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Mt. Elgon National Park land troubles far from over

By
Wolfgang H. Thome, eTN Africa |
Sep 30, 2009

As reported recently, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) rangers and staff live dangerously when deployed at Mt. Elgon National Park, as attacks by illegal encroachers, poachers, and timber thieves have caused them numerous injuries and even several deaths while executing their duties in defense of conservation, wildlife protection, and maintaining a crucial water catchment area.

However, as in many cases, there are two sides to each story and the Uganda Human Rights Network last week tried to spoil UWA’s celebrations of the UN Year of the Gorilla 2009 and their much-publicized launch of “Friend a Gorilla” campaign when they released a carefully-timed and targeted broad side of allegations against the national wildlife management body. Those familiar with the circumstances of Mt. Elgon since the park’s status was changed from a less-protected forest reserve to a fully-fledged national park in 1993, looked at the material, including some graphic pictures of alleged torture victims at the hand of UWA staff.

According to eTN own research, in recent days the original size of the former forest reserve – incidentally also a national park across the border in Kenya and part of a trans-boundary cooperation between UWA and the Kenya Wildlife Service – was gradually reduced between 1923, and the time of Uganda’s independence in 1962, reflecting growing populations and their requests for more agricultural land before eventually a position was taken by government that the existing boundaries would now have to stand if conservation was to retain any meaning at all. The widened protection of the mountainous forest as a national park was, in fact, aimed to sustain the livelihood of neighboring communities and Ugandans as a whole, as even then the function of the mountain as a water catchment area was recognized, permitting the constant flow of water in streams and small rivers emerging from Mt. Elgon and being used for a variety of purposes by homesteads and villages downstream.

Yet, since independence, the population around the park has more than tripled, and while there is undoubtedly ongoing and constant demand for opening up the park for people to live in, the need to protect the water sources for all those added numbers has become even more important today than it was 15 or 20 years ago. Hence, it is argued by UWA and the conservation fraternity that letting go of the park, or even parts of it, would in coming years make the life of communities around the mountain much worse, instead of better as suggested by political opportunists and inciters promising “heaven on earth” to those willing to listen and ready to do their bidding by launching regular attacks on ranger camps and wardens on patrol.

UWA claims to have cleared about 2,000 hectares of illegally-occupied and cultivated land already, which is said to be crucial to the protection of water sources and to prevent landslides and soil erosion, especially with the onset of the unusually heavy el Nino-induced rains. Reforestation and related repair measures are underway in such areas, too, as it was pointed out.

In a discussion with UWA’s executive director Moses Mapesa, he categorically rejected any suggestion and allegations that UWA would habitually or deliberately engage in torture or extrajudicial activities and denied that this was ever the organization’s method of working or indeed a matter of policy as has been suggested by its opponents. Having been the organization’s director of field operations before being appointed to the position of CEO, and being widely respected as an honorable and honest person, not just in Uganda but the wider eastern African region, gives even further credence to his denials.

While Mapesa did not rule out collusion by individual rangers in permitting people into the park to create shambas [small farms] in a corrupt fashion, he vowed to bring those errant staff to book, while he also vowed to pursue through police and other legal channels those who injured or killed his staff in past weeks and months.

Mapesa went on to state that some of the pictures published by human rights activists last week are in fact of UWA staff injured during attacks and NOT of innocent villagers beaten up by UWA personnel and that these pictures were provided to the media by UWA as proof of those attacks on rangers and wardens.

In closing our conversation, Mapesa laid substantial blame on the doorsteps of aspiring politicians and political charlatans, who incited crowds repeatedly in 2000, 2001, 2005, and again of late, and who were ultimately responsible for the resulting bloodshed during clashes of riotous encroachers, poachers, illegal farmers, and timber thieves on one side and the law enforcement personnel of UWA and other security agencies on the other side.

This is, incidentally, the same pattern experienced by the National Forest Authority, which has also seen their field staff under regular attack when trying to enforce the law governing the management of central forest reserves. Earlier this week, NFA released yet more details about fresh forest invasions affecting nearly 6,000 hectares of gazetted forests while government is pondering what to do and sitting on its hands instead of strongly supporting the national guardian body of forests.

