Journal of Sustainability Education Vol. 3, March 2012 ISSN: 2151-7452 Alpine Tourism in Tropical Africa and Sustainable Development? Ugandan Rwenzori and Mt. Kenya as Case Studies Martina Neuburger (Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg, Germany) Ernst Steinicke (Institute of Geography, University of Innsbruck, Austria) Abstract Alpine tourism in the attractive, glaciated highlands of Eastern Africa’s national parks has traditionally been considered an engine of regional development. The major question this article examines is the significance of this economic sector and whether it can contribute to sustainable regional development. The research area is Mt. Kenya and the Ugandan Rwenzori; the detailed studies were conducted in the most intensively visited tourist areas, i.e. at the foothills of the two massifs: in the Mobuku Valley in the eastern Rwenzori, and at Naro Moru west of Mt. Kenya. In addition to analyses of the current state of the art as well as of official statistical data, our conclusions are derived from own surveys, mapping activities and household observations. The results show that economic benefits from mountaineering tourism in the Mt. Kenya region are fewer than commonly calculated, mainly because of the low occurrence of tourism. Moreover, existing incomes are low, inconsistent and distributed unevenly. There are clear parallels to the critical structures characterizing the Rwenzori mountains in Uganda: alpine tourism does not reduce regional income disparities and largely fails to promote sustainable development. Nevertheless, community-based tourism, as shown by the example of the Rwenzori Mountaineering Services (RMS) in the Rwenzori National Park and of the Guides & Porters Safari Club (GPSC) in the Mount Kenya National Park, stabilizes the livelihood of rural households and reduces the vulnerability of families. Whereas in the Mt. Kenya area, most of the regional households are involved, in the Rwenzori mountains the favorable effects of alpine tourism are concentrated in just one valley (and support only one twelfth of the entire Rwenzori population). Thus, its contribution to sustainable regional development is negligible. Keywords: alpine tourism, poverty reduction, sustainable livelihood, Mt. Kenya, Rwenzori 1 Motivation Since the study of Vorlaufer (1995), international tourism for promoting sustainable regional development and poverty reduction in the least developed countries, specifically in tropical African countries, is being disputed. Not only ecological problems, but also unfavorable socioeconomic effects that are often combined with objectionable dependencies on industrialized countries, are an issue. In the LDC, national airlines, state organizations and big tour operators, with headquarters usually in the respective capital, benefit from international tourism. Nevertheless, in most of these countries this economic sector is considered an engine of regional development. Since the international visitors in the countries of tropical Africa seek, above all, nature experience, it is not surprising that the most interesting tourist areas are located in the nature reserves. Therefore tourism is concentrated - at least in the sub-Saharan regions - largely in the national parks, which makes it nationally controllable through access restrictions. Alpine Tourism in Tropical Africa and Sustainable Development? Ugandan Rwenzori and Mt. Kenya as Case Studies This applies in particular to the glaciated highlands of East Africa, which, in a top-down process, had all been declared national parks over the past decades. The State National Park authorities of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda grant extraordinary economic importance to the Afro-alpine tourism in the scenically very attractive, highest elevations of Africa – Kilimanjaro (5,895 m), Mt. Kenya (5,199 m) and Rwenzori (5,109 m) – (cf. http://www.kws.org – http://www.tanzaniaparks.com – http://www.uwa.or.ug). The objective of the present article is to investigate what role this tourism plays in the tropical high mountains of Africa and whether it contributes to sustainable regional development. The study will also examine the correlations between tourism in national parks and the potential for regional conflicts. Some preparatory work that exists on Mt. Kenya and Rwenzori offers these two massifs as suitable case study areas. For popular climbers’ destination Kilimanjaro, however, no relevant research results are available. Recent scientific publications are mostly ecologically and natural-scientifically oriented (cf. Bloemer 2002, Bart et al. 2003, Nüsser 2009). In addition, the tourism-related publications on Rwenzori and Mt. Kenya that have been published in the last two decades are not plentiful. In their anthology, Osmaston et al. (1998) address the problem facing tourism in Rwenzori National Park; the topic is somewhat later continued by Erhard and Steinicke (2006) and Steinicke (2011). In the area of Mt. Kenya, Erhard (2000) examined the subject of community-based tourism. Closely linked to it is a newer representation by Steinicke and Neuburger (2012) of the effects of community- based tourism on poverty