rubbish from the mountain (sorted, transported and recycled)
• Installing local rubbish and recycling facilities along the trekking route from the airstrip at Lukla to Everest Base Camp

Question 25

Management to ensure sustainable development

How have Cleaning Up Mount Everest inforced their work?

Answer 25

• Installing a new set of regulations and code of conduct for all future trekking and climbing activities in the area, training local people, and guaranteeing the sustainability of the systems
• Plastic bags have been banned from the project region from May 2011. Plastic bags have been banned from the project region from May 2011.