The Kibale Association for Rural and Environmental Development

A good example of sustainable tourism is the Kibale Association for Rural and Environmental Development (KAFRED) in Uganda, which was founded in 1992 and is managed and run by the community in the village of Bigodi. This kind of tourism can also be called ‘community-based tourism’. Below is a picture of a group of tourists on one of the walks they offer.

Photograph of a group of people on a walking tour of Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary.

You can read About KAFRED – Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, which shows what developments there have been in Bigodi since KAFRED was first set up. There is lots of interesting information about KAFRED on this website but for the purpose of this section of the course you only need to look at the ‘about’ page.

In order to answer the question below, think about the evidence you can find on this part of its website in relation to its support of the social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainable tourism. You may find some of the things you identify fit into more than one of the three areas. This activity will take about 30 minutes to complete.

Why might KAFRED be a good example of sustainable tourism in terms of what it does under the three pillars (SEE)?

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Discussion

  • Social: We have evidence the community benefits from tourism. There are no outside managers so the community runs the tourism project itself. There are several mentions of what tourism has achieved for the community. As well as having the opportunity to stay outside the village, tourists are invited to eat local food and stay in the village or take tours around the wetlands or the community.
  • Economic: Because of the above it appears the benefits have been spread throughout the community. We are told that women’s groups are able to make handicrafts and peanut butter to sell at the Visitor Centre at the wetlands. We do not know about the youth. There is nothing to suggest a great deal of leakage with the money that is raised except, perhaps, transport to get there.
  • Environment: There is a significant section on ‘Biodiversity and Conservation’ on the webpage showing that it was the environment that drove the project in the first place. The area is said to have been improved, waste limited and sustainable harvesting and dyeing used in order to conserve the environment (and water). There is no suggestion of a lack of carrying capacity for the number of guests they can accommodate.

Is it too early to say that KAFRED is ‘sustainable’? I don’t think so. It was started in the early 1990s and continues to diversify. For example, it has started a regenerative agriculture project, which has only recently been implemented but fits with what the community already does. John Tinka who set up KAFRED says: ‘The project has proved its sustainability because it continues to be supported across the community. Although tourism in Uganda has been impacted by armed attacks by its neighbours causing mainstream tourism to fail, as well as various threats such as HIV/AIDs and Ebola discouraging tourists, KAFRED and the wider Bigodi community have gone from strength to strength over the last 30 years. This is because it is, above anything else, a community that ‘does tourism’ rather than tourism being ‘done to it’.

OpenLearn - Can tourism be both responsible and sustainable?
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