reduction at the western slope of Mt. Kenya. Nonetheless, studies specific to the topic of tourism in tropical mountain regions of Africa and sustainable regional development are missing entirely. Apart from evaluating the latest research and analyzing the official statistics, this paper is aimed at providing information from a range of sources, including open, qualitative interviews as well as focus group discussions with guides and porters of both case study areas, interviews with experts (authorities, Makerere University in Kampala, tourism cooperatives, and hotel managers), inspection of the visitors books at the gates of the Mt. Kenya and Rwenzori National Parks, and various mapping activities. The detailed studies were conducted in the most intensively visited tourist areas of the two massifs: in the Mobuku Valley in the eastern Rwenzori, and at Naro Moru west of Mt. Kenya. 2 Sustainability and Tourism: Some Theoretical Considerations Since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the concept of sustainability has had a firm place in almost all documents and discourses on regional development and planning. However, with its diverse and sometimes conflicting use and often strategic functionalization by various political actors, the term has become an empty phrase that does not do justice to the basic intention of the concept (Brand 2004, Kates et al. 2005, Park et al. 2008). To investigate the effects of alpine tourism in tropical Africa in terms of sustainability, we therefore focus here after on the short- and long-term – i.e. sustainable – employment and income effects at the regional level, as well as the impact on systems of livelihood at the household level. Journal of Sustainability Education http://www.susted.org/ Neuburger & Steinicke For the analysis at the household level, the sustainable rural livelihood approach is suitable (Bebbington 1999, Chambers 2006, Carney 2002, Scoones 2009). It puts the focus on three basic items:  on resources and assets available for each household to secure daily survival,  on the forms of combining and transforming resources and assets to build households’ livelihoods, and  on strategies of households to expand their access to the respective resources and assets. Accordingly, this approach begins with the premise that not only monetary income from a variety of sources is available for the everyday management of destitute households, but also the various forms of capital, i.e. social, human, natural, physical, and financial resources, are used by the members of the household in a very complex, efficient, and at the same time dynamic combination (Bebbington 1999, Bohle 2001, Scoones 2009). Sustainability of livelihoods are thus considered established “when it can cope with and recover from stress and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, while not undermining the natural resource base” (Scoones1998: 5). Sustainability of livelihoods, access to resources, and opportunities to provide them depend on institutions and organizations, on parent structures and conditions as well as on policy and trends, which generate inclusion and exclusion processes. This leads to the issue of impacts of alpine tourism on regional development. Generally it can be observed that national and international strategy papers for regional development, specifically for peripheral rural regions, integrate mostly the promotion of tourism, based on the fact that tourism at the global level represents one of the most dynamic economic sectors of the last decades (UNWTO 2006, OECD 2010, Conrady and Buck 2011). Governments of developing countries, international development agencies and NGOs see these initiatives as an opportunity to initiate development processes particularly in peripheral regions deprived of other resources and potentials (Baumhackl et al. 2006, Telfer and Sharpley 2008, OECD 2010). Scholars as well as politicians, however, hold controversial views on the potential of tourism as a developing factor, since numerous undesirable developments, like increased external dependency by the countries of the global South, reinforced regional disparities and caused social distortions. However, the effects of tourism per se as an engine of development are rarely questioned; the discussion is rather about the “correct” form of long-term economic viability and its social and environmental sustainability (Harrison 2001, Baumhackl et al. 2006). Since the 1990s, the concept of community-based tourism has therefore been applied, and since the 2000s a model that provides for the poor (“pro-poor tourism”) has been practiced as a suitable future blueprint for tourism in developing countries. While the former focuses on participation and empowerment of local communities, the latter is aimed at economic distribution processes to improve income of the impoverished population. Experiences gained from the implementation of these concepts within the past decades show a contradictory picture and leave doubts as to their effectiveness (Ashley et al. 2001, Hall 2007, Okazaki 2008). Currently studies on the direct relationship between tourism development and rural livelihoods exist only sporadically, especially in