Mto wa mbu cultural tourism programme

Brazil

Name: Mto wa mbu cultural tourism programme
Country: Tanzania, United Republic Of
Year of establishment: 2002
Type of organization: Community-based association or organization, Public-private partnership, Women’s association or organization, Indigenous peoples’ group or organization, Ethnic minority group or association, Youth group or association

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Mto wa mbu cultural tourism programme

Brazil

Name: Mto wa mbu cultural tourism programme
Country:
Year of establishment:
Type of organization: Community-based association or organization, Public-private partnership, Women’s association or organization, Indigenous peoples’ group or organization, Ethnic minority group or association, Youth group or association

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Description

Mto wa Mbu Cultural Tourism Program is a social enterprise established in 1996 basically to invest and make use of the opportunities available within the tourism industry by selling village walk tours, bike tours, maasai boma visits and traditional meals to tourists. Currently the enterprise has 40 tour guides, 6 groups of women with 10 members each, and 60 youth who design and make handcraft products and sell to tourists visiting the areas of Mto wa Mbu and Lake Manyara National park. Women groups are involved in making local food and sell to tourists who enjoy eating the traditional meals of different Tanzania tribes. Mto wa mbu is located in the area where there is a highest density of tourists in Tanzania. The area has diversity of all Tanzanian tribes who have migrated to the area with over 120 tribes residing at Mto wa mbu. Tour guides take the tourists to various areas around Mto wa Mbu ward where they can enjoy the view and learn traditional way of life of Maasai people. The aim of our project is to make tourism dollar trickle down to the local community hence helping the fight against poverty and poaching of the elephants. Mto wa mbu Cultural Tourism Enterprise is organised in four villages with a population of 18,000 people. All the tourists that do a tour through our programme do pay a village development fee for each village visited hence the fees collected will be used in building schools, health centers and supporting irrigation project for the local farmers. Therefore the cultural tourism enterprise creates employment for about 180 people that include youths and women.

Nature Element: Wetlands and rivers
Type of Action: Gender equality, Protection and sustainable management of wildlife and/or migratory species
Sustainable Development Element: Jobs and livelihoods (SDG 1)

Environmental Impacts

The programme supports tree seedlings to the 6 groups of youth and women each group comprising of 15 members. Each group has tree nursery whereby the programme donates tree seedlings for free to these 6 groups so that they can sell to individuals residents as well as donating tree seedlings to 6 primary schools, 2 secondary schools, and 2 orphanage centers. Each year we donate about 10,000 tree seedlings to these 6 groups. The tree seedlings raised by the 6 groups usually are planted in the water catchment areas. Some are sold to the local residents and others are donated to the local schools as a practical training on how to plant trees. Therefore our initiative participate in the planting of 10,000 trees annually. The initiative has 50 game scouts who are rotationally working to protect Jangwani wildlife corridor. Mto wa mbu cultural tourism programme pays 50% of their salary and another 50% is contributed by Tanzania National Parks through Lake Manyara National Park. We also supply them with fuel to do game scouting. By doing this we are participating in the conservation of the wildlife for the benefits of the future generations. Mto wa mbu cultural tourism programme has generated employment to about 200 people. Some being women, others are youth, therefore generating income to these people through tourism. Most of them can afford to take their children to schools from the income they get from the tourism. Mto wa mbu cultural tourism also employs 50 youths as game scouts whose role is to protect Jangwani wildlife migratory corridor, which is locate adjacent Lake Manyara National Park hence participating in the efforts of reducing poaching of the wild animals especially elephants. For so many years protection of Wildlife has been done by excluding local communities. Tourism in these protected areas has not benefited the local communities as well. The CTP offers an opportunity for the communities to benefit from the tourism through job creation

Sustainable Development Impacts

The initiative has been operational since 1996 under the support of SNV. It has been self sustaining for so many years due to its multicultural nature. Mto wa mbu has about 120 tribes living at that area. The local tribes are the maasai and barbaigs who are pastoralists. These people are known for their conservativeness to change their culture therefore providing attraction for tourists to see how they live. The initiative generates an annual turnover of over 250,000 USD per year, and it is located in the best location for tourism in Tanzania whereby on transit to Ngorongoro crator and Serengeti national park one has to pass mto wa mbu town.

RESILIENCE, ADAPTABILITY, AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Our initiative provide employment to about 200 youths and women, which means we are supporting 200 households at mto wa mbu. These households are more capable to adopt climate change effects than other households at mto wa mbu. They are also capable of taking the children to schools and have a good housing conditions than other households. Our programme is based on the community culture, therefore we are promoting our culture to the outside world.

REDUCED INEQUALITIES

More than 200 women and youth are benefiting from the initiative. And the marginalized Maasai ethnic group benefit from the initiative.

GENDER EQUALITY

Mto wa mbu cultural tourism programme has 6 groups of women ten in each group who cook local food for tourists. Many tourists have enjoyed eating local meals cooked by these women. It has made them generating income through tourism. It has improved their life standard and empower them to have power in their families. These women also do participate in the tree planting programmes. The indigenous maasai have benefited from tourism from this programme. Some money paid by tourists go to the indigenous maasai households in which the tourists have visited. Even the cultural dances and ceremonies performed by the youth maasai get some money from the tourist. This has empower them to be proud of their culture. It has made tourism dollar to trickle down to the indigenous group of the society. Also each village tourists visit there is a village development fee that a tourist will have to pay to the respective villages. That fee is 4USD per tourist that will be used by the village council for social services of villages. Therefore making tourism dollar trickle down to the village level.

Scalability

The initiative is one of the most successful cultural tourism enterprise in Tanzania. There are about 128 cultural tourism enterprises in Tanzania. Many of those do a study tour to mto wa mbu cultural tourism to learn how we are operating. Many of those have copied some of our operations and have implemented them in their respective communities.

Replicability

The project is replicated all over Tanzania and neighboring countries such as Kenya and Uganda

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