The Christmas Santa Almost Didn’t Come

One Christmas, when I was about three years old, we went to Hunter’s Lodge in Tsavo National Park. I had been a particularly bad little girl and my parents told me that they weren’t sure that Santa was even going to come that year.

When it came time to go to bed, we discovered that we had forgotten the stocking. Horrors! Not that! Now Santa definitely wasn’t going to come.

Dad came to the rescue and offered up one of his socks. I went to sleep incredulous but hopeful.

Christmas morning came and … Santa had come! All I remember about what he brought was a miniature refrigerator, complete with miniature eggs. Dad would swallow one and miraculously find it behind my ear.

So, why am I reminiscing about an event that happened more than 30 years ago?

In part, to wish those of you who celebrate Christmas a wonderful and merry holiday.

But mostly, because I read this story in eTN: “Uganda welcomes tourism boom over Christmas.”

Apparently, Uganda experienced a 30 percent increase in visitors compared to 2005, according to a published report from Uganda Travel Guide. “The record number of tourists traveling into Uganda this Christmas season is overwhelmingly high,” reported Uganda Travel Guide (UTG), “evidenced by the fully booked flights and sold out hotel rooms in Uganda.”

Mweya and Paraa safari lodges sold out almost a month ago, according to Madhvani group tourism director Mani Khan. He told UTG that this is a peak season compared to last year because the bookings were made in advance. The majority of these tourists, unlike previous years, are from the UK, US, Netherlands and Germany.

“An increase in tourist arrivals is attributed to a combination of factors,” said UTG, “including the improved hotel facilities/services, improved security, efforts to boost Uganda’s image abroad, engagement of public relations agencies, as well as the committed and qualified staff in the hospitality sector.”

Tourism Minister Serapio Rukundo credits the prevailing political stability for the increase. “Our cities are much safer compared to Kenya and South Africa,” he told reporters.

Peace through Tourism Promoted in East Africa

The 4th International Institute of Peace through Tourism (IIPT) African Conference Coming to Uganda in May

Kampala, Uganda, will host the fourth International Institute of Peace through Tourism (IIPT) African Conference May 20-25, 2007.

"We anticipate that this will be our most important and successful African conference to date,” said Louis D’Amore, IIPT Founder and President. "We have spent the past year fostering relationships in support of the conference with the aim of not only debating its theme and goals – but to building partnerships that will act on them."

The theme of the conference is "Building Strategic Alliances for Sustainable Tourism Development, Peace and Reconciliation on the African Continent." Among the many goals of the conference is increasing public and government awareness of the role tourism plays in preserving the biodiversity of the African Continent.

According to the IIPT newsletter, the Conference will bring together senior African executives from both the public and private sectors of tourism, as well as NGOs, donor agencies, educators, policy makers, leading practitioners, entrepreneurs, future leaders of the industry, and senior representatives of related sectors including environment, culture and economic development.

The conference will include plenary sessions, workshops, an Educators Forum, a Youth Leadership Forum and a Traditional Leaders Forum, as well as pre-conference training workshops on selected topics.

For more information about the conference, visit iipt.org.

Tanzania Creates Largest National Park in Africa

The land of Tanzania's Ruaha National Park and Usangu Game Reserve are going to be combined into one National Park.

"One of the aims of the government in annexing Usangu to Ruaha is in part to save the biodiversity of that area, as well as to increase tourism to the region," said Gerald Bigurube, Director General, Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA). “This can best be accomplished if the area is administered and marketed by TANAPA”.

"Tanzania’s tourism strategy is to encourage high quality, low volume tourism," said Peter Mwenguo, Managing Director, Tanzania Tourist Board. "By increasing the number of national parks, we are able to create more diversity in the safari circuits and avoid mass tourism."

Ruaha has the largest population of elephants of any East African national park -- about 10,000 animals. Other creatures calling Ruaha home include impala, waterbuck and other antelopes, lions, cheetahs and more than 450 bird species. The park is bounded the East by the Great Ruaha River. The natural water reservoir for the river is the Ihefu Wetland, which is located in the Usangu Game Reserve.

"Tanzania is constantly working on upgrading its game reserves to National Parks," said Bigurube. "In a National Park there is no consumptive use of resources and this allows for the multiplicity of species, increasing the wildlife in the parks."

