Eco-tourism in Kenya

Working towards sustainable tourism in Kenya - KIGO CONSERVANCY - An example of ECOTOURISM.

Kigio Conservancy was set up in 1997 on an old beef / dairy ranch with the aim of providing a wildlife sanctuary and a sustainable eco-tourism destination.

The accommodation at Kigio is in "cottages" built of mud, timber and thatch, using local and reclaimed materials and methods. The furniture is built from re-claimed timber from the ground and there is no electricity, oil lamps are instead used. They have now installed solar panels to help generate electricity.

Kigio has a number of ecotourism activities it is involved in:

- partnerships with local communities - helping to fund and work on community projects
- provides links with local schools with schools in the UK, raising money for new classrooms and other projects (e.g. water tanks)
- partnerships with conservation organisations such as the Tusk Trust - which has involved setting up conservation centre for use by local schools and providing sustainable development education for local communities
- employees local people - e.g. guides and other workers
- conservation activities - e.g. looking after orphaned wildlife - e.g. 2003 relocation of giraffe into the area - including a baby giraffe from the Karen Blixen Giraffe Orphange in Nairobi.

Kenya - Tourism in a poor country

Where is Kenya?

Kenya is located in East Africa, its capital city is Nairobi and it has a population of approximately 30 million people.

Why visit Kenya?

- it has an attractive climate (tropical) with sunshine all year round, hot and humid at the coast; temperate inland and dry in the NE (rainy season - April-June and Oct-Dec, heavy rainfall in the afternoon and early evening)

- Safari holidays are popular - e.g. in the Maasai Mara / Nakuru National Park - Kenya has spectacular wildlife - including the big 5 - Lion, Elephant, Rhinoceros, Leopard and Buffalo

- Cultural experience - many tourists visit local tribes such as the Maasai to find out more about their lifestyle and traditions

- Coastal Holidays - SE of Kenya has fine sands and coral reefs with spectacular marine life - e.g. Mombassa

Why have numbers of tourists visiting Kenya increased?

Kenya was one of the first LEDC countries to acheive mass tourism and in the 1970s and 1980s there was a rapid increase in the numbers of tourists, particularly following the release of the films Born Free and Out of Africa.

- Tourist numbers have also increased as larger aircraft in the 1980s brought prices of air travel down.

Advantages of Tourism to Kenya:

- Tourism encourages the building of new roads and better communications
- Jobs in tourism have helped develop people's business skills
- Tourism has created all year round jobs for Kenyans
- Tourism is Kenya's biggest earner of foreign exchange
- Tourism has stimulated farming, by creating a demand for local food from farmers
- National Parks have been created - encouraging people to protect the environment.

Disadvantages of Tourism for Kenya:

- there is leakage of income - with a lot of the money paid for holidays never actually reaching Kenya (travel companies and foreign owned hotels get it instead)
- Safari minibuses disturb animals - often getting too close (e.g. can be 30-40 buses around a single animal in the Maasai Mara), they also cause soil erosion as the wheels churn up the grass
- many Maasai are traditionally nomadic, but many have been forced out of the National Parks - losing their land and also losing their traditional lifestyles.
- Hot air balloons in parks disturb animals - by casting shadows and from the noise of the burners.
- Coastal Environments such as those in Mombassa have been damaged - e.g. destruction of coral reefs as tourists step on the coral and also take souvenirs.

Mr. Still

Flickr

A very short unimpressive post but the point is use flickr to find high quality pictures which are different to other people - much better than just using google




Flickr

Just one of the images I found on Flickr from - Lyndon Firman

Mr. Still

Stumled upon this little gem...

This little gem as it were is called Newseum. You can access newspaper front pages from around the globe. This is from what has been dubbed Ash Friday:

Click on the picture and it will take you to the website. Check out the archived pages I have put some of the links below. I like it a lot:

Haiti Earthquake front pages

Saints win the Superbowl - not Geography but I like it

Mr. Still

New Iceland photo!!

Just found this and thought it was awesome - so had to share it

Mr. Still

Iceland volcano!!

This year has been the year for tectonic hazards. In fact I am thinking of re-writing my 'Risky Planet' SOW to include only examples from the last year. Possibly a stretch but there have been major hazards so far this year - Haiti, Chile & Tsunami, China and now the eruption at Eyjafjallajoekull - Iceland. Maybe the film 2012 has a point?

With lots of stuff flying around the Internet I thought I would post some of the good stuff and where to keep yourself up-to-date:

The trusty BBC website lots of news as the Volcano erupts.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8630455.stm

The maps are quite interesting on where the ash is falling and changing wind patterns. This map shows the spread of the ash cloud and flights that have happened today:

Icelandic Blog

OK, now it may not be in English but important part is the webcams - scroll the page and there are quite a lot about the many volcanoes in Iceland

http://islande2010.mbnet.fr/2010/04/eyjafjallajokul-links-liens-a-propos-de-leyjafjallajokul/

Another very useful place to look at pictures of the eruption is Flickr. I will post about the usefulness of Flickr later as it very useful for finding excellent interesting pictures.

These two people have taken pictures of the eruption - have a look and be impressed!!

Steini3 and Helga*

This is one I really like:

Finally a bit of fun - this comes from MSN and is a photogallery of volcanic sunsets!!

http://news.uk.msn.com/photos/photos.aspx?cp-documentid=153092909 - press the play button

Mr. Still

Types of Volcano

I found this today and thought it was very good. Credit to Mrs. Newlands.

Types Of Volcanoes

View more presentations from tudorgeog.

Mr. Still