The good news now is that UWA, in conjunction with community leaders of integrity, has worked out a draft agreement with nearby villages, which will permit the tightly-controlled sustainable use of the boundary sections of the forest park, which includes bee keeping, collection of medicinal herbs and plants, and limited use of timber by designated beneficiaries in quantities ensuring the long-term sustainability of such an economic partnership.

The emerging dangers, in particular with an eye on the 2011 elections in Uganda, have, however, been underscored when the organization’s PRO, during a session with journalists in Bwindi on her own within the context of answering a question, introduced it into one of her answers but would then not be drawn further into the subject. Playing with conservation for short-term political gains can have disastrous consequences as the severe impact of the Mau deforestation and destruction across the border in Kenya amply demonstrates. There, for the sake of votes, politicians have turned a blind-eye for decades on the emerging problems and only now that the fallout from the crippled key water catchment area can no longer be hidden and is causing more problems than potentially widespread evictions, is a half-hearted reaction beginning to emerge from the government in Nairobi.

Recent pictures showing Mt. Kilimanjaro’s top literally bare of snow and ice, the ongoing shrinkage of the Rwenzori icecaps, and the more frequent drought and flooding cycles are all a final wake-up call – mankind’s long-term survival is at stake, and the forthcoming Copenhagen Climate Conference will be the clearest indication yet of how serious the governments of developed nations, threshold nations, and very much our own African governments really are to save the planet from destruction.

That destruction always begins on a small scale somewhere, which is why UWA needs all the support and political backing to prevent further encroachment and parceling off at the Mt. Elgon National Park.

Seeking cheap publicity stunts like the ones by self-proclaimed human right activists are certainly not the way forward. No rangers have been taken to court for causing bodily harm, for torture, assault, or murder up to this point, and most likely for lack of evidence as otherwise those now making these allegations once again would have equally reported prosecutions and convictions – none of which happened.

In conclusion, these exact sentiments were also overwhelmingly voiced by those sections of the local print and electronic media considered responsible, while a distinct group of other media was trying to make cheap political capital out of the sad events when they highlighted in a one-sided manner the allegations against the Uganda Wildlife Authority and used it as a platform to attack government in general about all and sundry.

Call of South America tourism

Sep 30, 2009

ARGENTINA
Aerolineas Argentinas will continue flying to Chapelco
Aerolineas Argentinas will not cancel its flights to Chapelco. At the beginning, there will be two weekly flights and the fixed schedule will be recovered from the fleet recomposition and the pilot training to the new equipment of the airline.

URUGUAY
New airport in Montevideo will be operative in November
Soon, the new Carrasco International Airport will be operative; this airport will have an area of 45,000 sq.m, and it will have cafeterias, VIP rooms, and two premises of McDonald’s, as well as a well-known company in the main restaurant. The new infrastructure, which was invested in US$165 million, must operate at 100 percent for November 15 in order to serve three million passengers per year.

Cruise season begins on November 30
The cruise season will begin on November 30 with the arrival of the Dutch cruise “Veendam” from Holland America Line to Montevideo.

CHILE
Pluna will fly to Punta Arenas
Pluna stated that it hopes to begin its flights between Santiago and Punta Arenas in December, and it confirmed that the agreements already exist to operate in the country. When operations begin, it will consider the idea of expanding its service to other cities.

Norwegian Cruise Line will cancel its flights to Valparaiso
Norwegian Cruise Line will replace its scales in Valparaiso due to high prices paid in Chilean terminals added because of the world economic crisis and the impossibility to operate its own casinos in ships and because of the lack of a guiding organization of the industry in Chile. Its withdrawal means that for the next season less than 24,000 tourists will arrive.

More hotels planned
The hotel projects, which are inaugurated or to begin its building work in the second semester of the year, add up to investments of US$768 million. It is estimated that there are 18 new hotels planned, most of them of four- and five-star hotels placed basically in Santiago and Valparaiso.

