News from the CEPA e-mail list

Chumbe Island - sustainable tourism proceeds supporting conservation and education (10/03/06)

Good afternoon everyone:

Chumbe Island, a short boat trip from Tanzania’s Zanzibar, is a fully protected, privately established and managed nature reserve. Chumbe Island Coral Park Ltd (CHICOP) was founded in 1993 with the aim of creating a model of sustainable conservation area management where ecotourism supports nature conservation and environmental education programs for local schoolchildren and their teachers. And it seems to have been pretty successful by all accounts.

Since 2000, park management and related research and education programs have been fully funded by tourism proceeds and CHICOP has been the winner of several sustainable tourism awards (read more on their awards on their Web Site http://www.chumbeisland.com).

Their education program (http://www.chumbeisland.com/education/education.html) aims at building environmental awareness in Zanzibar. The program sponsors local school visits to the island, organises in-service teacher training workshops, and develops teaching aids. Working with the Ministry of Education, CHICOP is now developing modules, following their initial "The Coral Reef Module", for subjects ranging from "Eco-tourism" to "Biodiversity, "Eco-technology" and "Conservation". These modules collectively form a teaching resource, available to all Secondary School teachers in Zanzibar, to assist them in field-based education with the ultimate aim to produce a Course Manual of exemplary teaching modules. This will provide both a concrete model on how to make classroom teaching more relevant to the environment and also directly create awareness on coral reefs and coral island ecology.

The Chumbe education program is now leading within environmental education in Zanzibar. For example, the teacher training college in Zanzibar takes advantage of the program, incorporating classes on Chumbe for all trainee teachers in Zanzibar each year, and representatives from the Ministry of Education are encouraging teachers to introduce environmental education through fieldwork.

Have a look at their Web Site – just makes you want to pack your bags and leave for Chumbe on the next available flight!

With best weekend wishes, Sandra Hails

*********************************************************

Sandra Hails, CEPA Programme Officer
Ramsar Convention Secretariat
Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 999 0176; Fax: +41 22 999 0169
E-mail: hails@ramsar.org
Web Site: http://ramsar.org
CEPA mini-Web site: http://ramsar.org/outreach_index.htm

**********************************************************