Nor Haniza Mohamad and Amran Hamzah (2012) Paper Presentation - Model of Tourism Cooperative for Scaling up Community Based Ecotourism tourism: A Case Study of Miso Walai Homestay, Kinabatangan. Regional Symposium and Technical Day Tour on Rural Tourism 2012 - Scaling up Community-Based Ecotourism, 18th-19th May 2012, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. MODEL OF TOURISM COOPERATIVE FOR SCALING UP COMMUNITY BASED TOURISM Nor Haniza Mohamad Faculty of Management and Human Resource Development Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia haniza_nor@yahoo.com Amran Hamzah Faculty of Built Environment Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia merang@utm.my ABSTRACT Community cooperative is a business model that can effectively manage community interests as exemplified by a model CBT located in Batu Puteh, Kinabatangan in the state of Sabah in Malaysia. In-depth interviews with the local community selected through purposive sampling and direct observations on the physical environment and the local community were used in this study. Findings show that the community cooperative effectively managed: (1) economic concerns through a dynamic financial model, transparent income distribution and project partners; (2) socio-cultural concerns by creating social cohesion through strong sense of ownership and sense of belonging; and (3) environmental concerns through its conservation and reforestation programmes. The cooperative was a catalyst for paradigm shift towards entrepreneurial ventures. Challenges and potentials of the community cooperative were identified. Field of Research: Community cooperative, rural tourism cooperative, community based tourism, Miso Walai Homestay, KOPEL, MESCOT, Kinabatangan, community based tourism business model, broad based organizational structure. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------