The rumbling rivers born by the glaciers from the
snow on Mt. Rwenzori plunge into Ruboni located along the equator. The chilly
conditions have created home to the rare three-horned chameleons and Rwenzori Turaco.
The ecological treasure has been waiting to be tapped to create prosperity.
He has lived all his life in a village sitting on
the slopes of Mt. Rwenzori. Unlike many residents of Ruboni village in Kasese,
Ferdinand Irumba knows the beauty of the mountains.
Irumba is also staking everything he has to turn
his village into a “paradise” for tourists and use the proceeds to improve the
quality of life in Ruboni. His sweat has started paying off.
At Ruboni, the residents, led by Irumba, have set
up accommodation facilities. They also prepare meals for their visitors who
either go there for bird watching or hiking along the slopes of Mt. Rwenzori.
When the guests retire in the evenings, the residents lavishly entertain them
with traditional dances and folk stories. The returns from tourism,
Irumba believes are short of a miracle. “We have
started earning money that would have remained a dream for us for a long time,”
says Irumba. This has come out of creation of markets for fruits, food stuffs
and handicrafts.
Other benefits include employment as guides,
cooks, handicraft makers and cultural performers in dance and drama. “Such
people on a good day earn up to sh20, 000,” says Irumba, adding that this is
good money given that most people live on less than $1 (sh2, 500) per day.
In addition to this, the local communities have
been given skills in modern agriculture. This, according to Irumba, has helped
improve productivity and soil conservation. Even when wild animals forage on
their crops, the communities do not get up in arms because the animals are seen
as money spinners.
How Ruboni woke up
Residents have united to benefit from the beauty of their
surroundings, Not so long ago, residents of Ruboni took matters
in their own hands. Instead of accepting a small part of the tourism pie and
leaving the rest to the big private sector players, Irumba and his colleagues
bought land to set up a camp.“There was no income from tourism before we
started the camp,” says Irumba, adding that despite the local residents living
in the vicinity of the world famous Rwenzori National Park, they thought the
park existed at their expense.
Irumba says as the community was plotting to get
the initiative off the ground, the Sustainable Tourism in the Albertine Rift
(STAR-Uganda), an initiative funded by USAID, supported them to get closer to
the dream.
“The more time we spend with the tourists, the
more we earn,” says Irumba, pointing out that they have products, including
accommodation that is cheaper compared to other places, which has helped them
attract both local and foreign tourists.
Previously, Ruboni had only ecological richness,
and because the local people did not have capacity to drive enterprises that
create wealth in eco-friendly ways, they were being left behind. Because of
this, Ruboni had become a poverty haven and environmental destruction was a way
of life.
“The community has started understanding that
conservation is essential to their lives, but returns are not yet enough to get
rid of poverty, which is still pushing people into chopping of trees,” says
Irumba, adding that residents have started planting trees under “Global Benefits”,
which is promoted by Eco-trust.
Healing pitfalls of tourism
As much as benefits of tourism are trickling into
Ruboni, most of the places gifted with wild beauties are still starved of
opportunities to reap money from the wanderlust.
This is partly blamed on conservation, which locks
away the land from other uses such as agriculture. Abiaz Rwamwiri, a
communications officer at Africa Wildlife Foundation, says tourism, which is
one of the fastest growing industries globally, creates a multiplier effect
within the economy, and that if streamlined, it could reduce poverty. “The
trickle-down effect of tourism can never be compared to anything else,” says
Abiaz Rwamwiri.
“A tourist who enters Uganda pays $50 at the
airport, uses a taxi of up to 70,000 (direct cash to one family of about five
members), goes to a hotel and is served by over 10 people (from the
receptionist, manager, to the room attendant. Each of these people has about
five dependents) from the hotel, he is taken by the guide to the park, the
ranger at the UWA gate also gets paid and the tourist pays entrance fees.
It is difficult to find such a chain in any other
sector.” Eliminating poverty from villages around protected areas Rwamwiri says
communities need to be supported to benefit. “If there was a policy for the
eco-lodges to purchase the food stuffs locally, poverty would be history,” says
Rwamwiri, adding that there is no way a local person selling food to a hotel
and earning sh20,000 every week is going to suffer poverty.
Rwamwiri added that government policies have
failed to protect the communities, noting that many of handicrafts in curio
shops and lodges come from Kenya. He also blamed the communities for the poor
attitude and lack of creativity.
“There is no business that is going to give people
handouts. We must tap into the business in order to benefit.” Even when
Uganda’s share of tourism has increased from $662m in 2010/2011 to $805m in
2011/2012, Rwamwiri says it is disappointing that tourist’s return to their
countries with 60% of the money unspent.
“Ugandans should be creative in order to entice
tourists to spend,” he says. The principle wildlife officer in the tourism
ministry, Akankwasa Barirega, says the Uganda Wildlife Authority gives 20% of
the revenue from protected areas to communities living around the areas. He
adds that with the increasing tourism revenue, the share for the communities is
also increasing and contributing to poverty alleviation around the protected
areas.
Akankwasa pointed out that some districts such as
Kisoro have taken strides by appointing district tourism officers to take a
bigger slice of the cake.
Ruboni, according to Rwamwiri, stands out as one
of the examples showing how communities can be supported to benefit from the
protected areas in their neighborhood. He points out that cultural tourism
should be tapped since there are practices and dances that are unique to
different tribes across the country.
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