Explora with new web
After two years of development, proofs, and implementations, the new Chilean website of Explora is ready. Among the novelties, there is a possibility of booking and checking the availability of the rooms in real time. Also, the website offers some details of geography, history, fleet, and fauna of each region where the hotels are placed. Also it offers architecture and design data of the hotels. http://www.explora.com/

Metropolitan Touring opens an office and begins operations
The official launch of Metropolitan Touring Chile was on September 24 in Puerto Varas during the carrying out of the TravelMart LatinAmerica. During the last two years, Metropolitan Touring has fortified its skills and abilities beyond Ecuador. This process involved the opening of new offices in exclusive zones of Latin America.

BRAZIL
Rio de Janeiro will extend its hotel offer
The chain Windsor will inaugurate five new projects with a total of 1,830 new rooms in the next years. It will build two hotels in the neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca. Other three establishments will be opened in Copacabana in 2011.

Sao Paulo will have air connection with Trelew, Argentina
Aerolineas Argentinas and nine operators associated to Braztoa are carrying out a project to join Brazil (Guarulhos) and Paragonia (Trelew). It is planned that the flights will begin in July 2010.

Whale observation season began in Bahia
The whale observation season is open in Bahia; these whales arrive from the Antarctic in a period of three months to reproduce. The main places of observation are Praia do Forte, Abrolhos, Itacare, and Morro de Sao Paulo.

PERU
Night visits to Machu Picchu planned
The Ministry of Tourism planned night visits to Machu Picchu to begin from December of this year or at the latest in April 2010. The target is to extend the visiting hours to the citadel and to avoid that these could be only between 0900 and 1600 hours.

LAN PERU inaugurates flights to Cancun via Mexico DF
LAN PERU will begin its new international route to Cancun via Mexico DF with a direct return flight. From November, these will be direct. The inaugural flight will be on October 7 in a Boeing 767.

TACA will fly directly to Mexico DF and to Cancun via Salvador
TACA Airlines informed that from November 1, it will increase its connection with Mexico by 100 percent with three new direct flights per week to join Lima and Mexico DF. Also, it begins a new connection to Cancun from Lima via Salvador three times a week, too.

TACA will fly from its Lima hub to Porto Alegre
Since December 1, TACA will join Lima and Puerto Alegre in Brazil with a direct flight and with three weekly frequencies expanding in this way the connectivity and its flight offer between Peru and Brazil. Currently, the airline joins Lima with Sao Paulo on two different schedules twelve times per week and to Rio de Janeiro with 4 weekly flights, all of them direct.

Museo Santuarios Andinos will have more rooms
Museo Santuarios Andinos, which has the Mummy Juanita, will have three new rooms in order to show the visitors some unknown pieces found in pre-Inca tombs. The new environments will house mummies and its offerings found in the tombs of the volcanoes Sara Sara, Misti, and Pichu Pichu, apus where the Research Center of Universidad Catolica de Santa Maria carried out some studies since 1979.

ECUADOR
Aerogal will fly to New York from December 7
From December 7, Aerogal will fly daily from Cuenca to New York with scale in Guayaquil using a Boeing 767-300 with capacity for 205 passengers.

COLOMBIA
Aerorepublica and Air France will offer Thru Check In
The Thru Check-In service will allow users of the two airlines to make light of its luggage from the city of origin in Colombia or in any place of the world to its final destination without transporting the luggage from one airline to another.

Aires will fly to New York and to Fort Lauderdale
Aires will have six new routes to New York and to Fort Lauderdale, United States. There will be three frequencies weekly from departure and return via Pereira-Cartagena-Fort Lauderdale, which will operate in November.

Asian Trails celebrates 10th anniversary

By
Luc Citrinot, eTN Asia Staff Writer |
Sep 30, 2009

It has been ten years now since Luzi Matzig, one of the most prominent personalities in Asian tourism, created his own tour operation. For eTurboNews, Matzig – who just celebrated his 60th birthday - gives his vision of tourism in southeast Asia.

