Promoting Local Tourism along with the economic benefits of Mount Kilimanjaro - By Shirumisha Kwayu
by Bumaco LTD on 05/20/14
Towards promoting local tourism, the Kilimanjaro National Park (KINAPA) has waived park fees for local people. As a result, various institutions organize day trips for its employees and their families to climb the Mountain for a day. This means covering one or two stops maximum. Usually to reach the pick, one needs at least 5 days of climbing and coming down. Well, so I last week I joined a group of local people hiking the Mountain through Lemosho route for a day. The hike started from Shira plateau to Shira 2 camp. The trip was invaluable as I saw (by my eyes) many economic benefits of the mountain. So in this brief entry, I will share my experience with little analysis to what I saw.
We started the trip in Moshi town around 7:30 am. Before the bus started to move, our guide announced “here (Moshi town) your on 800 meters above the sea level, today you’re going to be on altitude of 3800 meters above the sea level! If you have not been on an airplane before, this is almost the same, the difference is that in the plane you’re on an air condition but there will be real.” The guide had much rhetoric similar to this throughout the trip. Such included phrases like “these species are only found here and may be in some part of America, or Norway.” These phrases were meant to encourage us all and to show the uniqueness and worthiness of climbing the Mountain. Although clouds covered the mountain peak, the changing picturesque as we were gradually ascending from Moshi town to Shira plateau and then Shira 2 is a living testimony explaining why the mountain gets on the list of the Seven Wonders of the World. These scenic views that brings together all types of biomass in the world (rainforest, savanna, desert, and temperate, etc) attract hundreds of thousands of tourists in the area. Tourism, without much explanation to it, has significant positive effect into Tanzania’s economy. Apart from being one of the main sources of foreign currency, it has multiplier effect penetrating to each household around Kilimanjaro region as well as the country in general.
Moshi is a town of Mt Kilimanjaro. It’s a business town generated by agriculture and tourism. Under the slopes and in lowland areas of the mountain, there are enormous trading activities going on. Coffee as a cash crop has been going hand in hand with tourism. In fact, Moshi is the only town in the country that hosts an international coffee auction every week. People in Moshi have diversified their agricultural products by making use of the fertile soil on the slopes of the mountain. While ascending towards the mountain, one observes markets for food products and relatively intensive farming taking place. In West Kilimanjaro you see both peasants and large-scale farming by investors. The negative thing about large investors is that they distract animals’ habitation. For instance, elephants that migrate from Kenya to West Kilimanjaro are prevented from doing so for a contemptible reason that they destroying crops. The investors assemble tractors with sharp light rays on to divert elephants as they confuse the lights with fire. Although, the large scale farming in the area provides employment and income to women and youths, the benefits of keeping the animal’s natural habitation outweighs the farming benefits.
On their side, KINAPA has practiced agroforestry in the lowland of Mount Kilimanjaro. They have planted trees and in-between they allow local people to plant carrots and potatoes. This type of farming is impressive as the trees influence the climate of the region and farming ensure food security. This type of farming is very important as it generates local and international trade. The timber is exported to other countries such as China while the food crops are traded to other regions within the country. This type of farming further stimulates other sectors such as transport and industrial sector.
To conclude, it is 100% fair to say that Kilimanjaro is a natural gift to the people around it and the world in general. It provides significant benefits to its residents and people across the world. The area has a lot more potential for various areas of interests. For instance research centers could be established in the areas doing various studies including agriculture, ecology, tourism, and business. The region could be turned to the peak of education in Africa. Historians, geographers, botanist, economist and many other scholars have a lot to learn from the mountain.
To this end, BUMACO with support from the CORDAID-Netherlands, started to train youths in rural Kilimanjaro (Hai District) in mountaineering skills. The aim is to enable these youths to tap into the tourism industry and gain economic benefits. The mountain can employ every single youth around as guide, porter, farmer, etc. At BUMACO we also train youths and women in handicraft so they can make souvenirs for locals and tourists. What these youths need is skills and the right attitude.
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