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"Linking tourism
to biodiversity
conservation ... unlocks
many opportunities."
Rediscover
A
trove of natural assets and beauty
inspired Winston churchill to dub Uganda
"the pearl of Africa." Despite a thriving
industry in the southwest built around
mountain gorilla tourism (see pp. 14 ­ 15 for
more on AWF's mountain gorilla efforts)--
and savanna and forested landscapes that
boast an array of wildlife, from elephants to
chimpanzees to lions--tourism elsewhere in
the country has been more sporadic.
As part of an expanding involvement in
the country, AWF developed guidelines
for evaluating the conservation and
socioeconomic impact of conservation
tourism enterprises and used the framework
to assess five projects in Uganda. AWF rated
the projects according to their conservation
relevance, social impact, business plan,
and management of benefits, among other
characteristics.
several themes emerged from AWF's
analysis, including a lack of diverse
enterprise locations--the report cited the
AFricA's peArL
p
Indeed the "pearl of Africa," Uganda is home to many
beautiful landscapes that, with AWF's assistance,
could improve conservation tourism and biodiversity.
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