Wikibooks: Development Cooperation Handbook/Stories/Community Tourism

• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Subjects: The Thumb; Thumb; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Development_Cooperation_Handbook/Stories/Community_Tourism

{{BOOKNAME /Stories}} ⇒ ⇒ [[Sierra Leone 2 – production]] ⇒ [[Community Managed Responsible Tourism]] River Number 2 Village Freetown Peninsula Sierra Leone December 2010 A project self financed by the [[thumb right upright ]] Along the North Atlantic coast of Sierra Leone flanked by lush green hills lie some of the most beautiful beaches of the world. Sierra Leone one of the poorest countries in Africa is still struggling to emerge from a decade of cruel that ended in 2003 and left behind more than 200 000 orphans thousands of amputees a generation of psychologically disturbed child soldiers and a failing healthcare infrastructure. Before the war many luxurious hotels existed along the beautiful beaches. They were surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards that kept the local impoverished communities away from the coastline. These beaches were part of the local heritage before local populations were dispossessed of their resources. Such an unbearable gap between enterprises and communities was among the drivers of war. Now after these hotels have been destroyed and peace has returned the challenge is to use nature as a resource for the empowerment and not for the subjugation of local communities. We visited a village called Number 2 River that is located on the Freetown peninsula. Here the local village community started a successful venture on the village beach that it now manages in a spirit of solidarity. The village itself is tucked out of sight in the woods near the northernmost part of the beach that belongs to the community but is managed as a tourist resort by the community itself. The resort maintains a rustic charm. The skyline of the beach is dotted with thatched grass huts beach chairs and umbrellas that are given on daily rental small cottages a restaurant and a bar and several long wooden boats that ferry visitors up the river to spot crocodiles or take them to see the Banana Islands that were once a trading point for slave trade. The Number 2 River beach resort is an entrepreneurial ...