Plant trees, teach kids, light up, share skills Tourism can support or destroy.
TOSCO (Tourism Supporting Conservation) is an initiative started by Felix Vállat in 2012. We have a responsibility to ensure that Namibia’s wilderness areas remain pristine and the people who look after it and live with wildlife are able to maintain a respectable lifestyle. Tourism can support or destroy. TOSCO believes that its impact can be signif icant when it is used as a tool for sustainable development.
H
aving his own ecotourism company, he realised that the tourism sector has a responsibility to safeguard the natural resources it depends on and thereby ensure that Namibia’s wilderness remains as enjoyable in the future as it is now. Tourism is amongst the fastest growing industries worldwide and travelling to natural areas can be harmful. TOSCO has now become an established organisation that offers a platform for tour operators who want to commit to responsible tourism. With funds from their memberships, a team of dedicated volunteers and interns runs a variety of programs which focus on sponsoring research, supporting people living with wildlife, raising public awareness and travelling cleaner. To ensure programs run successfully, TOSCO works with a variety of partners in the field, including Desert Elephant Conservation, Save the Rhino Trust and Desert Lion Conservation, as well as strategic partners including NACSO, WWF and IRDNC. Vice versa, partners increasingly approach TOSCO when they need tourism expertise. 2020 has exciting developments in store for TOSCO. Here is a sneak peek of what we will be working on.
Awareness signboard at Sossusvlei entrance Living with wildlife Info centre at De Riet Clean Up Day with schools, 2019 Flip Stander and Felix Vallat
52
WWW.TRAVELNEWSNAMIBIA.COM
LIVING WITH WILDLIFE PROGRAM
Forced by drought, elephants and lions are attracted to settlements in search of water and livestock respectively, causing human-wildlife conflicts in areas where humans and animals co-exist. The Living with Wildlife program’s main focus is on preserving wildlife by supporting rural people that bear the cost of living with wildlife. Support is given in the form of incentives to look after the wildlife. TOSCO will be leading the Lightforce project in partnership with IRDNC and a French NGO, equipping 20 kraals and 100 houses in north-western Namibia with solar lights. The lights will help farmers keep their livestock secure and deter predators, whilst also keeping elephants away from villages and their crops. Local people will be trained so that in future they are able to maintain the lights themselves. Another exciting and innovative project is Wildlife Credits Namibia which, in collaboration with WWF Namibia and CCFN, focuses on rewarding communities for verified conservation performance. This will be measured, for example, by monitoring wildlife sightings, breeding success and land management,
