The European Union has been supporting the conservation of biodiversity in protected areas of Sub-Saharan Africa for several decades. Among the multiple actions supported, several have focused on the development of tourism as the main ecosystem service provided by these protected areas. In view of the continuing debates on the environmental, social and economic costs and benefits of tourism, any future increase of the support of the EU to ecotourism in African protected areas should be guided by a rigorous evaluation of the previous aid initiatives in that sector.
The objective of this contract is to guide the European Union and its partner countries in the future actions of development of ecotourism in the protected areas supported in Sub-Saharan Africa. More particularly, the study identifies and proposes to the EU concrete actions that could be funded by the existing instruments.
The study has three components :
- « Capitalisation » : extract among the aid actions of the EU (and its partners) for ecotourism in protected areas of Africa, the most decisive actions allowing new ecotourism achievements in Africa ;
- « Strengthening » : propose additional actions to strengthen 4 « successful » ecotourism initiatives in 4 protected areas supported by the EU in Africa ;
- « Development » : propose enabling actions for the development of 4 « high-potential » ecotourism destinations identified among the intervention areas of the EU in Africa.
Client: European Commission (Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development DG DEVCO)
Location: Sub-Saharan Africa
Period: 03/2019 – 06/2020