For more information about Ruaha National Park, visit www.tanzaniaparks.com/ruaha.htm.

Vintage Technique Reduces Poaching in Serengeti National Park

"Expanded budgets and antipoaching patrols since the mid-1980s have significantly reduced poaching and allowed populations of buffalo, elephants and rhinoceros to rebuild,” states the authors of a paper published in today’s issue of Science.

This technique has been used since the 1930s to estimate the abundance of fish. Now, a recent study has proved for the first time that enforcement patrols are effective at reducing poaching of elephants, African buffaloes and black rhinos in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.

"Wildlife within protected areas is under increasing threat from the bushmeat and illegal trophy trades," says Ray Hilborn, University of Washington professor of aquatic and fishery sciences and lead author of a paper, "and many argue that enforcement within protected areas is not sufficient to protect wildlife. Some say the $2 million spent annually in the Serengeti on patrols would be better spent on other preventive activities."

However, his research proves otherwise. "The animals are 'telling' us poaching is down now that there are 10 to 20 patrols a day compared to the mid-1980s when there might be 60 or fewer patrols a year." Hilborn says.

Previously, estimates of poaching have been difficult to verify. Therefore, Hilborn and his co-authors used the decades-old technique of catch-per-unit-of-effort, which has been to estimate fish abundance and set fishing limits.

The Serengeti has a 50-year-record of arrests and patrols. To estimate the amount of poaching, the paper’s authors divided the number of poachers arrested by the number of patrols a day, assuming that arrests per patrol were representative of poaching intensity.

"We show that a precipitous decline in enforcement in 1977 resulted in a large increase in poaching and decline of many species," Hilborn and his co-authors wrote.

A press release announcing these findings stated:

The work marks the first time anyone has been able to reconstruct a history of poaching going back as far as 50 years, says Tom Hobbs, professor of ecology at Colorado State University and who is not affiliated with the work being published in Science.

"The Hilborn team has shown that protection of wildlife by active enforcement of laws and regulations remains an essential tool for conserving biological diversity," Hobbs says. "This sounds so simple, but it has been controversial."

The National Science Foundation funded, at least in part, the research.

Joint Marketing for East African Tourism Moving Forward

My very first post to this blog mentioned the this was coming. Now it is a reality.

Apolinari Tairo, from eTN Africa, reports that "Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda have launched a common marketing strategy at big international tourism fairs." This is part of their effort to " to market East Africa as a single package but with different and unique tourist heritages in each member state."

The official start of this new campaign will coincide with the International Tourism Exhibition (ITB) in Berlin to be held in March of next year. There, East African tourist boards will present leaflets and banners featuring the regional tourist attractions and inter-state heritages.

In addition to this marketing campaign, the three countries have "also agreed on a common tourist visa and standardization of hotels and other tourist facilities in the region."

According to Tairo, representatives from the regional tourist boards met at the recently-ended World Travel Market (WTM) in London, and "agreed to harmonize policies and strategies in the tourist sector in the East African Community (EAC) states to involve a broad spectrum of stakeholders."

The managing director of the Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) Peter Mwenguo told eTN Thursday, that they intend to "chat out plans to work out implementation of the EAC council of ministers directive requiring us to foster regional cooperation in tourism."

Tairo adds, "Wildlife is the leading tourist attraction in East Africa, but each state has its own unique attractions including Mount Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro Crater and Chimpanzee parks (Tanzania), the Maasai-Mara Game Reserve and the Indian Ocean beaches (Kenya) and gorilla heritage and natural scenery (Uganda)."

Those Who Doubt Global Warming Criticized by UN Secretary-General

"Let no one say we cannot afford to act," Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared today at the second meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, in conjunction with the twelfth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention, held in Nairobi, Kenya.

Kenya has already suffered the evidence of global warming, as I mentioned in my August 30 post. And yet, there are those who doubt that worldwide climate change is upon us. Alas, I live in one of the countries that have rejected the Kyoto Protocol, which requires 35 industrial nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent of 1990 levels by 2012.

The Associate Press reported today that Annan criticized the naysayers and slow actors, saying they are "out of step" and "out of time."

After his speech, he told reporters, "I would want leaders around the world to really show courage and to know that if they do, their people and the voters will be with them." To some degree, I’d have to agree. However, even if Bush changed his mind, I still wouldn’t vote for him. He has caused too much damage already.

