For African tourism to survive, prosper and contribute to social upliftment, it requires real investment from both government and the private sector. To Africans and non-Africans alike, one of the most baffling aspects of our beautiful yet troubled continent is why we cannot seem to turn our fortunes around. While other largely 3rd world continents like South America and Asia (whose stunning economic growth almost halved world poverty between 1980 and 2000) have made massive progress over the last few decades, Africa’s development seems to occur intermittently and in pockets, while with each new revolution across the continent, good intentions and election promises spark and then fade in a now-predictable trail of blame, new regime corruption in many cases, incompetence and the strangely crippling effect of Western handouts. It doesn’t have to be this way and it certainly is not always like this.
This is not an exercise in assigning blame as to why Africa is often seen in a negative light, but rather an exercise in identifying what does work for our unique continent. We believe the industry best positioned to initiate radical change, if one takes into the potential Africa could harness, is tourism and more specifically, sustainable tourism. For too long, cushy multi-million dollar travel companies have taken what they’ve needed from Africa, used it as both a golden goose/cash cow hybrid and generally made a lot of money. In return they’ve developed little in terms of infrastructure or skills development within the communities or environments they work in and tend to leave the locals much the same as when they started in the area or worse. The status quo is untenable and something’s got to give. That something is the one resource we cannot just replace, the animals.
You see, we’re facing a crisis. While the impression is usually given that Africa boasts an embarrassment of riches when it comes to natural resources, the reality is that things are no longer so idyllic. Sure, the range of wildlife found on the African continent is still amazingly diverse and the envy of the rest of the world, but the huge numbers are no longer there. Despite the reinforcement of iconic sequences in travel programmes where vast wildebeest herds stampede majestically across the Serengeti and Masai Mara on their perpetual migration, the reality is that wildlife numbers have plummeted. In the Mara alone, they have dropped by 85%. Tsavo National Park, which was once famous for its Lions (or infamous in the case of the man-eaters of Tsavo) no longer has lions due to hunting. There are more lions in captivity in North America than there are in the wilds of Africa. Less than 50 years ago there were in excess of 750 000 Lions in Africa. Today there are less than 30 000. Similarly, if you take a look at the populations of leopard, elephant, gorillas, rhino, sable, wild dog, penguins, sharks, whales (the list is endless) populations have declined 80 % in 50 years. Poached for the cosmetic or supposedly magical value of their pelts, horns, tusks and organs, hunted for food or as vermin, pushed out by overpopulation, effected by deforestation, poisoned by farmers…there are myriad reasons for the destruction of Africa’s wildlife, but the biggest danger is a quiet cancer of mammoth proportions. General indifference by the people of Africa will have the biggest impact on the future of wildlife and by consequence, tourism on the continent.
So how do we play a part in averting the crisis? Sustainable tourism seems to be the mot du jour among tourism circles at the moment, so let’s talk sustainable tourism. In our opinion at Rhino Africa, for tourism to be sustainable in Africa, we need animals! On the whole, unlike Europe we do not have that many areas of ancient architectural significance to the history of human settlement (Great Zimbabwe, Mapungubwe and the Pyramids aside). So when it comes to tourism there is very little else that needs our attention except for the fauna and flora. However, unless governments and the private sector start massive protection and breeding programs (and abolishes hunting) for affected species and we start getting more land under wildlife management as opposed to a continued reduction in habitat due to a exploding African population, tourism is doomed, and along with it another opportunity for real social upliftment.
In South Africa, Black Economic Empowerment or BEE has been the major catch-phrase of the last decade or so in promoting government’s policy of transformation or affirmative action in the work place to undo the inequalities of Apartheid. What tourism needs for sustainability is simple. It needs transformation in the form of complete buy-in from government and communities, but not much has changed within the tourism industry since Nelson Mandela took charge in 1994. Identifying hotels and lodges that are BEE compliant is almost impossible and indicative of the fact that tourism is one of the only industries were the whole BEE process was simply abandoned. This might explain why it is so difficult to preach the gospel of protecting and expanding our natural resources when there is no buy-in from local governments and the private sector. Granted, tourism offers employment, but unless the communities have ownership and wildlife pays, there is no benefit for these marginal communities to support or protect it. Try explaining to a hungry local subsistence farmer and his family why they shouldn’t kill and eat game that has co-existed in that area for millennia, when existing tourism resources deliver no direct return to him or his family.
The utopian ideal that we’d like to see is a situation where tourism stakeholders get involved in transformational projects and use their hospitality skills to uplift their own staff and communities into product ownership. A true example of such a transformational product is Takadu in Madikwe Game Reserve close to the South African border with Botswana. It’s a lodge built, owned and operated by the local community – but instead of just handing it over and setting them up for failure the surrounding lodges spent three years investing time, energy, skill and intellectual capital into the project to allow the community to attain a level of competence. Another example of a truly sustainable eco-tourism operator is Wilderness Safaris who partner with communities who own and protect the land. Wilderness then continues to uplift the area by training and employing local community members. This is why Rhino Africa is a big supporter of the Wilderness Safaris brand. Wherever possible we support companies that involve and empower local charities and community programmes in the interests of self-sufficiency. For us, one of the paramount guidelines towards sustainable tourism is the investment of tourism companies in the local community as opposed to bringing in hired help from elsewhere. The short term capital expenditure in training staff is far outweighed by the long-term well being of the staff / community and returns can be seen by the staff being happy, which in turn shows in their work attitude and culture.
