Country: Tanzania

Organization: Chumbe Island Coral Park, Ltd.

Year the initiative began: 1991

Project Website: www.chumbeisland.com

Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions:

• Main barrier addressed: Lack of local input
• Main insight addressed: Education through hands-on experience

What is the goal of your innovation?
Create a model of financially, ecologically and socially sustainable Marine Park management, where ecotourism supports conservation, research and environmental education for local people.

How does your approach support or embody geotourism?
We have developed a fully managed nature reserve, and systematically incorporated ecologically sustainable methods in building and operating the Park. These include local building technologies and materials and spatial designs that maximize natural ventilation, collect rainwater, completely avoid sewage through composting toilets that produce compost which is recycled in plant beds. A vegetative grey-water filtration system absorbs phosphates and nitrates before the water enters the eco-system. Solar panels supply all electricity needs. Through training and employment of local fishermen as Park Rangers and Environmental Education programs, we have empowered the community through awareness of the value of coral reefs and forests, and alternate means of income. The trained Park Rangers act as Community educators, through the Education programs and as members of the community. This also helps maintain the strong connection of the park to neighbouring communities. The park is an attraction for both tourists and local schools. It instills a sense of pride among young people as they learn about the immense value of their natural resources and culture. The tourists visiting the island help support the park, often spend time with schoolchildren on the Education days and also interact with the ex-fishermen marine park rangers and other staff.

Describe your approach in detial. How is it innovative?
Chumbe Island Coral Park (CHICOP) in Zanzibar/Tanzania has probably created the first private Marine Park in the world. Our objectives are non-commercial, while operations follow commercial principles. Ecotourism supports conservation, research and environmental education. Coral reefs in Tanzania are under serious threats from dynamite fishing and overexploitation, pollution and sedimentation from coastal development. While coastal communities survive on fishing, there is little evidence of traditional reef management. In the national language Kiswahili corals are referred to as 'rocks and stones' and not taught about in schools. To promote awareness for marine conservation and sustainable management, CHICOP has turned uninhabited Chumbe Island into a fully managed, internationally recognized park that: • Includes a Marine park, Forest reserve, Visitors’ Centre and Ecolodge; • Gives sanctuary to critically endangered species (Aders duikers, Coconut crab, Roseate terns); All this was done in partnership with local communities, through:
• Village meetings before and during project development;
• Employing and training former fishermen as Park Rangers;
• Management Plans 1995-2005 and 2006-2016;
• Park Advisory Committee with Government, University and village representatives;
• Marine rescue services to local fishermen in distress (there is none in Tanzania);
• Environmental Education programs for fishers, schoolchildren and all visitors.

What types of partnerships or professional developement would be most beneficial in spearding your innovation?
We need more political support and recognition by the government and the international donor and conservation community, of the contribution that the private sector can give to both, effective nature conservation and improved livelihoods of local people on the ground. Legally, government owns all wildlife, even on community land, and conservation is state monopoly. Though ‘poverty eradication’ is now the declared aim of most donor aid, substantial support goes to state institutions, with associated problems of transparency and accountability. This policy crowds out local initiatives and benefits for local resource users, thus alienating them as the ultimate custodians of nature.

In one sentence describe what kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.
Improved marine governance, sustainable use of coral reefs, environmental education in schools and better income for local people through ecotourism.

Describe the degree of success of your approach to date. Clearly define how you measure quantitative and qualitative impact in terms of how your approach contributes to the sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How does your approach minimize negative impacts?
All project components are closely monitored by Management, the Rangers and external researchers. With effective Park management in cooperation with local people:
• The Reef Sanctuary has become one of the most pristine coral reefs in the region, with ca. 420 fish species and 200 species of hard coral, 90% of all recorded in East Africa;
• The Forest Reserve is one of the last undisturbed semi-arid 'coral rag' forests in Zanzibar, particularly after successful rat eradication (1997), and,
• Now gives sanctuary to highly endangered endemic Aders' duikers (Cephalophus adersi), threatened by poaching and habitat destruction on Zanzibar. In 2000, three breeding pairs were translocated to Chumbe, supported by Zoo Munich-Hellabrunn, Chicago Zoological Society, FFI, WWF;
• Chumbe has the world's largest known population of rare Coconut crabs (Birgus latro) listed in IUCN Red book;
• Attracted by abundant fish in the Reef Sanctuary, rare Roseate terns (Sterna dougalli) bred on Chumbe in 1994 and 2006.
• As a result of the no-take zone, fishermen have now increased fish catches in adjacent reefs;
• The Environmental Education program has until 2008 covered all secondary schools in Zanzibar, and over 2,500 schoolchildren and 500 teachers have visited Chumbe Island.

