The Project
LaVieVuLinh is a learning project for ecological and cultural preservation. Its purpose is to develop a sustainable community tourism based on an environmental and responsible touristic activity.
Like everywhere, tourism in Vietnam has led to adverse effects that are still not well-known. Many alternatives to the usual touristic model exist, such as sustainable, responsible, fair or ethic models as they try to reduce these harmful effects. LaVieVuLinh was created to contribute to this change on the long-term.
On this day, LaVieVuLinh sells fruits from its fertile jungle and helps local families set up biogaz and phyto-purification systems. Surrounding families also start to implement their own perennial culture instead of common local monocultures.
Moreover, new guesthouses were created in the village, notably by our former staff. These new « homestays » are still in touch with LaVieVuLinh as they help, inform and support each other.
Culture
LaVieVuLinh aspires to preserve the cultural identity of the ‘Dao Quan Trang’ community who mainly live in the surroundings.
Among the 54 ethnic groups of Vietnam, the Dao ethnic minority is the 9th biggest group. The Ecolodge mingles into Ngo Tu village as it was built following the traditional architecture.
Thanks to intercultural exchanges between many volunteers from all around the world, the staff from local villages and the tourists, the traditional Dao culture is transmitted and preserved.
Ecology
LaVieVuLinh’s garden project focusses on agroecological methods in order to develop a sustainable production way. It aims at spreading to local farmers a more environmental friendly and diversified agriculture than the local monocultures of manioc and eucalyptus. This is why the fertile jungle of LaVieVuLinh is now composed of about a hundred pomelo trees combined with guava trees, surrounded by jackfruit trees and a lot of other species (banana, pineapple, mango trees, etc…). In this jungle we try to respect the laws of Mother Nature.
The Lodge was also built in such a way that the energy consumption is controlled and reduced. For example we set up a natural ventilation system, a thermal solar panel, we recycle organic waste in biogas production or in compost and we treat the wastewater with phyto-purification.
Education
Most of our staff comes from the area. LaVieVuLinh’s main educational goal is to enable them to get new skills in order to diversify their professional opportunities.
Thanks to our school, we can spread an ecological message to the local families and community through our students: environmental respect and protection, promotion of a less polluting agriculture production, and protection of the lake’s water quality.
This program allowed some of our former staff to find good jobs in cities like Hanoi or to create their own homestay, which is such a pride for us.