The objective of the Project is to address the negative impacts of tourism on the coastal and marine environment in Sub-Saharan Africa, as identified by the African Process , through promoting the development of sustainable tourism policies and strategies and the implementation of pilot demonstration projects in a number of countries that participated in the African Process. The full project objective is to demonstrate best practice stratgeies for sustainable tourism tor edcue the degradation of marine and coastal envrionments of transboundary significance. The project will engage the private sector and enhance public-private partnerships to enable formulation and implementation of appropriate national and regional policies and strategies for sustainable tourism development in coastal and marine areas, including a policy and strategy framework to guide and promote ecotourism development.

The full project will be designed to: -

(i) provide appropriate policy and strategy frameworks for sustainable tourism development in coastal areas;

(ii) build/enhance national capacities in sustainable tourism development; and

(iii) implement pilot demonstration projects. The pilot demonstration projects will be developed to:-

(a) facilitate the voluntary adoption of eco-certification schemes by tourism facilities;

(b) alleviate poverty and provide alternative livelihoods to local communities through the development of eco-tourism;

(c) generate revenues for environmental conservation through eco-tourism; and

(d) promote best practices in mitigating environmental impacts of tourism through improved reef recreation management. The demonstration projects are also aimed to reduce the coastal pollution from the land-based activities in conformity with the Global Programme of Action (GPA) and were endorsed at Heads of States meetings in Africa and in the NEPAD process.