Although the chief U.S. delegate responded to Annan’s comments, at a later news conference, that Washington has been a leader with "groundbreaking initiatives" on clean-energy technology, I believe it is too little, too late. The U.S. argues that reducing global-warming gases would set back the economy too much. However, at some point, we need to realize that our pocket books are not more important than the millions of lives, present and future, human and otherwise, that our actions will affect.

Annan contended that climate change "is not science fiction." According to the Associate Press, he referred to a recent British government report that projects the effects of global warming, including rising sea levels, droughts and other climatic disturbances, could cost up to 20 percent of the global gross domestic product each year.

"It is increasingly clear it will cost far less to cut emissions now than to deal with the consequences later," Annan said.

There is hope for the U.S.’s involvement in the future, however. According to Philip Clapp, president of the U.S. group National Environmental Trust, both Democratic and Republican hopefuls for the 2008 presidential election favor putting a cap on U.S. emissions.

For more information on this issue, check out these resources:

United Nations Climate Change Conference - Nairobi 2006
unfccc.int/meetings/cop_12/items/3754.php

Earth Share
www.earthshare.org/index.html

Climate Change information from the Council on Foreign Relations
www.cfr.org/issue/20/climate_change.html

Pew Center on Global Climate Change
www.pewclimate.org

An Inconvenient Truth (on DVD Nov. 21)
www.climatecrisis.net

Going On Hiatus

I’m moving to California at the end of the month, so I will be unable to update this blog for a few weeks. But never fear! I’ll be back and posting before the year is out!

World Tourism Day Celebrated in Tanzania

Thursday, Oct. 26, is World Tourism Day, and to celebrate Tanzania is opening a new tourist region of Kagera on the shores of Lake Victoria.

The Kagera region lies close to the equator (1 degree south) and has been rising as a tourist destination in Tanzania. The region includes diverse cultural and historical attractions and rich wildlife resources.

Kagera also shares territorial borders with Rwanda and Uganda, with a large part of its area sharing Lake Victoria water resources, which, in turn, shares borders with Kenya and Uganda. Lake Victoria is the largest tropical lake in the world and the second largest freshwater lake on Earth.

The opening is part of a week-long tourism promotion, the inauguration of Kagera Annual Cultural Festival and the World Tourism Day. Activities will focus on poverty reduction strategies, contribution to reconciliation of people’s culture, economic benefits of tourism and environmental protection.

For more information, visit www.kagera.org/worldtourismday.htm.

Maasai Squatters Given Ultimatum

The Tanzania government have given Maasai communities living inside Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) until the end of this year to vacate the premises, reports Apolinari Tairo of eTN.

Often called the "Last Garden of Eden," the NCA is located in Tanzania's tourist circuit and is a World Heritage Site. The nomads moved there, looking for greener pastures for their cattle.

Increasing human activities in the area have worried wildlife conservationists. Approximately 60,000 people, primarily Maasai, are currently living in NCA, disrupting both tourism and conservation efforts.

For more information about the NCA, the Maasai and this long-time cultural issue, visit these resources:

Ngorongoro Conservation Area
www.ngorongoro-crater-africa.org

Maasai Wildlife Conservation and Human Need
www.ogiek.org/faq/article-ndasoki-mas.htm

Legitimizing Dispossession: The Tanzanian High Court's Decision on the Eviction of Maasai Pastoralists from Mkomazi Game Reserve
www.cs.org/publications/csq/csq-article.cfm?id=503

Global Warming Could Alter the Mane Attraction

Much like human females, lionesses fancy thick, full manes on their men. But unlike human males, climate is a large factor in how full and thick a lion’s mane will get, research published in the April 13, 2006, issue of the Journal of Mammalogy found.

The study, based on zoo animals throughout the United States, showed that up to one-half of the length and density of zoo lion’s manes could be attributed to temperature. The lion’s mane, which can hinder heat loss just like a wool scarf, is primarily used to attract females.

But being sexy comes at cost: it takes energy to grow and maintain a full mane, it can make it harder to sneak up on prey, it makes a great home for parasites, it catches on bramble more easily, and, as this study shows, it can make it harder to keep cool while hanging out on the Serengeti.

