Project title:  PANGANI SAADANI COASTAL PROTECTION

Country:   TANZANIA

Region: AFRICA

Current status:       Ongoing       Concluded

Duration (est.)/dates: August 2007 – December 2010

Partner entities: Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism of Tanzania; Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB); Saadani National Park (SANAPA); Pangani District Council, Netherlands Committee of the World Conservation Union (IUCN-NL), SNV Tanzania

Source(s) of Funding: ST-EP Foundation

Executing Agency: Pangani Coastal Cultural Tourism Programme (PCCTP)

Main project objective: to support the PCCTP so as to enable it to continue its coastal cultural tour guiding programmes and coastal heritage conservation in collaboration with existing institutions as Saadani National Park.

Activities:

Activities were divided in various components.

1. Development of a Tourism Information Centre (TIC): The TIC was completed using local labour and local materials. Signposting was installed in key locations. The Centre was equipped with office materials, and photos of Pangani tourism attractions are displayed. The Centre opened its doors in August 2008. Three members of PCCTP received training (20 days) in computer use and project management.
2. Development and diversification of the visitor offer: Meetings were held with the community to discuss about tourism, tourism products and service opportunities which resulted in the identification of 7 different types of small entrepreneurs (involving 103 people) with potential to participate in the tourism supply chain: small handicraft producers, small crab farmers, poultry keeping, tie & die, vegetable producers, food vendors and fishermen. A monthly market was organized at TIC and information distributed to a wide range of stakeholders so that the local producers could sell to the general public, tourists, tourism business and tour operators.
3. Promotion: A brochure with information on the different excursions and services available in Pangani was developed in collaboration with accommodation providers. General promotion of Pangani was carried out in various tourism magazines, newspapers and the radio.
4. Conservation: Clean up and conservation awareness-raising campaigns were carried out in collaboration with SANAPA and with a focus on the protection of turtles and mangroves. PCCTP developed a plan for the rehabilitation of the local historic buildings.

Main project outputs/deliverables:

1. There is a strong team at TIC: The team at TIC has started developing a business plan for TIC with the support from the Tides Hotel in order to ensure the sustainability of the Centre. Moreover, they have started designing a visitor satisfaction survey and are carrying out market monitoring activities. In 2010, 789 tourists visited the TIC of Pangani.
2. The offer is diversified: A total of 29 small entrepreneurs benefitted from small loans issued by the revolving fund.   The revolving fund enabled some small entrepreneurs to improve their products and some business linkages were created mainly for the sale of handicrafts at 6 lodges.
3. Some conservation best practices are being applied: The village councils from Ushongo, Mkwaja, Buyuni, Saadani and Pangani beaches decided to have a clean-up campaign day every Wednesday of the last week of the month. The district tendered the regular cleaning of Pangani town and since the beginning of 2009, garbage is collected on a weekly basis and dumped out of town at a dump site. In 2010, Pangani town was included in the list of historic towns of the World Monuments Fund.

Remarks:

The project was successful in creating a climate of public-private-community cooperation in the destination. Further promotional activities will contribute to position Cultural Tourism activities in Pangani in the tourist agenda.