Ecotourism & Energy Access: Panel data evidence from the high Himalayas

Abstract

Nepal’s location in the Himalayas, and commitment to conservation (e.g., twenty percent of its land area is part of the protected areas system), draw many thousands of tourists, especially eco-tourists who trek to remote areas. This tourism can create economic opportunities but also create a demand for clean energy in these pristine remote locations, thereby allowing suppliers to scale up energy access in remote off-grid areas of the Himalayas. We compile and use a panel data set of the adoption of clean energy technologies and ecotourism in roughly 4000 village development committees of Nepal over one and half decades (2001-2015) to examine the relationship between tourism and energy access. Our preliminary result shows that tourism increases the installation of micro-hydro capacity. We conduct numerous robustness checks to eliminate alternative explanations, and examine various mechanisms (including time allocation and employment). Achieving Nepal’s target of 2 million tourists a year is likely to also promote energy access and therefore reduce poverty in the Hindukush Himalayas. (with Bishal Bharadwaj, University of Queensland) Keywords: Himalaya; energy access; solar home system; micro-hydro, ecotourism; conservation, SDGs.