Eco Tourism & The Community
Ecotourism we believe means sustainable support for communities in areas where there is tourism. We try our best to encourage local community projects, are involved with them, employ and train members of the community and buy as much local produce as possible. All our fish and crab is supplied locally and as much fruit and vegetables as possible are sourced locally. This way we all work together and as many people as possible benefit from your visit. The people in turn protect their natural resources more and more as they relationship between the visitors( you) the local businesses ( us) and the protectors of the environment (the community) all become dependent.
The first step taken to sanctify the healthy environment was the creation of KISITE MARINE NATIONAL PARK & MPUNGUTI NATIONAL RESERVE. This building block allowed the establishment of a business type formula to market, sell, and employ locals in jobs that were not traditional like fishing. Men could go to work on local boats carrying tourists to see fish life, not catch it, women could work in a Kitchen to cook food for people other than their family and get paid for it.
Slowly but surely the skills that boat builders were losing with the advent of more modern fiberglass boats came back as more and more dhows were needed to ferry tourists to and from the park. These boats had to be meticulously maintained, and improved, so boat building, a dying trade, has had a come back of sorts as a result of the marine park.
Youth who would have been destined to become spear fisherman, boat smugglers, unemployed or obliged to move onwards to find work could now work locally boats, as sailors, learn to be skippers, employed in restaurants and lodges, and the most recent trend is the filling of diving skills, until recently a exclusive expatriate trade.
Starting off as dive guides, many have become established dive instructors, and some have even opened their own tour businesses, own private tour boats, vehicles and even dive schools.
The circle has completed itself with the environment serving the locals and empowering them, and in return there is a respect for the environment within the local community.
Dolphins are business and no one would imagine hurting them. Turtles are counted and nests reported, not eaten. Fishing areas are managed, with few poachers established from the local community. The area that needs focus is now the coastal forests, not an obvious value to a fishing community, but there too there is progress.
But this community success was pronounced in one village especially, Wasini, which due to its location and values has embraced a business culture from the outset. Help in the form of a huge water catchments tank was donated to them, and schools built. The 2 principle tourist restaurants on Wasini Island are located there.
Mkwiro, the poor village by many standards has lagged behind, and is still the principle source of the active fishing community in Shimoni. In recognition of this and co-operation with a volunteer organization, we have enrolled the help of Global Vision International and One Earth safaris to bring many levels of help, both environmental and educational to Shimoni, and Mkwiro in particular.
A team of 24 volunteers assisted by 6 trained professionals, (marine biology, forests, and social education) works in shifts of 10 weeks at a time to bring educational help, conduct marine research, and evaluate terrestrial forest priorities. Amongst them are 6 local sponsored trainees who will receive training and eventually become involved in gainful employment as a result.
Our participation there directly involves adult and child education, as well as encouraging environmental habits, hygiene, and income earning project stimulation.
On the mainland, the volunteers make regular audits of the forest, assist the youth groups to organize and lobby for control of the natural resource of the forest as a non cutting area, to be preserved for the communities’ future.
In and around the marine park, daily visits to the surrounding area monitor the dolphin census and habits, and co-operate towards making suggestions towards the management of the Kisite marine Park in relation to increasing numbers of visiting boats.
2 schools now dominate the edges of the village along with the Kenya Wild life Society headquaters. Schools have expanded in Shimoni and the older generations are determined to give their children a education. In a essentially Islamic village, all girls as well as boys study, and slowly the environment becomes an issue in local education and politics. Progress of sorts is making its way here .That is evident as there are also several local bars that have sprung up.
