Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the necessary expertise or financial resources to start a new business, it may be
possible to form partnerships between the private sector and the communities
who hold traditional rights over an area. Such agreements recognize the profit
motive of tourism enterprises, while acknowledging local community resource
rights and encouraging their participation in the KAZA initiative and the tourism
industry. If well designed and monitored, joint venture agreements can provide
benefits to all parties - private sector enterprises can operate in high tourism
potential areas while rural communities can benefit from local employment and
revenue generation (e.g. through lease fees, revenue sharing or other arrange-
ments), as well as being rewarded for their sustainable resource management
activities.
Local procurement
Procurement policies favouring local suppliers can provide an important means
of increasing local economic impact by creating opportunities for local entrepre-
neurs to become involved in providing goods and services to tourism businesses.
By increasing local inter-industry linkages through sourcing inputs locally, the
indirect and induced impacts of the tourism industry on the local economy can
also be improved. Although local procurement is already almost 50 per cent
within KAZA, there are considerable regional differences that could be addressed
in future.
While local procurement strategies can also be viewed as a form of partner-
ship (as discussed above), local procurement contracts would be expected to be of
much shorter duration than those governing tourism operations. There is also a
need to be realistic regarding what goods and services can reasonably be expected
to be produced and supplied locally.
Equitable distribution
Ensuring equitable distribution of opportunities and benefits within the KAZA
TFCA will require careful planning and balance. An inequitable distribution of
opportunities and benefits may stimulate conflicts over land and other resources
that generate benefits for a minority. There would seem to be most potential for
such conflicts in communal areas, where tenure over land and other resources is
not always secure. Incoherent land allocation policies (e.g. land leases for tourism
sites) may also stimulate conflict between operators and residents. Although,
obviously, some sites will always have a higher tourism demand than others due to
their unique and/or spectacular characteristics, land allocation policies that are
fair, widely understood and adhered to are extremely important in avoiding
conflicts. Spatially planning future tourism development should improve the
likelihood of the equitable distribution of opportunities to enter the industry
across the KAZA region.
Cost mitigation
In addition to benefits that may flow from the KAZA TFCA, the mitigation of
costs associated with the initiative must also be considered. Human-wildlife
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