eTN: What are the most dramatic changes you have experienced over the last ten years?
Luzi Matzig: This is definitely Internet booking that has revolutionized distribution and the way to do business. Booking engines are now into the hands of large travel groups that contract directly with travel suppliers such as hotels. Agoda.com has been taken over by Priceline and asiarooms.com by TUI. Tour operators such as ourselves are not anymore needed to book rooms. We just lost ourselves a contract with asiarooms.com as they decided to deal directly with hotels. And we cannot compete, as it would request a lot of effort and money. We have to adapt our strategy and concentrate on our core business, the tour operating. We just, in fact, gained Kuoni UK as a new customer.

eTN: Are travelers from today very different from ten years ago?
Matzig: We definitely experience[d] a strong rise in individual travelers. As soon as a market becomes mature, it walks away from group tourism. We see also emerging two strong types of travelers, both at the extreme. With the collapse in airlines and hotels prices due to increased competition, there is a trend for cheaper and ever-cheaper packages. But how cheap can we further go? Is it really worth the energy to chase those mass tourism markets producing a very small return on investment? We prefer to look after the other segment, FIT who looks after exclusive up-market products. There is more disposable money and less competition.

eTN: What are the products then that you can offer?
Matzig: These FIT travelers have very determined ideas about what they would like to do and when. Our strength is then to propose packages à la carte. We can arrange for a private car with chauffeur or offer a tailor-made circuit in southeast Asia. We see, for example, a strong interest for cruises as the choice becomes more sophisticated in the region. They are classical cruises on the Mekong River or on the Andaman Sea. Borneo is also emerging as an attractive cruise destination. We also propose private jet[s] for top travelers. We also find more holidaymakers looking for exclusive destinations. For example in Thailand, we see up-market clients moving away from well-known tourist destinations such as Krabi, Phuket, or Pattaya to go more to secluded islands. The last Kuoni Switzerland catalogue on Asia is a very good example of the current trend. It contains up to ten pages of stays and packages at little-know[n] Thai islands.

eTN: Did you also experience a shift in destinations requested by travelers?
Matzig: Indochina has seen the biggest growth over the decade with tourism booming in countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and also Laos. Burma is coming back, rather slowly, but it went through a terrible time in 2008. I expect that Myanmar will double the number of its travelers next year compared to 2009… The Philippines is gaining in popularity, especially for Boracay with its fine beaches. But the most successful destination over the last two years is Indonesia. Especially for Bali, where it becomes extremely difficult to sort out an accommodation. The EU ban lift on air travel for some Indonesian airlines help us to design new packages. We propose again overland tours from Sumatra to Bali or propose tours to the Toraja in South Sulawesi in complement to a stay in Bali.

eTN: Is culture an attractive theme in Southeast Asia?
Matzig: It has always been, but as travelers are becoming more discerning, they like to link many cultural destinations with eventually a few days break at a seaside resort at the end of their tour. In Europe, travelers from France, Germany, or Switzerland are very keen at combining multi-countries cultural tours, such as Vietnam-Cambodia and Thailand. But Russians, Scandinavians, and Britons would mostly favor a single sea and sun holiday destination.

eTN: What are your predictions for 2010 for Asian Trails?
Matzig: We definitely will see a recovery, let[’s] say in a growth range of 10 percent. We are personally very happy with our position today and our presence all around southeast Asia. We do not plan to move to other markets as we estimate to remain among the best specialists in the region.

Abu Dhabi is out to boost tourism from Oman

Sep 30, 2009

MUSCAT - Abu Dhabi is out to boost its inbound tourism from Oman with expanding events, attractions and accommodation proposition. A delegation, spearheaded by the Abu Dhabi Authority (ADTAADTA), the apex body that manages the emirate’s tourism industry, is in town to spell out its enhanced offering — the November 1 Etihad Airways Formula 1 TM Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and will be quickly followed by the Fifa Club World Cup in December.

“Oman’s proximity to the UAE capital and Omanis’ love of soccer lead us to expect many will make the trip to Abu Dhabi this December,” said Saeed Al Dhaheri, visitor information manager of ADTAADTA.

“In November, Abu Dhabi is going to be in celebratory mode during and after the event with activities for race-goers and non-fans alike,” he noted.

