Kenya's tourism industry grows 'greener'

"There was a tunnel vision here as regards the package market, and we were late in seeing what other countries, like Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa saw awhile back - that there is advantage in smaller-volume, higher-value tourism," says Chris Flatt, director of Bush Homes, a small, very upscale tourist operation in Kenya. "The country has been forced to shake itself up. Mass tourism has cheapened the product as well as hurt the environment, and the industry is now in the process of moving away from that."

Even before last week's attacks on the United States raised new concerns about travel and security, tourism was down here. Airlines have reduced flights, and several hotels along the coast are in receivership.

According to the director of one tour agency, package-tour visitors account for most of the cancellations. Those planning more exclusive trips, including visits to ecotourist sites, have been sticking with their plans.

Meanwhile, even operations that don't fall under the ecotourism banner are, as one tour operator said, "being bullied by the changing market" to adopt eco-friendly policies. Most of the large lodges in the Masai Mara, for example, are moving away from using firewood to heat water and turning to solar energy, gas, or fuel briquettes - made of everything from coffee husks and water hyacinth to manure.

Mara Intrepids, one of the larger luxury camps in Masai Mara, gave a briquette-making machine to the nearby village of Kolong, and now buys cow-dung briquettes from villagers instead of wood.

"We used to bring in two trucks of firewood every week," says Shadrack Kahindi, the Mara Intrepids manager. "Now, we realize that if we and every other lodge kept doing this - and if visitors continued to take their two hot showers a day - we would eventually end up with a desert around us."

At Kolong, the women - who, in Masai tradition, are assigned the task of gathering wood - are thrilled with their new briquette maker. They keep it safe behind a small fence of dried twigs and take turns collecting, mixing and stirring the cow dung that is the main ingredient.

"It's wonderful," says a beaming Nailepo, the elderly woman in charge of operations. "Instead of going all day to look for firewood, we stay here and have more extra time for ourselves.... We can fix our hair or do beadwork or fetch more water."

With the rising popularity of ecotourism, there are many trying to cash in on the label.

"A hotel gives nature walks and calls itself an ecotourism venture, or asks its guests not to have their towels washed every day, and thus feels like it's doing it's part," reads an editorial in the quarterly Ecoforum magazine.

"There are many operators jumping on the bandwagon," says Flatt, "but this term should not be abused."

To address this issue, ESOK is in the process of setting up an ecotourism rating and certification system. If implemented early next year as planned, the system would be the first of its kind in Africa and would, it is hoped, go a long way in helping Kenya to preserve its place as a premier safari location - without jeopardizing its future.

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