ecoDestinations - Africa
ecoDestinations - Africa
Africa - Keep on Cheering!
While many of you may still be experiencing various degrees of post-World Cup withdrawal syndrome, thankfully the world of ecotourism and sustainable travel continues to offer a wide array of inspiring stories and experiences that will make your day and help you find reasons to be even more excited about the amazing continent of Africa!
Meet TIES Members in Africa
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Latest News and Articles on Africa
Photo by Maasai Wanderings
By Ali Dempsey
Ilkurot Village Community Projects, Tanzania
Global Basecamps, in collaboration with Maasai Wanderings, contributes to a variety of ecotourism and community outreach programs in Tanzania. In 2004, Maasai Wanderings visited a Maasai village called Ilkurot (which means "dusty place") just north of Arusha, and saw that the schools were in desperate need of supplies and repairs, and there was no nursery school. Following this visit, the Ilkurot community project was developed to raise funds for the school and to make education...
By Hannah Wood
Udzungwa Mountains National Park
"Let's build an eco-lodge."
"...OK!" - And with that it began.
Three years ago, sitting on the balcony of our house in Dar es Salaam, my husband Woody and our two friends and business partners, Roy and Zoe, thought we’d start up a new business. Woody, Roy and Zoe already manage a safari company here in Tanzania. On their country-wide tours, Roy and Zoey send guests from all over the world into the hidden nooks and crannies of the country. The partnership seemed natural, as we were each...
In 2009, Basecamp Explorer, in partnership with 500 masai landowners, agreed to create a 20,000 hectares community wildlife conservancy in Masai Mara Kenya. The called it Naboisho, which means togetherness in local Maa language. Unique to this conservancy is that each of the 500 landowners is guaranteed of monthly income paid as rent for fifteen years, for setting aside part of their land for conservation. the rent is determined by the number of acres a landowner has contributed to the conservancy and will increase each year based on inflation rates.
The conservancy will...
'Roots' Tour Project - The Gambia
Since Alex Haley’s book ‘Roots’ was published in 1976, tourists have been flocking to the villages of Juffureh and Albreda in the Gambia where the story began. The book and subsequent film tell the story of Kunte Kinteh, a man captured as an adolescent from Juffureh and sold into slavery in the United States. Today, around 2000 people live in Juffereh and Albreda, including decedents of Kunte Kinteh's family.
Tours to the villages involve international visitors arriving by boat and spending a few hours in the...
By Elina Nieminen
The Kiwengwa caves in the Kiwengwa-Pongwe Forest Reserve are part of ancient history of the Zanzibar Island. The locals have visited the caves to worship their ancestors, bringing gifts to the holy stones in the caves. In the old days, the villagers kept leopards in the caves as a status symbol of the owner. Forest guard found these longest caves of Zanzibar in 2002, and there is now an initiative to make this natural wonder available for tourists to visit and enjoy. In 2005, the Department of Commercial Crops, Fruits and Forestry of Zanzibar, in cooperation...
Tribewanted Sierra Leone
"Tribewanted Sierra Leone is your chance to play a part in kick-starting the right kind of tourism in a country that needs it. It will be an amazing adventure, so don’t miss this opportunity to be one of the pioneering visitors." – Ben Keene, Founder, Tribewanted
In October 2010, a new group of visitors will arrive on Sierra Leone’s John Obey Beach, 20 miles south of the capital, Freetown, and begin to build a new life alongside the local fishing community. The initiative is led by Tribewanted, a social enterprise whose...
By Jo Lancaster, Edge of Africa
If you are considering joining a volunteer program in South Africa, then you are likely the kind of person who wants to make a positive contribution, be it to conservation or to a community in need. However, before deciding which project you want to join, there are a few things that you may want to consider.
Does the project have a genuine need for volunteers?
The whole idea of volunteering is for you to make a real and significant contribution to a cause through your specialist skills, or simply through your hard work and enthusiasm! Be...
This article was originally published by Lights of Africa. View original article on Lights of Africa blog
Chumbe Island Coral Park, Zanzibar, Tanzania
Chumbe Island, a half-mile-long coral rag island just eight miles south of Zanzibar’s infamous Stone Town, has become a celebrated ecotourism success story in the Zanzibar archipelago. Its history is a narrative best told directly by Sibylle Riedmiller, a German conservationist who came to Chumbe looking for a coral reef to protect in the late 80s. After years of complex negotiations among several actors, Sibylle’s...
By Linda Rivero, President and Founder, Women Travel for Peace
As our ferry approached the opposite shore of Senegal's Soungrougrou River, the air began to throb with rhythmic drumming. Waving arms and brilliant smiles beckoned to us. The stunning village women, dressed in their dazzlingly colorful boubous, ran to us singing and clapping as we disembarked.
We were the five women who had traveled to Senegal with Women Travel for Peace. Our goal: to fund and help construct a sturdy, concrete well for the women's farming collective. While this project had begun...