How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
Our guests enjoy and learn about the beauty of pristine Chumbe Island and feel part of our Park Management team, when taken through the terrestrial and marine nature trails, the Visitors´ Centre and ongoing research by our Rangers, who also teach them snorkeling when needed. Often-mentioned highlights are the ´Robinson Crusoe experience of living in the open´ in the innovative Eco-bungalows, the local cuisine, and meeting a committed team preserving their natural wealth and livelihoods. Guests love to contribute to the success of the park. The combination of conservation, education, meeting local people and commerce makes it a unique destination.

In what ways are local residents actively involved in your innovation, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?
Local fishermen were employed and trained by volunteer marine scientists about the basics of coral reef ecology, the importance of a closed reef as breeding ground of marine organisms in sustainable fisheries, and how to communicate this to fellow fishers and villagers. As a result, traditional subsistence fishers soon reported increased catches in neighbouring reefs and responded well to this approach. English language training and visitor guidance skills are also taught. Employing local people, and women, with preference, training of local fishers and the Environmental Education program for schools have built close bonds with villagers and been a resounding success.

Describe how your innovation helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area's cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues. How do you motivate them to act responsibly in their future travel decisions?
• Guests learn about nature conservation and coral reefs, and experience that eco-technology with close-to-zero environmental impact still provides creature comfort and luxury;
• Some join the Education program during the school excursion days and help the Rangers organize local schoolchildren during snorkeling lessons;
• Information folders for guests promote respect towards the local culture and islamic religion;
• Guests are actively discouraged from buying corals and shells in local markets;
• Visitor numbers are limited to maximum 14 overnight guests;
• Many say they have learned something they can follow up back home, and want to come back!

Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? What is the potential demand for your innovation?
We are organizationally and financially sustainable. Though according to a recent study (IFC 2005), we employ three times more staff than the international average for eco-lodges, an occupancy rate of 40% is sufficient to finance park operations. Monitoring programs show that the eco-technology also works well. Our model of ecotourism helping to develop and fund marine parks and providing benefits to local people has generated massive interest among international conservation organizations and won us numerous prestigious awards. Our experiences and lessons learned could help develop policies for nature conservation and investment that encourage similar initiatives in Africa and the world.

How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.
All operations are fully self-funded since year 2000. Approximately 1.2 Million US$ were invested to develop the park from 1991-1998. Half came from the project initiator, one quarter were small donor grants for non-commercial project components, while another quarter was professional work contributed by over 50 volunteers over many years, some working for weeks, months and even years. After ten years of commercial operations (since 1998), the occupancy rate is ca. 85% and the annual turn-over has reached ca. 550.000 US$. Around a third of operational costs are generated by park management and education programs (which otherwise would be profits!). CHICOP employs 40 full-time local staff, 2 expatriates (Project Manager and Conservation Coordinator), and several part-time workers during the yearly renovation. Many volunteers continue to help, e.g. in the Education program and to solve particular technical problems of the eco-technology, always training our now very competent local staff when necessary.

What is your plan to expand your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.
For environmental reasons, we plan no expansion of the eco-lodge and visitor numbers on Chumbe Island. However, we need expansion of environmental education and awareness programs for government and public. For example, largely unnoticed by the public, bottom trawling and dynamite fishing have now led to the discovery and, unfortunately, high number of catches of extremely rare Cites I “living fossil” Coelacanths along the coast. A marine park is proposed to protect them. However, a new deep-sea harbour is now planned in the very same area where the Coelacanths live, and there is not even a public discussion about this!

What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
Marine governance is problematic around the world. The oceans suffer the “tragedy of the commons” more than any other ecosystem on Earth. While Tanzania has decades of experiences in terrestrial nature conservation, marine conservation policies are fairly recent and law enforcement is particularly weak in the fisheries sector, e.g. concerning illegal and destructive fishing, such as dynamite fishing. Furthermore, there are particular disincentives for private investment in conservation that is necessarily long-term. The policy, legal and institutional framework in Tanzania and Zanzibar is not supportive. • Investment security is limited by the fact that land tenure is only available on leasehold, while land leases can be revoked by the State with relative ease, thus further weakening long-term security of tenure. • There are no tax and other incentives for investment in environment and conservation. • The investment climate presents major challenges, as there are multiple and cumbersome bureaucratic requirements and wide discretionary powers for government officials that encourage corruption and delay operations, thus adding to investment insecurity and costs. • Generous donor aid for nature conservation tolerates high overheads of state-run institutions and is not sustainable. Nevertheless, private investors doing effective conservation with much less resources are not always welcome!

