A unique multi-country community based wildlife tourism project has succeeded in respectfully partnering with traditional tribes and local communities, situating them as the drivers, life-force and chief beneficiaries of tourism in these lands.
Africa is rich in wildlife and wildlands. These resources are both an invaluable part of the natural heritage of the entire planet and also a rich asset for many separate nations struggling to find resources to develop themselves and improve the lives of their people.
In 2002, African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and BLCF became partners in a Pan Africa project to implement a well-tested ecotourism model among marginalised communities living close to park reserves in Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa. The project was designed to improve local capabilities to initiate and sustain profitable ventures.
While all three sites benefit from government initiatives for equitable land access for poor communities and national policies to promote private sector investment in tourism, this community-based wildlife tourism project is the first of its kind. It addresses many of the constraints faced by previous efforts in community participation, land rights, weak governance and local capacity – with three quite different and creative solutions, each tailored to the needs and wishes of the local communities.
In Tanzania, where traditionally Maasai women have never been able to call a penny their own, these same women are now leading the charge for conservation and building their own economic and social capacity through a modern cultural tourism experience, the Esilalei Women's Cultural Boma.
This cultural boma (Swahili for homestead or household enclosure) in the Maasai Steppe Heartland is unique in its field. Typical bomas often visited on wildlife safaris tend to be neither of sufficiently high quality to become sustainable businesses, nor authentic enough to actually do justice to the cultures they represent.
Built on the site of an older, less successful boma, the Esilalei building reflects Maasai design while also being modern, full of light, and complete with interactive displays, photos and handicrafts. These resources all sit side by side with a traditional boma in which choruses of warriors perform traditional dances while women make, display and sell their intricate handicrafts.
Everything is managed by the Maasai women – from making handicrafts to running the self-supporting tourism enterprise. They are making their voices heard, their priorities known, and their impact felt. In only the second year of operation, the women of Esilalei trebled their average monthly income to $900.
Meanwhile in northern Tanzania, the AWF has helped preserve the Manyara Ranch, setting up one of the first land trusts in the country in the process. The 45,000 acre tract is situated between the Tarangire and Lake Manyara National Parks. There it makes up a large part of the critical Kwaku-chinja wildlife corridor. With its fences now removed, the ranch serves as the last remaining link for the Maasai Steppe elephants, wildebeests and other animals to travel between the two parks during the ebb and flow of the dry and wet seasons.
A manager and game scouts have been hired, six staff houses rehabilitated and a biological inventory begun. The dilapidated private boarding school for 800 students was replaced with a new one closer to the main road, and local towns and communities near Manyara can now graze their animals there and use water during times of drought.
The ranch has restored its former reputation and achieved financial sustainability. It is working directly with local Maasai herders to help them genetically upgrade their stock so that families have the potential to make more money by tending a smaller herd of high quality cattle as well as enter the tourist market for beef.
In South Africa, the Makuleka community tourism venture with Wilderness Safaris includes three luxury tented lodges which are to be developed over the next few years. The Limpopo-based community were dispossessed of their land in 1969 and have claimed it back in the course of the country's move to democracy.
The 11,000 strong community then made the difficult – and originally contentious – decision to not resettle on their land in Kruger National Park (KNP), but rather allow their ancestral land to retain its conservation and protection status. By doing this they could earn benefits from leasing their land out to commercial safari operators.
The first lodge, the 20-tented Pafuri Camp, is tucked under enormous riparian trees on the northern bank of the Luvuvhu river and is aimed at both international and traditional South African travellers visiting one of the wildest, most diverse and remote parts of KNP.
Regarded as a landmark example of a non-consumptive ecotourism model on community-owned land, the initiative is based on a direct partnership between the community and the operator. Aside from a share of the revenues earned from the camp operation and the spin-offs of electricity and clean water supply, the Makuleka community is also involved in almost every aspect of the business, including camp development and staffing.
Training is available for positions from game rangers and guides to chefs and, ultimately, hospitality management. There are also on-going community related projects, such as establishing microbusinesses to service the camp, installing computer facilities in schools, and providing bursaries for tertiary education linked to ecotourism.
Elsewhere, in Mozambique, the AWF is fostering three ventures and establishing Mozambique's first community conservation area. There the Cubo community has set aside 131 acres of prime savannah woodland habitat as a community nature reserve – the country's first – just south of Limpopo National Park.
To continue the work begun by this project, community members need to further their understanding of the value of their land as a tourism asset and of the market around them. Tourism training needs to continue to help them market and promote their product.
One of the outstanding features of all the facets in this multi-country community based wildlife tourism project was having the valuable resource of African Wildlife Foundation as an honest broker or third party in the effort to structure successful joint ventures and help build trust between communities and private sector operators. As the AWF says: “Persistence and planning are keys to establishing sustainable conservation efforts that will protect African wildlife and the livelihoods of local people.”
For more information contact BLCF fund manager, the Emerging Markets Group at this address