Abstract ID: 3.11850 | Accepted as Poster | Talk | TBA | TBA

Nagaland, a mountainous state in the Himalayan foothills of northeastern India, exemplifies the complex interaction between traditional agricultural systems and cultural heritage. Its indigenous rice ecosystems—jhum or shifting cultivation, rainfed rice cultivation, and wet rice cultivation—are vital for food security and embody the cultural identity and traditional ecological knowledge of the Naga people. However, they face escalating threats from anthropogenic pressures, including unsustainable tourism and landscape commodification. This study integrates participatory ethnography, geospatial analysis, and policy document review to propose how Nagaland’s traditional rice ecosystem, such as the alder-based jhum systems—enhancing soil fertility through nitrogen fixation—and Nagaland State’s policy Vision 2025 targets (such as expanding paddy cultivation to 270,640 hectares) can provide opportunities for regenerative tourism. This paper aims to inform the discourse on sustainable mountain tourism by grounding its analysis in empirical insights to advance sustainable mountain tourism that repositions traditional rice ecosystems as living cultural landscapes. It advocates for practical policy measures that align tourism development with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 11 (Sustainable Communities) and 15 (Life on Land), emphasizing the role of intangible heritage—such as non-orthodox rice cultivation traditions—in promoting tourist engagements while safeguarding ecological integrity. By bridging agrarian practices, cultural narratives, and tourism economies, this paper also proposes strategies for mitigating the “paradox of accessibility,” wherein infrastructure development risks destabilizing the very heritage it seeks to promote, as illustrated by the rice fields of Bali in Indonesia.