relation to national parks where they assess the relevant projects rather unfavorably (Ashley 2000, Ashley et al. 2001, Goodwin and Roe 2001, Spenceley 2003, Tao and Wall 2009). As the present study focuses on the impact of tourism on the regional and the household level, it seems rational to apply the livelihood approach which connects the analysis of processes both at the macro and micro levels. At the regional level, we illuminate the sustainability Vol. 3, March 2012 ISSN: 2151-7452 Alpine Tourism in Tropical Africa and Sustainable Development? Ugandan Rwenzori and Mt. Kenya as Case Studies effects of tourism upon the regional economy (creation of jobs, regional added value, etc.) and upon the internal structuring of the tourism sector (corporate structure, development of upstream and downstream sectors, etc.). At the community and household level we analyze to what extent the Mount Kenya Guides and Porters Safari Club (GPSC) and the Rwenzori Mountaineering Services (RMS), as community-based tourism organizations, contribute to the welfare of the respective community, and also how far the incorporation of the local population into their organization improves the sustainability of the livelihood of households. 3 Alpine Tourism on Mt. Kenya and Ugandan Rwenzori On a global scale, Africa as a tourist destination has long been one of the least sought-after regions with regard to both international tourist arrivals and tourism receipts (UNWTO2006). Within this context, the East African countries have had a rather small share of the already moderate growth of international tourism to Africa since the 1990s. In the following discussion it is to be considered that both in Kenya and in Uganda, due to political conflicts in the eastern and central African region, the flow of guests experienced strong fluctuations over the last decades. 3.1 Significance of Tourism in Kenya and Uganda Since the 1990s Kenya as a destination has experienced an expansion of mass tourism, which, in contrast to its neighboring countries, is connected with the successful implementation of government policies to promote a diversified offer. Although this east African country was able to reverse the decline in visitor numbers of the years 2007/2008, and in 2010 with 1.5 million tourist arrivals even reached its previous record result (KNBS 2011), Job and Metzler’s (2003) estimation is valid in slightly modified form: Kenya is indeed still in the stagnation phase, but the visitor numbers vary enormously from year to year. Due to domestic political turmoil that reached well into the 1980s, and the civil war in nearby Rwanda and eastern Congo, which in the 1990s impeded the growth of tourism, Uganda remains one phase behind Kenya and has therefore reached the expansion phase. Indeed, the tourist arrivals doubled between 2005 and 2010 from 0.5 to 1 million (Uganda Bureau of Statistics 2011). Nevertheless, in Uganda tourism accounts for less than 5% of the national GDP, while in Kenya its share is almost 10% (UNWTO 2006; Uganda Bureau of Statistics 2011). Despite the expansion of attractive offers to tourists, demand in both countries is still focused on the numerous national parks in savanna areas and therefore on game drives (in Uganda specifically Gorilla and Chimpanzee tracking). With 25,600 visitors (2009) in Mount Kenya National Park (KWS 2011) and 1,529 in Rwenzori Mountains National Park (Uganda Bureau of Statistics 2011), both are among the least visited national parks of their countries. In both states, barely 1% of NP-visitors reach the two national parks. Consequently there is no doubt that mountaineering constitutes only a tiny fraction of Kenya’s and Uganda’s tourism (cf. fig. 1a and 1b). Journal of Sustainability Education http://www.susted.org/ Neuburger & Steinicke Figure 1a: Number of visitors to selected national parks and game reserves in Kenya 1995- 2009 Source: adapted from Steinicke and Neuburger (2012) Figure 1b: Number of visitors to selected national parks and game reserves in Uganda 2006- 2010 Source: Uganda Bureau of Statistics (2011) 3.2 Rwenzori and Mt. Kenya Regions: Demographic-Economic and Ethnic Profiles In order to evaluate the sustainability of tourism for the respective region, it seems sensible to assess the socio-economic and ethno-political structure. It depends on the economic conditions to what extent tourist activities are intertwined with other economic sectors and how they can be integrated into them, and thus are capable of a long-term development impulse and contribution to poverty reduction. Ethno-social and political conditions are instrumental for conflict potential or acceptance within the local population, both with regard to national parks in general and activities in the tourism industry in particular. Vol. 3, March 2012 ISSN: 2151-7452 Alpine Tourism in Tropical Africa and Sustainable Development? Ugandan Rwenzori and Mt. Kenya as Case Studies 3.2.1 The Eastern Rwenzori As with most designations of national parks in East Africa, the local population in the extreme west of Uganda was also not consulted regarding the establishment of Rwenzori Mountains National Park (RMNP) in 1992. It was even developed against the express