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COMMUNITY-BASED ECOTOURISM VENTURE: THE CASE OF SUNUNGUKAI CAMP, ZIMBABWE
This case study is about the Sunungukai Camp, an ecotourism project managed by a small community of some 250 households in five rural villages.
These are the major points of the case study:
"The initial situation:
Prior to the start of the project, access to and use of natural resources in the Communal Lands of the Mazowe River Basin was unrestricted. This led to a serious degradation of the natural environment. For example, demand for fuelwood led to the destruction of forests, poor agricultural practices led to serious soil erosion and gold panning activities exacerbated the problem of river siltation.
If the clearing of woodland for agricultural production and harvesting of these forests for fuelwood and poles had continued unabated, the forest resources would have been depleted and the river would have silted. With the silting of the river, the fish population would have declined.
The reform came through a redefinition of ownership of the resources in the Sunungukai area and how they were to be managed. There were four institutions involved in this process: the Local Community, CAMPFIRE Association, Zimbabwe Trust and the Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe Rural District Council (UMPRDC). CAMPFIRE Association served as the lead institution promoting the project; Zimbabwe Trust provided funding and management training; and UMPRDC served as the link organization.
In Sunungukai, community-based management of natural resources through ecotourism venture was introduced by the CAMPFIRE Association. The principle behind ecotourism is that providing compensation and substitution can lead to change of attitude and practice of resource management by local communities. As a consequence, a number of awareness raising workshops were organized prior to 1993 to sensitize the community on the benefits of ecotourism.
Today:
The camp was built with the help of the community. The idea was very good. Unfortunately they have not as many visitors as expected, but the attitude of the people towards their environment changed because they understood how important it is for their own success to protect the nature.
Lessons Learned:
1.The people who depend directly on a given set of resources for their livelihood are the ones with the greatest interest in conserving those resources or using them as sustainably as possible.
2. Self-governing community-based institutions, through which members have a voice in natural resource management decision-making can be an extremely successful instrument for sustainable developement."
Find out more on:
http://srdis.ciesin.org/cases/zimbabwe-004.html
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