Africa without tourism
How do you create sustainable conservation without relying on tourist dollars? A new pan-African competition hopes to provide the answers…
The pandemic has spurred new approaches to funding conservation and livelihoods without relying on tourists
“COVID’s stressed how critical it is to move forward with additional models to support conservation.”
When I first visited Kenya, back in 2008, the national parks and reserves were empty – not of wildlife but of tourists. At Samburu, Nakuru and the Maasai Mara National Reserve, there were barely any vehicles on the roads. I got to photograph lions, elephants and other animals in what felt like peaceful, untouched wilderness.
Africa’s wildlife areas aren’t always so uncrowded – we’ve all seen images of safari vans swarming around big-cat sightings. But, at that time, political unrest and violence, following Kenya’s contested 2007 election, had put off international travellers from visiting. What felt initially to me like good luck, to have these remarkable locations almost to myself, was clearly a disaster for Kenyans working at lodges and camps. With fewer tourists and less money, many were struggling to make a living.
Before COVID-19, wildlife tourism supported 21.8 million jobs worldwide, including 3.6 million across Africa, directly contributing US$29.3 billion (£22.2 billion) to Africa’s economy. Between 10 and 13 per cent of Kenya’s GDP (gross domestic product) comes from tourism. But my first assignment in Africa was an insight into how precarious it can be to rely so heavily on international tourism to provide incomes or to fund conservation work.
Throughout the years, news of Ebola outbreaks, terrorist incidents or conflicts has suddenly stopped international tourists from visiting not just affected countries but neighbouring countries or entire regions. And Africa’s national parks were empty again for most of 2020, and remain so in 2021. The far-reaching, long-lasting COVID-19 crisis has been particularly disastrous for local people, who lost jobs in tourism or supply industries (construction, farms, etc) – their incomes often supporting whole families and paying for food, education and healthcare.
It has been a nightmare for wildlife conservation, too – with the money from tourism that pays for conservation work no longer coming in ( see COVID and Conservation, BBC Wildlife November 2020). Parks and reserves became more vulnerable to poaching, with fewer rangers and patrols, and desperate local people hunting bushmeat to eat or sell. In Africa, and elsewhere, many conservation projects have been delayed or cancelled.
“Any model that’s heavily dependent on just one stream of income is dangerous,” says Melissa De Kock, community conservation specialist for WWF. “The 2008 economic crisis underscored that. But we all went back to ‘business as usual’ as soon as the banks were rescued. Everyone thought it would never happen again. But we’ve had such a crash in Africa because of COVID. It’s been a complete and utter crisis.”
Melissa’s on the judging panel of the Beyond Tourism In Africa innovation challenge – a joint initiative from the Luc Hoffmann Institute, the African Leadership University’s (ALU) School of Wildlife Conservation and WWF – which asked people to submit project proposals for communities across Africa to make a sustainable living, manage natural resources and protect wildlife, without relying on tourism. The initiative started in 2019 but the COVID crisis accelerated the work to find solutions.
“The Beyond Tourism programme is about spreading risk,” Melissa explains. “Tourism’s often seen as the ‘golden goose’ – the goose that lays the golden eggs. COVID’s really underscored how critical it is to move forward with additional models to support conservation.”
The tourism industry isn’t just safaris, but also includes trophy hunting. It’s hoped the initiative can provide alternatives to people who want them. “It’s up to a country or a community to choose how they manage their resources,” Melissa suggests. “This programme’s for people to have a smorgasbord of tools they can choose from.”
“Over the past 30 years, there’s been a move towards community-based natural resource management.”
The 15 winning projects, announced recently, will go on to an ‘incubation’ stage to build ideas into viable, investment-ready businesses. They include tech ideas: community-led virtual classrooms, where local people can provide conservation lessons from the field; a subscription-based app for people around the world to see and learn about gorillas; and a ‘cultural marketplace’ online platform for artists, designers and people with virtual tourism or educational experiences to reach international audiences.
One project in Uganda will enable locals to make a living by recording and performing their cultural songs, dance and folklore, while also sharing their knowledge of wildlife. “We had so many good ideas,” says Elizabeth Babalola, director of operations at ALU’s School of Wildlife Conservation, who was also on the judging panel. “I’m particularly excited about Forest Pesa, which allows micro-forest owners to directly exchange their carbon with local and international carbon buyers, with the aim of supporting micro-forest owners in the propagation and conservation of indigenous trees.”
Many of Beyond Tourism’s projects build on existing ideas, such as carbon credit or biodiversity credit schemes, where local people are connected to investors and paid for protecting forests or wildlife, or sustainable agriculture, with local communities helped to produce and sell honey and chilli condiments. Honey production, for example, has been expanding across Africa, especially beehive fences, pioneered by Save The Elephants, which provide honey for local people to eat and sell, while also reducing humanwildlife conflict by keeping elephants away from villages and crops. Chillies work in the same multi-pronged way.
International conservation organisations have recognised for some time the need for alternatives to relying purely on tourism. African Parks has rolled out projects from Uganda to the DRC, helping locals make a living from non-timber forest products: coffee, cacao, bananas, cotton and shea nuts ( see Park Life, BBC Wildlife February 2021). And in Peru’s Alto Mayo Protected Forest, Conservation International’s carbon forest project has reduced deforestation by 75 per cent, by working with local communities to produce sustainable products, including Fairtrade coffee.
Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique is a great example of sustainable practices being brought in to benefit local people and wildlife. Ninety-five per cent of Gorongosa’s wildlife was destroyed during the civil war period from the 1970s to 1990s. In 2008, American entrepreneur and philanthropist Greg Carr signed a publicprivate partnership with Mozambique’s government to restore the park and help lift 200,000 people out of poverty.
Today, Gorongosa has more than 100,000 large animals, while the Gorongosa Trust helps provide healthcare to 200,000 people and works in 50 primary schools, focusing especially on female students, to keep them in school and out of child marriage. At the heart of the project is a ‘green economy’. Small-scale farmers have been given training, tools, seeds and access to markets – starting in 2013 with a coffee project on Mount Gorongosa. “Local people in rural areas were cutting trees to clear land for agriculture, leading to deforestation,” explains Neila Manjate, agricultural livelihoods manager with the Gorongosa Project. “The solution was introducing a cash crop, which would also lead to reforestation -– people plant native trees to provide shade for the coffee. It’s taken people with no income or very sporadic income to a fixed annual income. And any profits head back into the park to promote girls’ education, reforestation and biodiversity protection.”
The Gorongosa Project has also developed cashew farming (which encourages reforestation) and honey production. “It’s sustainable agriculture that leads to people and the environment thriving together,” says Neila. “We call it ‘conservation agriculture’. We’re also exploring the business of timber, but in a sustainable way. It’s another kind of cushion for this situation where we can’t provide tourism services.”
Having been through decades of instability, Mozambique hasn’t developed its tourism industry as much as some other African countries. In Gorongosa, people working in tourism have been affected by the crisis, and the cut from tourism revenues that usually goes to local communities is no longer coming in. But people continue to have an income and education and health benefits because of alternative revenues from coffee or cashews. The model thrives by not putting all the eggs in one basket. “Gorongosa’s a success story because the activities we do are very diverse,” says Neila. “The communities aren’t totally dependent on tourism. In other protected areas, it’s a must to find other things people can do. We might be trying to do too much, but situations like this are when you see we’re doing the right thing.”
The Gorongosa Project’s success is also down to working closely with local people.
“We’re working in one of the most difficult areas of Mozambique,” Neila explains. “Because we’ve been here so long, people trust us. If we weren’t aligned with local people, we wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
The emphasis on communities marks a shift in conservation, away from the mistakes of the past, where local indigenous people were often moved out of areas, sometimes by force, to create people-free spaces for wildlife. “Over the last 30 years, there’s been a move towards communitybased natural resource management, and it’s proved to be successful,” says Melissa.
With growing populations and shrinking wild spaces, it will become more important for people and wildlife to be able to live sustainably alongside each other. “There are many cultures around the world that demonstrate that’s possible, whether Maasai or Inuit, where people understand the importance of wildlife,” says Elizabeth. “But it’s vital to have local people in decision-making roles, not just tokenism. If local people don’t have a stake in conservation, they won’t be sufficiently motivated to protect it.”
Elizabeth also wants to see changes in leadership. “By 2030, it would be great to see at least 50 per cent of leaders in conservation being women. Right now, it’s about 30 per cent,” she says. “And it would be great to see more of the major conservation organisations run by African executives and with at least a 50 per cent African board. Most have American and European boards, and chief executives who are non-Africans. It would be great to see that flip, where the voices and decision-makers in conservation for this continent are Africans.”
Tourism is evolving, too. In the last few years, I’ve spent time photographing wildlife in Kenya’s Mara conservancies (Naboisho, Olare Orok, Ol Choro…) and seen firsthand that the animals, including big cats, are thriving. In the conservancy system, local people lease their land to be used for tourism, rather than watching the wealth go to outside companies. The privately managed conservancies strike a balance between the needs of local Maasai, who want to continue rearing cattle, and protecting wildlife and habitats. It’s great to see the idea spreading across Africa. I’d also like to see more communityowned, community-run safari camps, lodges, hotels and more communitybased tourism, where local people take a fairer share of tourism money, and more African-owned travel companies. Many people I’ve talked to in Africa want to see more domestic tourism encouraged, rather than marketing almost wholly to international visitors. That might help in tough times – domestic tourists tend to be less-easily frightened away than international visitors.
It makes sense to make tourism stronger and fairer. Tourism does so much good for Africa and will do again when it returns. But rather than one golden goose, there’s clearly a need to have other ‘gold’-producing creatures
– a diverse and resilient ecosystem, if you like. Now’s the time when conservationists and governments should be heeding the warning, and diversifying. “If countries weren’t so dependent on tourism, this crisis would’ve been very different,” Melissa argues. “It would’ve definitely secured more people’s incomes. We need to reimagine how we do things, so we’re never so vulnerable again.”
FIND OUT MORE
Beyond Tourism: luchoffmanninstitute.org/beyondtourism-africa-winners, worldwildlife. org, and alueducation.com. For more on Gorongosa, see: gorongosa.org