wishes of the indigenous Bantu ethnicities Konjo, Amba and Toro (fig. 2). The residents are prohibited from expanding settlements vertically and to use land above 2,200 m a.s.l. without permission. Areas that were placed under protection solely based on their ecological significance, without participation of the native population, do not conform to a modern view of sustainability. With these restrictions, a population pressure emerged that could be relieved only by migration into the foothills. As a result, social tensions with the ethnic groups outside of the mountain range increase. Figure 2: Ethnic groups and administrative boundaries in the Rwenzori mountains Source: adapted from Steinicke (2011) Journal of Sustainability Education http://www.susted.org/ Neuburger & Steinicke Vol. 3, March 2012 ISSN: 2151-7452 Alpine Tourism in Tropical Africa and Sustainable Development? Ugandan Rwenzori and Mt. Kenya as Case Studies Figure 3 illustrates how densely the approximately 300,000 mountain inhabitants, mainly BaKonjo1, are settled on the Uganda side of the Rwenzori (eastern Rwenzori). In some parishes the population sometimes reaches densities of up to 650 per km2, with ecologically unsound consequences for subsistence societies, especially in regard to land use. Overall, due to the very high fertility rates, the population in the mountain villages has increased since 1991 by more than two thirds and since the last census in 2002 by one quarter. In the Mubuku Valley for example, from which the alpine tourists ascend to the well-known Rwenzori summits, the number of inhabitants of 12.805 in 1991 has doubled to the present (Uganda Bureau of Statistics 2010a; 2010b). Figure 3: Population densities in the mountain villages around the Rwenzori National Park (2009) Source: adapted from Steinicke (2011) 1The typical prefixes used in all Bantu languages of Uganda are highlighted here, e.g. "Ba-" (people of...), "Bu-" (kingdom of ...), "Lu-" (language of...) or the singular form "M(u) -" (member of ...). Journal of Sustainability Education http://www.susted.org/ Neuburger & Steinicke In contrast to the mountains, the eastern Rwenzori foothills form a region of high economic activity in which the commodity-oriented cement and cobalt production of Hima and Kasese, but also tea and cotton production, stand out in the employment structure. The three autochtonous ethnicities who reside here together have been joined by dozens of ethnic groups who have immigrated in recent decades. As previously pointed out, increasingly more BaKonjo also leave the mountain villages in favor of the Rwenzori foothills. It seems to be therefore only a matter of time until the existing social tensions escalate into ethnic conflicts. In addition to that comes the splitting-off of the BaKonjo from the Kingdom of Toro and in 2010 the proclamation of their own Kingdom of “Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu,” which covers a large part of the subspace of high economic activity in eastern Uganda. The expectations of the BaKonjo to be favored in pursuits of work over the other ethnic groups in their newly created Kingdom are likely to play a significant role. 3.2.2 Around Mt. Kenya The lands situated directly at the equator around Mt. Kenya, which were to a large extent claimed by the British colonial powers as the "White Highlands," represent a favored area for agriculture. Fertile volcanic soils, adequate water supply from two rainy seasons, substituted by relief precipitation and to a lesser extent by glacier melting, a smooth landscape and mild temperatures attributable to the high altitude, create an exceptionally favorable agrarian potential for which already in pre-colonial times Nilotic (mainly Maasai) and Bantu peoples competed. The Mt. Kenya region can administratively be well delimited. Like a pie chart, eight districts converge sectorally at its highest peak (Nelion, 5,199m). With the exception of the Division of Kyeni East in Nyeri North District, all seven remaining districts are clustered mainly around the volcanic areas of Mt. Kenya. In ethnic terms the Bantu peoples dominate: in the west and northwest the Kikuyu, in the south the Embu, and in the east and northeast the Meru. Vol. 3, March 2012 ISSN: 2151-7452 Alpine Tourism in Tropical Africa and Sustainable Development? Ugandan Rwenzori and Mt. Kenya as Case Studies Figure 4: Ethnic groups in the Mt. Kenya region (after decolonization) Source: Sim (1979), Nurse and Tucker (2001), Lewis (2009); expert interviews by the authors (2011) Unlike in the Ugandan example, the national park has currently little conflict-enhancing effects, due to the fact that in 1949 Mount Kenya National Park was established by the British colonial power much higher at an altitude of 3,300 m a.s.l. (Erhard 2000). It is not documented in the literature whether at that time conflicts arose in connection with the designation and demarcation of the protected area. In 1978, the National Park and the surrounding forest protectorate became a UNESCO Biosphere reserve, and in 1997 – three years after the Rwenzori – it was declared a World Heritage Site (UNESCO 2011). Journal of Sustainability Education http://www.susted.org/