Kartong Bay, Gambia Demonstration Project: Eco-tourism and poverty alleviation

Project 2129 - Demonstrating and Capturing Best Practices and Technologies for the Reduction of Land-sourced Impacts Resulting from Coastal Tourism (COAST)

Indicator type

Stress reduction indicator

Baseline

Target

Result description "COMMUNITY BASED SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT

» A SHARED VISION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF KARTONG
A vision was consultatively agreed among the stakeholders:
‘Kartong to remain the best example of conservation of ecosystems, culture and tradition through sustainable and
responsible management of Eco-tourism to enhance community livelihood by 2026’. The exercise of unifying this vision across all stakeholders helped to solidly ground the project implementation.
» NURTURING ECOLOGICAL AWARENESS
20 waste bins were distributed in the important
tourism sites and in the village of Kartong under the
coordination of the Kartong Association of Responsible
Tourism (KART). Thanks to these efforts, visible
reduction of waste in Kartong has been achieved with
new waste management routines in the population
adopted.

» BIODIVERSITY CHAMPIONS
25 members of community based initiatives, tour
operators, hotel managers, private sector and NGOs
participated in a ‘Biodiversity champions’ training
in Kartong. Resulting from this, participants are
able to provide concrete examples to the rest of the
community on how to conserve their environment,
including income generation activities related to
recycling.

» EMPOWERING LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS
The COAST Project closely collaborated with the
KART Association to ensure Kartong was on the map
as a leading tourist destination in The Gambia and to
achieve pollution reduction in the village.
Today, 9 lodges, 7 restaurants, 1 honey café and
3 souvenir shops have registered with KART to
cooperate in providing tour guiding services. The KART
Association has also engaged in actively collecting
tourism records. In addition, a business plan has been
developed to ensure tours in the village are done in a
responsible and sustainable manner.

TOURISM EXPERIENCES WITH A HUMAN TOUCH

The COAST Project supported the development of Eco-tourism
activities and new tourism quality products as envisioned in The
Gambia’s Tourism Master Plan, that aims at extending tourism
benefits to community stakeholders. Some of the new activities
developed include the following:

» BIKE TOURS
The KART Association with the support of the COAST Project
developed a new bike rental service. As a result, an amount
of D 6 000 was received in the last high season (November 2013 -
March 2014). A percentage of the collected money helps ensure
maintenance of the equipment and the organization of Kartong’s
reknown cultural festival.

» COOKING CLASSES AT TESITO CAMP
Tesito Camp is a community managed accommodation facility
established in 2002 which currently employs four staff in Kartong.
The COAST Project allocated funds for the refurbishment
of the facility (toilets, kitchen and camping materials), and
for the improvement of its marketing as an accommodation
for birdwatchers and a place for the display of local cooking
classes. In this regard, ten people from Kartong (five men and
five women) were trained to organize cooking classes and
gastronomical tours. The local company Yabouy Home Cooking
provided this expertise.

» ARTS AND CRAFTS AT THE SANDELE ECO-RETREAT
A craft initiative was started in February 2012 to showcase Arts
and Craft at the Sandele Eco Retreat (www.sandele.com). A
number of trainings were carried out by the hotel to improve
the quality of the crafts, and to ensure they are truly local
and environmentally friendly. The COAST Project’s training in
waste recycling helped the expansion of the designs with new
techniques being used to generate better crafts.

» WALKS AND BIRDWATCHING IN THE COMMUNITY FOREST
With the collaboration of the NEA, the KART Association
managed to leverage an extra USD 25 000 from GEF’s Small
Grant Program for the creation of a 43 Ha community forest.
The community forest includes a component of permaculture
(14 hives). 9 000 Malaina trees and 300 indigenous trees were
replanted to redensify this degraded forest area. Different
Eco-tourism facilities were also installed, including three
birdwatching platforms and three resting canopies with 14 locals
being trained as volunteer forest guards."