"Many variables interact to affect mane development in wild lions," said Dr. Bruce Patterson, lead author of the paper and principal investigator of Earthwatch's Lions of Tsavo project. "Several of these variables, including food, water and social groupings are controlled in zoological parks, where the authors show climate has a major effect on more development."

This pans out in the wild, where lions in the hottest climates have little or no mane at all. "This is the case in Tsavo, Kenya," said Patterson, "where most lions are maneless."

So, could global warming make lions with dark, luxurious manes a thing of the past as Peyton M. West suggests in his American Scientist article, "The Lion’s Mane"? Previous research has indicated that in areas of east Africa most impacted by global warming, lion manes have been getting thinner and less ostentatious.

For more information about Earthwatch’s Lions of Tsavo project and the scientists working on the project, visit www.earthwatch.org/site/pp2.asp?c=dsJSK6PFJnH&b=1147599.

Eco-Tourism On the Rise in Africa

When most people think of going on a vacation to Africa, the word "safari" comes up. For most, the whole point of a safari is to see the wildlife of the mysterious continent. However, as many of you know, and as I’m mentioned in other posts to this blog, that wildlife is not only getting smaller, but is, in some cases, in danger of disappearing altogether.

Thankfully, many African nations are realizing the importance their wildlife has for their economy and are starting to use tourism as a way of funding conservation efforts. Thus, eco-tourism, nature-based tourism that educates and interprets the natural environment for tourist and is ecologically sustainable, is growing in many African countries.

For a good overview of this topic, check out “Development of Africa’s eco-tourism” at www.traveldailynews.com/makeof.asp?central_id=1194&permanent_id=31.

Black Rhino Population Improving

When I lived in Kenya, there was this black rhino that my family considered "our rhino." Every time we went to this national park, I can't remember which, it was there hanging about this lone acacia tree. We lived in Kenya for two and half years, and it was always there. Then, before we returned to the U.S., we returned to the acacia tree to say good-bye, but the rhino was not there.

The black rhino, along with whales and elephants, is a leading symbol for environmentalism. Once abundant throughout sub-Saharan Africa, their habitat is limited to an area stretching from Cameroon in the west, Kenya in the East and South Africa in the south. Only a few years ago, it looked like the black rhino would disappear altogether.

But thanks to conservationists' efforts, the black rhino is making a comeback. At the end of 2003, there were only 428 animals in Kenya. At the end of 2005, the number had grown to 539. "This shows a healthy increase that surpassed our targets," said Dr. Taye Teferi of the World Wildlife Federation’s Eastern Africa office in Nairobi.

Of course, this does not mean rhinos are out of the woods. Poachers still seek their horns because there is still a market for them in Asia, where rhino horn powder is used in traditional medicine, and the Middle East, where rhino horn is still carved for handles of ceremonial daggers.

Also, rhinos in Kenya once numbered 20,000 in 1970. They were abundant and a common site when lived there from 1969 to 1971. Now, the goal set by the Kenya Wildlife Service, in cooperation with WWF’s black rhino project, is to increase the population to a mere 1,000 by 2020. "With increased improvement in wildlife management and monitoring," said Dr. Teferi, "the black rhino population can continue to show a healthy growth rate for many years to come."

For more information about the WWF Black Rhino Project, visit worldwildlife.org/rhinos/subspecies/subspecies_br.cfm.

Ugandan President Supports Conservation

Despite pressure from Basongora pastoralists returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo, President Yoweri Museveni, has made it clear that no part of any National Park in Uganda will be degazetted.

This is probably due to the immense financial benefit the parks and their wildlife bring to the country. Wildlife is integral to Ugandan tourism, which is a major contributor to the country’s economy.

According to Moses Mapesa, who wrote an opinion piece for Uganda's leading daily newspaper, The New Vision, a single gorilla in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park brings in $100,000 (US) per year and provides jobs for 30 people.

Increasing human population has caused a lot of political pressure to degazette park lands for human settlement. And, more than 90% of the Ugandan population is rural, requiring lots of land. Compare this to the less than 20% in South Africa and China, where the population is concentrated in cities and the rural areas are set aside for production and conservation of natural resources.

Human encroachment has jeopardized the wild populations, especially carnivores and omnivores, which are often poisoned by the communities. At least five lions were recently found poisoned in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park.

To read more of Mapesa’s article, visit www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/459/515276.