Al Dhaheri outlined the latest developments in Abu Dhabi’s expanding tourism proposition — which includes more events, new hotels, including seven on Yas Island where the Grand Prix will be held, a new dessert retreat in Liwa, new airline routes servicing the destination and the arrival of new attractions including the world-renowned Big Bus Company, which is to begin its own brand of city tours in the UAE capital next month. “Attraction upgrades are happening throughout the emirate, in the capital city, in the Eastern Region, particularly the Oasis City of Al Ain and in our vast Al Gharbia Western Region,” explained Al Dhaheri.

“The options are highly diverse and span museums and historical sites in Al Ain, the marvels of the Liwa Dessert and the Sir Bani Yas Island nature-based destination in Al Gharbia, new golf courses coming on line on Yas Island, Saadiyat Island and an expanded course in Al Ain, luxury and business hotels and an events programme which is to be expanded and upgraded,” he added.

He pointed out that the GCC is currently producing 100,000 hotel guests a year for Abu Dhabi, which is 10 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s total international hotel guests. “We believe that figure can be substantially increased with out Gulf neighbours representing a prime market for the development of sustainable business links and ongoing visitor generation,” Al Dhaheri said.

Approximately 4,000 visitors from Oman stayed in the emirate’s hotels in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 32 per cent compared to the first quarter in 2008. In all the GCC produced 21,000 hotel guests in Abu Dhabi in the first three months of this year. “Oman remains a key market, central to the continual growth of regional tourism in Abu Dhabi. The GCC, as markets in close proximity and characterised by a propensity to travel locally during challenging times is vitally important as Abu Dhabi moves forward in its aim of becoming an international destination attracting 2.3 million hotel guests annually by 2012,” he added.

Edinburgh campaign targets 40% increase in cruise passengers

Sep 30, 2009

A major new marketing drive is to target a 40 per cent rise in the number of big-spending cruise liner passengers coming to the Capital.
The £35,000 Cruise Edinburgh marketing campaign will see a new dedicated website set up to promote the city to cruise passengers, while tourism leaders will target a series of adverts and brochures at trade operators.

A main target will be to incADVERTISEMENTrease Edinburgh’s presence on the itineraries of the Baltic and Norwegian operators and build on the growing popularity of the Northern European cruises. It is hoped that it will help achieve a 40 per cent rise in passenger numbers by 2013.

National tourism agency VisitScotland today confirmed that it is to award £17,500 towards the campaign from its growth fund.

The other £17,500 is to be provided by the Cruise Edinburgh partner agencies Forth Ports and the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group, which includes the city council’s Destination Edinburgh Marketing Alliance, Historic Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland.

Peter Lederer, chairman of VisitScotland, said: “We’re delighted to award this latest funding to Cruise Edinburgh and it’s encouraging to see tourism groups in Edinburgh and the Lothians working together and making good use of the VisitScotland Growth Fund.

“Growing tourism is critical to the future of Scotland and the industry is worth £4 billion to the Scottish economy. In the current economic climate it’s crucial we work together to get tourism growth back on track and the growth fund encourages businesses to seek out joint opportunities where they can maximise on their marketing efforts.”

Latest data from Forth Ports indicates that 55,000 passengers came to Edinburgh in this year’s cruise liner season.

In the three months to the start of July, passenger numbers were five per cent ahead of last year.

While Leith Harbour can take relatively small vessels, larger ones drop anchor at Hound Point in the shadow of the Forth bridges or at Rosyth.

Because cruise liner passengers spend more on average than other tourists, they are seen as being an important means of achieving the target of increasing Scotland’s tourism revenues by 50 per cent by 2015.

Councillor Tom Buchanan, the city’s economic development leader, said: “The administration is very keen to ensure that Edinburgh benefits from the Northern European cruise liner industry and has a longer-term ambition to have a dedicated new cruise liner terminal at Leith Docks.

“It is a significant growth market and people sometimes forget that the benefit comes from not only the people who come to the city but also the services provided on the cruise liners, which can provide business opportunities.

“People often think of cruises as being beneficial in terms of the passengers who come to the city but these are also bringing ship crews that come into the city and support the local economy.

“It is essential that we re-engage with the blue belt and that we have a cruise liner strategy that ensures we benefit from a lucrative sector.”

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