What is the origin of your innovation? Tell your story.
When arriving in the small Tanzanian port town Tanga in 1982 to manage a donor-funded school reform project, I developed a particular fascination for the incredible beauty of the fringing coral reefs, and soon became a passionate sailor, snorkeller and diver. Since then, I spent all my free time out in the reefs and was shocked by their ongoing destruction by rampant dynamite fishing, and the lack of political will of the government to take action against this vice. Donors (which have for decades funded around half the government budget) similarly shied away from this ‘politically sensitive’ issue. The ‘Chumbe idea’ germinated during a consultancy I did in 1990 in Zanzibar, on “Environmental Education – Proposals for Action”. In the field work, I found very little awareness among people, including fishers, of what coral reefs are, that they consist of millions of animals, not mere lifeless rocks, and why they are important for the survival of their own and future generations. Coral reefs are not taught about in schools and Zanzibar had no marine conservation policy and no marine parks then. Therefore, during this consultancy I had proposed a small marine park that would be used for environmental education and funded by marine eco-tourism, but found little official interest in this idea. At the same time, Zanzibar opened up to foreign investment in tourism. So…, I started dreaming, why not combine my professional experience in the aid industry and my marine hobbies, to create something I really believed in? After decades of sobering lessons learned in my work, I had lost faith in the effectiveness and sustainability of donor aid, quit a highly paid job and decided to stay in Tanzania. I spent two months in Zanzibar going out with fishermen to visit their fishing grounds, and find a shallow reef that would still be reasonably healthy enough for conservation, suitable for a small marine park for snorkellers (for environmental education for local people), and most importantly, not heavily fished by local communities who depended on it for their survival. I finally found this off uninhabited Chumbe Island and started negotiating for this complex project with altogether seven Zanzibar government departments, only finding out in the process what an extremely challenging undertaking this was. The park development demanded altogether seven years and four times the initially planned investment before we could start commercial operations, but fortunately I was from the beginning helped by many committed professional volunteers, marine biologists, educationists, technicians who camped on the island for training rangers, developed nature trails and education materials, surveyed the reef and island forest and helped with teething problems of the innovative eco-technology. Some of the rangers we employed since 1992 were former fishermen proposed by neighbouring villages, and soon became great stewards of the reef sanctuary and fantastic educators of their fellow fishers, making them aware of the benefit of a small reef turned into a breeding ground for fishes that helped restock over-fished fishing grounds. Well, the rest is history!

Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
Sibylle RIEDMILLER, M.A. born 1945 in Germany. Studies of Social Sciences in Universities of Heidelberg, Hamburg and Berlin, postgraduate in Social Development Planning. From 1973, living and working in the developing world (Chile, Peru and Tanzania), as project manager and consultant in the aid industry, with UNESCO, the German Aid agency GTZ, and others, mostly in education and social development projects. From 1991, Founder-Owner and Project Director of Chumbe Island Coral Park Ltd (CHICOP), a private island nature reserve in Zanzibar (Tanzania). From 2004, also Coordinator of the Tanzanian Dynamite Fishing Monitoring Network. Resident in Tanzania since 1982.

Please write an overview of your project. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the Google map located on teh competition homepage.
Chumbe Island Coral Park Ltd. (CHICOP) is a private nature reserve that was developed from 1991 for the conservation and sustainable management of uninhabited Chumbe Island off Zanzibar, one of the last relatively pristine coral islands in the region. The park includes a fully protected coral reef sanctuary and forest reserve that harbour extremely rare and endangered animals, a Visitor centre, small eco-lodge, nature trails and historical ruins. All buildings and operations are based on state-of-the-art eco-technology aiming at zero impact on the environment. The company objectives are non-commercial, while operations follow commercial principles. The overall aim of CHICOP is to create a model of financially and ecologically sustainable Park management, where ecotourism supports conservation, research and environmental education programs and other benefits for local people. Winner of the 1999 British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Global Award, the 2000 UNEP Global 500 Roll of Honour, Worldwide Project and Golden Award of the 2000 EXPO in Hanover (Germany), 2001 Green Hotel of the Year Award of the International Hotel and Restaurant Association (IH&RA), 2001 Ecotourism Destination Award of the Condenast Traveller Magazine, among others. For more information, see www.chumbeisland.com, for independent guest feedback www.TripAdvisor.com

Contact Information
Ms. Sibylle Riedmiller
Project Director
Chumbe Island Coral Park, Ltd.
P.O.Box 3203 Zanzibar
contact@chumbeisland.com