Evidence of Global Warming in Africa

The snows of Kilimanjaro are not the only victims of climate change and global warming. Recently, the Rwenzori Centenary Expedition found evidence that glaciers are receding on Africa’s largest alpine region, located in Uganda. The study by British and Ugandan scientists predicts that the equatorial icecaps will disappear within two decades because of global warming.

"Recession of these tropical glaciers sends an unambiguous message of a changing climate in this region of the tropics," said Richard Taylor of the University College London Department of Geography, who led the study funded by The Royal Geographical Society and The Royal Society. Taylor and his colleagues found that in the Rwenzori Mountains, also known as the Mountains of the Moon, there have been clear trends since the 1960s toward increased air temperature without significant changes in precipitation.

Still unknown is how this projected loss of the glaciers will affect tourism, as well as local traditional belief systems, that depend on the snow and ice, known locally as "Nzururu."

The Rwenzori Mountains, also known as the Mountains of the Moon, sit astride the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Uganda.

"Considering the continent’s negligible contribution to global greenhouse-gas emissions," said Taylor, "it is a terrible irony that Africa, according to current predictions, will be most affected by climate change."

The Rwenzori Mountains National Park, in Uganda, is one of UNESCO's World Heritage sites. A scientific team has been charged with studying maps of the glaciers, comparing the cartography from 1955 to reports from 1906.

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Photo Source: oldhippies.blogspot.com/2005/03/just-do-it.html

Africa’s Tourism Fostered in First Ever African-Centric Initiative

TourismAfrica, to be held Sept. 10-15 in Geneva, is the first initiative focused solely on African tourism. The event, which gathers qualified African and International decision-makers from both private and public sectors, aims to foster the development of Africa’s tourism industry.

Two of the days, Sept. 14 and 15, will be dedicated to the importance of women in the development of African tourism. The World Association of Women Entrepreneurs is sponsoring the special days.

Some of the topics to be discussed during the congress include heritage preservation, sustainable development and tourism project development.

For more information, visit TourismAfrica’s official website at www.tourismafrica.com.

Annual Goat Races to Be Held Aug. 26

The annual Royal Ascot Goat Races, a Ugandan society event, will be held at the Speke Resort and Conference Center in Munyonyo on Saturday, Aug. 26. The event includes raffle prizes and raises money for a variety of charities, including Sanyu Babies' Home and Uganda Deaf Association.

Nearly 10,000 visitors come to this event each year. For more information, visit thegoatraces.com/index.html.

Crossing Border Made Easier at Mt Elgon National Park

"Uganda and Kenya have allowed visitors to Mt Elgon National Park to cross the common border atop the mountain," reports Lillian Nsubuga, Special Correspondent for The East African, "taking the campaign to create a single East African tourism market to a higher level."

Until now, tourists had to go up and come down the mountain on the same side of the border, but now they have a choice of ascending and descending on either side of the border.

Ugandan and Kenyan officials will soon meet to discuss the initiative, Moses Mapesa Uganda Wildlife Authority executive director told Nsubuga. "We need a memorandum of understanding to guide us on key issues such as the procedures for handing over tourists by one country to another, especially since the point of handover is not an officially gazetted immigration point."

Currently, Kenya and Uganda use transfer forms filled by tourists wishing to cross the border. Immigration officials on either side countersign the forms, confirming entry or exit of the visitors.

The cross-border initiative is one of several joint activities being implemented under the Mt Elgon Regional Ecosystem Conservation Programme. The joint venture aims make the mountain available to tourists at affordable costs.

Kenyan and Ugandan tourism authorities have improved security to stop illegal immigrants from abusing the cross-border tourism facility, Joshua Masereka, chief warden of the park, said. Mt Elgon is one of the 10 national parks managed by the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

For more information, see the full story at allafrica.com/stories/200608140837.html.

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Note: Image from www.shoebillsafaris.com/mount_Elgon.htm

Construction Moratorium Established for Masai Mara

"What strikes you most about the Masai Mara, a massive game reserve in Kenya, is the amount of wildlife roaming its grassy plains," wrote Leigh Murray in a recent travel article for the Chicago Sun-Times. There you can see lions, cheetahs, giraffes and the wildebeest, which make their annual migration through the park.

