sustainable management and promotion of key ecosystem services (sustainable fisheries and biodiversity conservation) for the Chumbe region has been widely recognized, including mention in the recent UN Secretary General’s report to the General Assembly on protection of coral reefs for sustainable livelihoods and development for Rio+20, which states: ‘‘A noted example for PES (Payment for Ecosystem Services) within the context of coral reefs habitat is the private, non-profit Chumbe Island Coral Park Ltd (CHICOP) in Tanzania…. Especially local fishermen benefit from the Reef Sanctuary, as research findings confirmed that fish inside the protected no-take zone travel out and increase their yields in the vicinity”.
Education Programs & Research
Public communication, education and awareness-raising on the vulnerability of the marine and forest ecosystems and the importance of sustainable eco-tourism are key pillars of CHICOP’s Environmental Education (EE) programs, which are regularly conducted on Chumbe Island and in Zanzibar. The programs offer free island excursions, training workshops and peer education sessions for students, teachers and community members. Based on the approach of ‘Education for Sustainable Development”, these programs help to close the gap between theoretical knowledge and practice, involve different level of learners and seek solutions to environmental concerns that build on indigenous knowledge, culture and traditions. By the end of 2014, over 6300 school children and 1100 teachers had visited the island to experience the natural environment with its diverse ecosystems.
The experiential hands-on activities for schoolchildren and all visitors include guided snorkeling in the reef and walking along the forest trails using all senses such as sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell while ensuring that the teaching contents link up with the national school curricula. CHICOP also supports schools through environmental talks/seminars and helps organize environmental clubs, which are much encouraged by a popular competition for a sustainable future for schools, i.e. the Chumbe Challenge Environmental Award.
Plans to further improve this example of tourism supporting conservation in the future
Chumbe has been certified by The Long Run certification scheme and thus reached top standards of sustainability in the categories of the “4 C’s – Conservation, Community, Culture and Commerce and there is not much left that we can do better than maintaining standards in all categories, and to work on reaching long-term inter-generational sustainability.
As a bottom line, private protected areas need to maintain the necessary occupancy rate that secures sufficient income to fund park management and non-commercial programs. This can be challenging sometimes, when the destination as a whole goes through, or is wrongly perceived to be geographically close to, social unrest, election turmoil, terrorism incidents or much-publicized diseases. For example, though not occurring in East Africa, Ebola has dealt a major blow to East African and Tanzanian tourism, and this has been aggravated by terrorist attacks in Kenya.
With the threats of climate change, marine conservation needs more political support from governments and the international conservation community, as well as recognition of the contributions that the private sector can make to both, effective conservation area management and livelihoods of local people on the ground. Long-term security of tenure and contracts, together with a favorable political, legal and institutional environment are needed to attract more private and community investment in marine conservation particularly in the developing world. The Chumbe Island Coral Park project looks forward to sustaining these, and collaborates with LT&C in mainstreaming results and experiences for the achievement of sustainable coastal tourism around the world.
For more information go to www.ltandc.org
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