David Nkwanga

Pro-Poor Community Eco-Tourism Window for Sustainable Ecosystem Conservation, Community Participation and Wise Use of Mabamba Bay Ramsar Site, Uganda

Mabamba Eco-tourism & Community Information Centre.

A boat ride through Mabamba Wetland: A tourist being guided by the recently trained tourist guides.

David (right) with tourist guides in the process of identifying other tourist attractions around Mabamba.

Tai Award.

The project intends to achieve its objectives through:

1) Improving collaboration with tour operators to jointly map out ways of promoting pro-poor community tourism this to be implemented through dialogue meetings and joint planning workshops;

2) Expanding the tourism base to reduce the pressure on the wetland resource that is likely to increase with the increasing in-flow of tourists, this to involve Community mapping of potential tourist attractions in the vicinity in joint exercises between tour companies, tourist guides, and the community with the help of a professional facilitator;

3) Documentation of Indigenous knowledge to further inform conservation efforts and appeal to more community support, this to be done using volunteers and the Eco-tourism Centre Management Committee to develop a data bank of indigenous knowledge for education, research, tourism and conservation values;

4) Institutional Development and further cohesion building within Mabamba Wetland eco-tourism Association (MWETA)through participatory planning, review meetings and training programs.

You can read about David's previous project at http://www.ruffordsmallgrants.org/rsg/projects/david_nkwanga or for more information contact naturepaldn@gmail.com or go to www.naturepalace.net