I spent many a fun weekend with my family there, so it warms the cockles of my heart to discover that the Kenyan Government and the National Environmental Management Authority in Kenya has put a moratorium on construction in Masai Mara until a review and new management plan for the game reserve has been agreed upon.

Both conservationists and stakeholders in the hospitality industry favor the action. According to The East African Standard, "there has been haphazard development of lodges, camps and mushrooming of settlements outside the park gates" over the last 15 years. "More than sixty lodges and camps have been developed without impact assessment being done, exerting pressure on the fragile ecosystem."

The Mara river has suffered serious pollution due to effluent being discharged into the water from establishments along its shores. This river is an important the source of clean water for both human and wild game.

For more information:
allafrica.com/stories/200607240651.html

Luxury Hotel Opens in Kampala, Uganda

The former Nile Hotel has been renovated and reopened as the Kampala Serena Hotel, luxury, five-star hotel.

"This is just the type of investment that Uganda needs to spur its burgeoning tourism sector and attract other investors," said Uganda's Minister of State for Privatisation Prof. Peter Kasenene.

The opening of the hotel not only helps tourism, it also adds value to Uganda's employment sector, as the new facility will employ about 350 people.

The Serena Group owns properties in Kenya and Tanzania, as well, and is considered one of the leading hospitality providers in East Africa.

"The objective from the outset was to create the finest facility in the region," Serena Hotel sales and marketing director Peter Mhogua told travel agents and journalists touring the facility. It took nearly 18 months for the reconstruction and renovation to be completed on this property.

Amenities available at the Kampala Serena include 152 rooms and suites, the Pearl of Africa restaurant, The Mists cocktail bar, the Explorers Bistro, the Lakes' restaurant, Maisha Health Club and a state-of-the-art conference center.

Prince Amyn Aga Khan, Chairman of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), the principal shareholders of the Serena Group, hopes that the new hotel will help the Serena Group expand it safari and leisure circuit in East Africa.

For more information, visit www.serenahotels.com/uganda/kampala/home.asp

Expeditions to East Africa from the National Wildlife Federation

The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) offers a unique travel service with its Expeditions Travel Program. Each trip selected emphasizes the unique wildlife of the area, and all tours include a strong educational component.

Two of their upcoming trips will be to East African countries.

September 11, 2006 - September 23, 2006
Tanzania Adventure Safari
Rate: $4,990 per person including airfare from New York
This safari is designed for travelers seeking something more intimate, more organic, more unique from a trip. It includes several nights of real camping

March 9, 2007 - March 20, 2007
Journey of Discovery to Kenya
Rate: $3,295 per person
Ten days of exploration with naturalists and native guides.

Most tours for 2006 sold out, and the 2007 Expeditions are expected to do the same, so check on these soon, if you’re interested in participating.

NWF promises an intimate and secure expedition, as the groups are kept small -- most tours are limited to 15-20 participants in order to maximize wildlife-viewing opportunities. “Travelers share their adventures with like-minded travelers who are sensitive to the fragile environments visited,” NWF said in a press release.

For more information on NWF Expeditions, including the itinerary for each trip, visit the NWF web site at www.nwf.org/expeditions or call 1-800-606-9563.

East Africa: A Single Tourist Destination

The East African Community (EAC) has a new strategic plan to promote tourism in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Part of the initiative is a common visa for tourists that would be honored in all three countries.

The plan hasn’t been approved yet, but many hope it will be by November, in time for the World Travel Fair in London, as well as the Berlin Fair later in the year. The benefits of such a program include:

• It supports the spirit of the common East Africa customs union, launched last year, as well as the proposed common market between the three countries by 2010.


• It would allow tour operators to develop packages that visit all three countries more easily.

A single entity, the East African Tourism and Wildlife Conservation Agency (EATWCA) will be in charge of the tourism and conservation sector of the EAC.

The EAC, which depends on wildlife-based tourism, has a lot to offer eco-minded tourists, and packaged as a single destination could offer tourists a broader experience. Tourists looking to see wildlife make up more than 75 percent of the tourists to the region. In addition, Kenya has been ranked among the world’s top eco-tourism destinations, with Tanzania and Egypt coming in second for popularity in eco-tourism. On top of that, National Geographic Magazine named Serengeti, the largest national park in Tanzania, one of the 50 must-go-to-in-lifetime places in the world.