Fostering Ecotourism Deals And Community Prosperity

During the last year, AWF doubled its number of Conservation Service Centers (CSCs). The two original CSCs are in Nairobi and Arusha. In 2000, a third center opened in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, and a fourth in White River, South Africa.

AWF hired Isidore Gwashure, formerly a top executive in southern Africa's ecotourism industry, to direct the CSC program. Now based at AWF's Office of African Operations in Nairobi, he has concluded agreements with two major southern African tourism companies and is negotiating additional contracts.

Under these agreements, AWF will help find sites, primarily in Heartlands, held by communities interested in developing their tourism potential. AWF then will help negotiate fair, conservation-friendly and commercially viable deals between communities and ecotourism corporations, so that local people can benefit from their natural resources.

Nairobi CSC, Kenya

The most fully staffed CSC, the Nairobi center is in full gear, creating sustainable businesses with communities, primarily in the African Heartlands: Koija Group Ranch, Samburu Heartland, Kenya. In a dry area damaged by overgrazing of cattle, the Nairobi CSC is helping a Maasai community diversify its cattle-based economy into one that includes wildlife and a range of successful, environmentally friendly enterprises.

The CSC staff are brokering an agreement between Koija and the Wilderness Guardian Company (WGC), which runs the adjacent Loisaba Lodge and Ranch. The major community enterprise will be a sophisticated treehouse for visitors, called the Koija Starbeds. Guests at Loisaba Lodge can opt for a night under the stars at the community facility.

The CSC also is helping the community develop spin-off enterprises involving beadwork, honey-making and handcrafted furniture. Greater Amboseli, Kilimanjaro Heartland. Unregulated growth of Maasai tourist sites, or cultural bomas, has led to huge, inauthentic centers sited unsafely in wildlife corridors. The CSC staff organized a study tour for leaders of five Amboseli bomas to a well-run cultural boma in Maasai Mara. There, they learned from peers how to successfully plan and manage the conservation, business and show-business aspects of a cultural-tourism venture.

The Nairobi CSC also helped create the new Amboseli Cultural Centers Association, a community organization that regulates the number, size, location and quality of cultural bomas in that area. Taita and Taveta, southeastern Kenya. The Taita and Rukinga Ranches lie in the wildlife corridor between Tsavo West and Tsavo East National Parks. The area is under threat from poaching, charcoal burning and uncontrolled settlements.

The Nairobi CSC recently signed agreements with two companies, Savannah Camps and Lodges and Wildlife Works to develop enterprises with local communities. With better livelihoods based on wildlife, the communities are expected to safeguard the corridor for animals.