Forest tourism, Tanzania learns from China

• Tanzania turns to China to learn how to harness opportunities in forest tourism
• Chinese forest experts’ delegation visits Tanzania.
• Forest tourism offers benefits but threatens biodiversity.

To develop forest tourism, the Tanzania Forestry Research Institute (TAFORI), an organization which is in charge of forest development, has reached out to authorities in China to help strengthen its research, conservation, and the promotion of revenue earning opportunities within the natural ecosystem.

Forest tourism may serve to expand the country key forex earner, TAFORI said in it’s appeal to China. In response, China has sent a delegation of forestry experts and the two countries are working on the establishment of a botanical garden as well as conducting research on rare and endangered species domiciled in the East African nation.

Earlier this year, China sent a delegation from Hunan Province, which conducted a special visit and tour of the country’s major forest reserves. The delegation from China gave a report seeking to understand the institution’s mandate and identify areas with potential for scientific cooperation.

Their host, TAFORI Director General, Dr. Revocatus Mushumbusi, led the tour. In his introduction of the Chinese delegation he said “the Institute is focused on conducting forestry and beekeeping research, preserving natural resource data, and developing technologies to enhance efficiency in forest management. TAFORI is looking to collaborate with China in areas of research, innovation, and technology transfer.”

TAFORI Director of Forest Research, Dr Chelestino Balama, reiterated that with China’s support, the institution can expand its work into setting up botanical gardens, conducting joint research on rare plant species, and exchanging scientific data which will open new opportunities.

The head of the Chinese delegation who is also the Director of the Forestry Department of Hunan Province, Jianga Rui was recipient to the request. He said this first trip will help them learn about Tanzania’s conservation systems and it also allows them to explore joint projects as requested.

The trip is also a diplomatic venture, as it will strengthen relations between the two countries since China already benefits from forest tourism. He reassured the Tanzanian officials that upon their return to China, they will speak to the relevant authorities and he is confident that the draft agreement they have created  will pave way for the start of the requested cooperation.

Forest tourism in China

As the term suggests, forest tourism entails tourism in forest parks. A forest park is defined as “a specific forest area of scenic forest landscape with intense historic and cultural heritage for the purposes of tourism, recreation, and scientific, cultural, and educational activity.”

In China, it started as early as back in 1982 with the establishment of the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park (NFP), which is officially the first designated NFP in China. Over the year, both the number of forest tourists and the amount of revenue from the entry fee to the forest parks have increased by approximately 20 per cent each year, reports Bixia Chen in a report titled “Thirty years of forest tourism in China.”

“The sharp increase of forest tourism generates impressive revenues and improves the regional economy near the forest parks,” reveals the report.

However, there are challenges that come with this development; “The large number of forest visitors has placed much pressure on natural resources” the report says.

For example, according to the report, the tourism facilities that have been built inside the protected area end up polluting the water, and have been deteriorating biological integrity of the forests. “Under the conditions of a lack of appropriate legislation and management by several organizations, forest tourism is in a dilemma about to how to develop in a way that is sustainable and which promotes the local economy,” the report cautions.

According to a survey by the State Forestry Administration (SFA), the total forest area in China is 175 million hectares which ranks China fifth in the world only after Russia, Brazil, Canada, and the United States in terms of forest area.

“Over twenty percent of the country is forest cover and most of the forests in China are natural,” details the SFA.

According to the SFA, a total of 2,458 forest parks and 730 National Forest Parks (NFP) had been approved and established by 2009. The SFA notes that in China, nature based tourism comprises a very significant sub-sector of the tourism industry. With China been the most populous country in the world it stands to gain from internal tourism.

The SFA says appreciation of the natural landscape in China has a long history of and nature reserve tourism has increased faster than other types of tourism. According to the Forest Park Management Office (FPMO) of the SFA, last year, forest park tourists increased by 21.2 per cent and revenue from entrance fees increased by 20.7 per cent compared with the previous year.

Researchers however say, in contrast with the large number of forest parks and the rapidly increasing demand for forest tourism, there is little general knowledge of  how China has achieved this remarkable fit simply due to the fact that; “relevant literature in English is limited. International researchers have no access to Chinese-language literature unless they themselves are fluent in written Chinese.”

Thus having direct collaboration with China itself, as Tanzania is attempting to do, is essential to learning and adapting their successful systems.

To his is more so due to the reality that forest tourism comes with it’s challenges like “…the urgent problems of pollution and the deteriorating environment resulting from increasing visitors and tourism facilities,” the Chen report cautions.

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