While we believe in supporting the initiatives of our partner companies, Rhino Africa also believes in doing rather than talking and in giving back to the continent that has given us so much, which is why we’ve started our own initiative, Challenge4aCause. Essentially a community-based conservation project, Challeng4aCause is a purely non-profit exercise designed to raise funds for charity and community development. The community owns the conservancies and thus earn a living from protecting it, because without the lodges paying concession fees they have no interest in the wildlife. While it aims to support the conservation of Africa’s endangered animals and plant species, Challenge4aCause will also finance projects that seek to uplift poor communities. The way it works is that Rhino Africa runs an Annual Challenge with all proceeds going to a pre-selected worthy cause. Last year the more intrepid members of the Rhino Africa team cycled 330km across the Damaraland desert in Namibia to raise $300 000 for the Save the Rhino Trust, an organization which seeks to stop poaching and protect wild rhino populations…something obviously close to our hearts.
Looking at these examples it’s glaringly obvious that what’s staring us in the face – local communities, tourism operators and government – is both a grave danger to African tourism and a huge opportunity. According to the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), most of the world’s tourists in 2003 arrived in rich countries. In fact, Africa only accounted for 4% of the total numbers. While Africa is already marginalized in terms of the global economy (less than 2% of global exports) that it has 4% is actually a win. Just think of what Africa has to offer that other continents and tourism hotspots can hardly sniff at. A geography of vast deserts, lush savannahs, wetlands like the Okavango Delta, canyons like the Rift Valley, mountains from the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe to the Drakensberg and Uganda’s Ruwenzori’s and of course the Big 5 and other fauna and flora unmatched by any other continent. These resources, if they receive both human and financial investment and are managed properly, could be incredibly lucrative. They could make everything that rural community’s lack – education, roads, water, electricity and jobs – a reality. But that requires leadership, a common will and the kind of initiative Rhino Africa has taken. Africa needs your help. Not from the donation tin or Internet pledges, but in your actions as visitors. Here’s what you can do.
– Don’t believe everything you read
At times the negativity around news from Africa reaches comic levels. A case in point being the attack several months ago on the Togolese team competing in the Confederations Cup hosted by Angola. Questions were asked by the European media about whether South Africa was capable of handling security for the FIFA World Cup. That’s the equivalent of the bomb blasts in Moscow calling into question whether London could cope with the security for the Olympics. If there’s a destination you’re thinking about visiting, read up on it, get informed and make up your own mind.
– Do your homework
Find out and support the tourism initiatives, which employ local people, invest in their communities, train them up and give them a stake in the business. Hit and run setups that bring in outside help are not interested in the long-term viability of a region if they do not invest in skills training and permanent infrastructure.
– Fight your footprint
When you arrive, offset your carbon footprint at the new kiosk in the arrivals hall in Cape Town and Johannesburg, which is being funded in part by the Danish government.
– Who owns what?
Wherever possible, try to support tourism initiatives where the local community has a real stake in what happens. When they don’t, the long-run result is often that not only do the communities miss out on skills acquisition and share holding, but the vast earning potential of each country’s huge and beautiful wilderness expanses are not correctly harnessed to their full extent. Everyone loses.
– Ask questions
If you find yourself on a guided tour or visiting an area where a lack of investment in local communities is obvious, ask questions of the group guiding you. Ask about the people they employ, what they give back to the community and how they are investing in the human capital of the area. Even if they have not made sustainable tourism a priority, applying pressure to the situation can instigate change.
– Watch out for Greenwashing
It’s fashionable to care about the environment these days so both sustainable and eco tourism are labels many companies are eager to slapon to their products or services whether they comply or not. If a tourism company claims to follow “green” guidelines don’t take it at face value. Find out how they operate. Ask about their renewable energy sources, what they do with grey water and other eco-friendly tactics they should be employing.
– Support the local economy
Wherever possible buy local products from local stores and by interacting with local business intitatives
– Pay a fair price
Just because guidebooks tell you to haggle over everything doesn’t mean that they are right or that they take local conditions into account. Mass-made curios may be cheaper in the cities, but may not have the unique features of a ruaral craftsman’s work and your saving two quid means a lot more to the local than it does to you.
– Shop the right way
It’s Africa, so you are probably going to want to take home some unique curios made by highly-skilled craftsmen. Just ensure that what you take home is not illegal like ivory or that something didn’t have to die in order for it to be made (curios made of porcupine quills, carvings made from rare trees). Rather than encourage poaching or deforestation ask your guide for advice on ethical purchases.
– Be respectful, show an interest
There’s more to African than animals and scenery. Apart from contributing to the people of the places you visit and minimizing the harmful effects of travel, be aware that sustainable tourism also means respecting the cultures you visit. So while ‘culture” may be conveyed differently to what you’re used to (museums and art galleries are scarce), it’s still valued and powerful (e.g. oral story-telling, dance and local delicacies beer brewing). Make an effort, show and interest and your trip will be that much more enjoyable.