I was fortunate to volunteer with the Kesho Trust during some recent workshops in villages adjacent to Saadani National Park related to community based tourism initiatives.
I was very interested to participate in these activities since my passion is to cooperate with people who want to conserve nature through tourism within their communities. I think it is important to help find different ways for the communities to benefit from tourism resources and identify opportunities for tourism developments within and outside the community.
During the community based tourism training that I attended, I found it especially interesting that the villagers were able to identify and explain a little history about their attractions as well as describe how they would benefit from those resources. I was also impressed by the confidence of the villagers, how ready they were to be involved in conservation and their keenness to conduct tourism enterprises within their villages.
From this experience with the Kesho Trust project I feel more able to assist communities in and around the park to recognize the importance of conserving natural resources and use them sustainably for tourism. It is important to find different ways that can help the villagers to benefit from these resources.
I really appreciated the opportunity to attend the community based tourism training and for the experience of working with the community people.
