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The ASL Programme is designed to overcome the
various existing barriers and enhance the real
contribution that the safari lodge can make to
rural development. It is thus committed to optimising
the positive impacts of both individual and clusters
of these lodges, locally, nationally and regionally
within Southern Africa.
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set up a capable regional institution
that provides technical skills, knowledge,
capacity and advocacy for increasing the
ability of partnerships between African
Safari Lodges, protected area managers,
and rural residents to:
- optimise benefit flows to rural
households;
- ensure healthy commercial returns
for lodge operators; and
- operate within the ecological
limits as prescribed by public, private
or community-owned reserve managers.
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The African Safari Lodge and Sustainable Development
Programme is designed to achieve the following
outcomes:
- Robust economic linkages forged between
local citizens and the lodge industry.
- Revenue flows maximised – in the
form of wages, rentals, equity and profit shares,
and outsourced work to local enterprises –
between lodges and rural households.
- Stable partnerships between residents,
private sector and government agencies –
to develop increased levels of ownership for
local residents within the industry.
- Local civic institutions created that
promote sound governance and equitable distribution
of benefits to local residents, especially poor
and vulnerable groups.
- Biodiversity conservation and sound
ecological practises promoted by lodge owners
and local residents.
- The establishment of new community-owned
lodges
- Lodge guest experience enhanced through
responsible tourism.
- Encourage linkages with other appropriate
forms of industry and ecosystem services as
well as health interventions for malaria, HIV
and other diseases.
- Facilitate a knowledge network including
the documentation and dissemination of best
practice, regarding the ability of African Safari
Lodges to contribute to poverty alleviation
and rural development, to a wide range of stakeholders
in the public, private and community sectors.
In working with a set of pilot demonstration
projects the ASL Programme will achieve its outcomes
by utilising the following methods:
- Working with existing and planned African
Safari Lodge operations, related services and
infrastructure that are or can make a major
contribution to poverty alleviation.
- Through a set of interventions, increasing
the tangible flow of benefits from these pilot
lodges to the rural poor. Such interventions
would include:
- negotiating improved contracts
between local citizens, protected area or
game reserve managers and the private sector
owners or operators of lodges;
- helping to create stable local institutions
for the lodge sector to interact with;
- sourcing loan and grant finance
that would allow local citizens’ organisations
to acquire equity shares in lodges and/or
associated activities;
- introducing skills development programmes
that enhance local peoples ability to participate
at all levels of the industry;
- structuring opportunities for locally
owned enterprises to provide lodges with
goods and services including crafts and
cultural services;
- encouraging forms of local governance that ensure an
equitable distribution of benefits to local
residents especially the most vulnerable
groups in the society.
- Set up a communications and advocacy
programme that extends lessons learnt from the
pilot demonstration projects to key role players
in the industry including regional and international
standards and associations, civic, private sector,
non-government and government agencies.
- Ensure that a regional centre of expertise
is set up with the capacity to provide ongoing
technical support for the extension of lessons
learnt to a range of other lodges in the region
during the scale-up and rollout phase of the
programme.
The ASL Programme procures financial and
resource support from private business, philanthropic
foundations, government programmes and a range
of finance institutions interested in promoting
and enhancing the connection between the African
Safari Lodge and rural development. Resources
mobilised from these sources are used to contract
with additional pilot ASL’s in the region
and subsequently extend optimised contributions
to other parts of Southern Africa.
The ASL-Foundation also offers a set of services through its regional centre of expertise in the field of nature tourism and community development and ownership.
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