Africa

The International Council of Tourism Partners (ICTP) announced that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism of Tanzania has become a destination member. Tanzania's tourism has seen steady growth and currently contributes over 16 percent of the national GDP.

Tanzania's Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism is responsible for conservation of natural and cultural resources as well as the development of tourism.

The importance of Tanzania’s natural and cultural resources lies in the biological value of the species and habitats and cultural sites of the country, as well as the socio-economic and cultural value of the resources and its contribution to the sustainable development of the country. These resources are the cornerstone for its tourism industry. The tourism ministry is charged with the task of ensuring sustainable conservation along with the development of tourism industry by promoting and enhancing participation of different stakeholders.

Women Win Recognition for Innovative Businesses

From a company that transforms groundnut shells into fuel briquettes in Gambia, to an enterprise that has developed solar ovens in Burkina Faso, to an initiative that trains and employs street youth to collect waste materials in Ghana, which they then transform into handmade designer products, to a business in Kenya where women produce aloe-based skin care products, these are just some the 35 winners of the 2011 SEED Awards, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today. And this year, in addition to the general SEED Awards, a special Gender Equity Award was announced as part of SEED's partnership with UN Women.

Visit China and Korea (www.visitchinaandkorea.com)

In this article "Destination Partnerships- Who's your buddy?" by AbouTourism (published on October 10th, 2011), examples of destinations joining forces for more effective tourism product development and targeted marketing. Lesson: For increased destination awareness, visitors expenditure and local economic development, two - or in some cases more - can be better than one!

Colorful celebration by the women of the Mara region singing in their traditional clothing, called Maasai Shukas, during a welcoming ceremony (Photo: Basecamp Foundation)

Picture by Duncan Wright

We Can't Afford to Protect Biodiversity?

Lisa Naughton, a professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jennifer Alix-Garcia, an assistant professor of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison, and Colin Chapman, an anthropologist at McGill University, have conducted a 10-year study of people living around Kibale National Park in Uganda, and the study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This study, focusing on the changes that occurred over time to poor communities living around the national park and to their assets (most notably, their land), challenges the "conventional wisdom" that national parks in developing countries are often to blame for the poverty found at their borders.