A sustainable tourism venture linking the two legendary mountain destinations of Machu Picchu and Kilimanjaro is reaping widespread rewards through the power of some of the world’s finest coffee.
TWIN, a registered UK charity, is working with its partners to identify new market opportunities and develop sustainable tourism ventures on opposite sides of the Atlantic – in Tanzania and Peru – to complement the existing core coffee business.
The five year project, to which BLCF contributed £205,078 against a private sector contribution of £111,116, creates a synergy between existing coffee farmers and tourist operators in order to market fair trade coffee and ecotourism, with best practice knowledge transfer between the two sites. It also builds an opportunity to market the two destinations through packaging on Café Direct products.
An external consultant carried out the conceptual tourism development while Tribes Travel maintained quality control during the construction of the tourism facilities.
The Peruvian project’s Tanzanian 'twin' meanwhile, is set on a ridge overlooking the Weruweru Gorge on the lush slopes of the famed Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain. The area has the reputation of producing one of the world's finest arabica coffees. Local labour built a central administration office and bed & breakfast accommodation using vines from the forest, stones from the river and dried banana leaves for the roof.
Recreating these huts, albeit with appropriate modifications, has renewed an interest in the region’s traditions and architecture, which had previously been fast declining in favour of breeze-blocks and tin roofs. Two weeks of hospitality training were conducted, leading to the creation of seven jobs.
Kahawa Shamba, a traditional coffee ‘shamba’ or small farm, is in the village belonging to the historically hospitable Wachagga tribe, coffee makers by trade. Breakfast takes place in the communal dining room overlooking a rushing river gorge, and features an abundance of local fresh fruit. A camping site was also established in 2005 for visitors who prefer a closer acquaintance with the local crickets and colobus monkeys.
The process of the project offered numerous benefits to local people. Power was connected to the community. Local women made many of the luxury chaggas’ interior fittings, from woven mats to spicy soap, together with the establishment of coffee tours guided by the farmers themselves. Tours to these characteristic coffee farms, belonging to the Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union’s primary cooperative societies, enable visitors to not only learn just about all there is to know about coffee, fair trade, organic treatment and the production techniques of processing or pulping, they also may pick coffee berries in season and, of course, drink the incomparable coffee itself.
Other activites for visitors include guided walks, trout fishing, horse riding, visits to banana beer brews, and dinner in local homes. Cultural tours meanwhile take in traditional huts, blacksmiths and the caves used by the Wachagga to hide from marauding Maasai. Contributions from all of these go to the local families.
Kahawa Shamba received a highly commended innovation award in the 2004 responsible tourism awards organised by online travel agent responsibletravel.com, in association with The Times, World Travel Market and The Royal Geographical Society’s Geographical Magazine.
Kahawa Shamba is 50 per cent owned by KCNU and 50 per cent owned by the rural cooperative societies who sell their coffee to KNCU. Staff include a project manager, three local host families, and their cooks – all of whom receive direct income from tourists. A local tour guide also derives an income for his services.
Communities also benefit indirectly from the project via funds set aside for community-based activities such as the construction of school buildings and coffee seedling nurseries. In addition to certain organised groups and individuals who are paid directly for guiding tourists and selling food to the project, local people also sell traditional crafts and other items to visitors.
Families and the community are thoroughly involved and informed in meetings about the project, including issues concerning management of waste resulting from tourism, and education about environmental protection.
Back in the Peruvian department of Cusco, home of the fabled lost Inca city of Machu Picchu atop a granite mountain, the 'twin' coffee ecotourism project has successfully completed construction of a lodge, and power has been connected. Furthermore, investigation is taking place into possible development of an alternative Machu Picchu trail as well as the possibilities of refitting the school as an out-of-term conference centre.
The project in Peru has not developed as quickly as as that in Tanzania, due to less robust communication links between partners. Nevertheless, an income analysis suggests the lodge would be self-sustaining with as few as 600 guests a year. The current focus is on developing opportunities for local people to generate income as service providers and through charging for the use of the facilities, together with the coherent management and group organisation logistics which this will entail.
For more information contact BLCF fund manager, the Emerging Markets Group at this address