Ethiopia trekking in Wof Washa forest

Planet

The sites are part of wholly community-owned forest cooperatives, run for and by the local community in which they are situated. These were developed by Sunarma, an NGO working on the conservation of Wof Washa forest which his threatened by illegal tree cutting and encroachment of farm land. They and we firmly beleive that ownership of the forest must be put into community and that they must feel a direct benefit from keeping the forest intact.

Ecotourism is a fundamental part of the project, and we limit the amount of tourists per site to 6-8 to minimise the pressure we put on the land, communities and resources available. There is no running water with toilets withr pit latrines are used. The showers are sun-heated, and water is diverted to promote tree growth to ensure none is wasted (please note not all sites have shower facilities-we are working on this).

We plant indigenous trees to increase the vegetation in the area, and increase habitat for the local wildlife. In some areas where cliff erosion has proven to become a real issue we have built terraces, to help protect and minimise erosion on the faces. We also encourage the local community to see flora and fauna as a resource to protect, so that they will appreciate it by themselves.

People

The Wof Washa community tourism guest houses are staffed by local community members and owned and run by the Forest communities themselves through their forest cooperatives.They are supoorted in this by local NGO Sunarma, the tour operator and relevant government agencies.

The tourism generates incomes for some community members working at the guesthouses and the profit goes in to a fund run by the forest cooperative for the larger community. The communities have received training on management and running of a business as part of the setting up process. They also gain confidence from running the community tourism to work together for joint benefit.

The communities are your hosts. Fifty-five percent of your payment goes directly to them (48% to the hosting communities and 7% to the community that provides lunch), twenty five percent goes to support the guiding and and coordination activities and twenty percent goes to cover marketing costs and coordinate the bookings.