Conservation
Why Community Matters
'ways that the community can directly benefit from the presence of tourism'
Wildlife and habitat conservation is a pipe dream unless local communities are involved, enrolled and stand to benefit from conservation measures.
A US$ 20 guest conservation levy, as well as continued private donations, fund various conservation- based activities with the communities of Vamizi Island. These activities are controlled by the Maluane Project, the organization that conceived the Vamizi Island project.
In the local villages, the Maluane Project has supported and encouraged the foundation of a local fishing association that will give the fisherman a direct say and responsibility in how the island fish stocks and marine environments are to be protected. It also has been providing some basic level education in sustainable fishing practices.
A women’s group, supported by the Maluane Project, looks at different ways that the community can directly benefit from the presence of tourism on the island – a baking project supplies bread to project employees, a weaving project may soon begin to produce hand crafted goods for sale in the lodge.
These ventures and others like them can help island conservation in two ways, by providing alternative incomes and reducing the pressure to fish and by enforcing a critical train of logic – that if the island is well preserved and properly managed, tourists will come, bringings wealth and new opportunity to a community.