The African Safari Lodge Programme (ASL), was first introduced in Mozambique in late 2005, and now works with four pilot lodges, demonstrating a new approach to the rest of the industry.

The ASL programme has selected lodges in Niassa, Cabo Delgado and Gaza provinces which show that ecotourism, if practiced in a responsible way, can bring many types of benefit to the rural poor. The aim is for these lodges to set high standards of responsible tourism and to show the way in terms of using tourism for powerful forms of rural development.

It is hoped that the pilot lodges that operate with the support of the ASL will set a standard for tourism in Mozambique, an industry that has often been accused of being dominated by multinational companies or fly-by-night operators who leave little real benefit for the country and its citizens.

The aim of the ASL is to develop positive lessons from its pilot lodges and then to disseminate these to those tourism companies and operators who want to also play a positive role in terms of promoting development and poverty alleviation in the country.

Pilot Lodges

The following lodges have been selected because they exhibit a real commitment to community engagement and already have demonstrated successes working with them:

1. Nkwichi Lodge, Manda Wilderness (www.mandawilderness.org), in Niassa Province, on the shores of lake Niassa
2. Guludo Base Camp, Bespoke Experience (www.bespokeexperience.com), Cabo Delgado Province situated on a deserted 12km beach in the Quirimbas National Park
3. Ibo Island Safaris (www.iboisland.com), located in Cabo Delgado Province, on Ibo Island
4. Covane Community Lodge (www.covanelodge.com) a community-led initiative, located close to Massingir in Gaza Province.

The first three are well-positioned to build on their existing programs and revenue-shares to increase the benefits to local communities. All of these projects have invested around $1m + each to date, and are willing to be part of the ASL Programme in order to maximize benefits to the local communities.

The other pilot project ,the Covane Community Lodge (4), is a community-led initiative, which was established with support of Swiss NGO, Helvetas. Helvetas plans to This step back in the coming years and, after a having launched a tender, the community is now negotiating with the selected bidder for a meaningful partnership with the private investor.

ASL Mozambique's Activities

ASL Mozambique approaches the industry from 2 ends of the spectrum:

• Working with lodge companies that have already acquired their concessions and now want to build on meaningful partnerships with communities.
• Working with communities that have acquired land and tourism rights and now want to structure meaningful partnerships with private companies.

This allows for lessons from working in both ends of the spectrum to be learnt and applied in the lodge industry as a whole.

Private-sector led initiatives

The ASL programme in Mozambique seeks to provide technical support to these pilot lodges so that their ability to alleviate poverty and generate maximum benefit for the communities adjacent to them is maximized. In this context ASL aims to provide technical assistance such as:

• Socio-economic stakeholder research to better understand the community dynamics around the private sector led lodges
• Help formalise cooperation arrangements between the management of the pilot lodge and the local community
• Help set up strong local community organisations to partner with the private sector
• Explore options of business partnership between community and private sector
• Help create lodge-SMME business linkages as per request from lodges
• Provide advice on sources of grant and concessionary finance for the pilots
• Help implement skills development programmes for community residents
• Provide advice in terms of obtaining responsible tourism accreditation
• Provide media publicity for the pilots to ensure that the approach and successes are visible to the industry within and beyond Mozambique

Community led initiatives

The ASL programme in Mozambique seeks to establish meaningful partnerships between the private sector and the communities. In this context ASL will facilitate partnerships, for example by:

• Strengthening the ability of communities to set up legal entities, to understand the tourism industry and to understand business principles
• Training communities on how to run competitive and transparent bids for attracting investment and finding private partners
• Helping community members to participate actively and constructively as partners in new businesses they set up with the private sector

For more details about the ASL Programme in Mozambique, please contact: