Nairobi/Dar es Salaam. The income generated from tour operations based on East Africa’s mountains -- Kilimanjaro, Ruwenzori and Kenya -- is under threat due to the receding glaciers, studies have revealed.
Incomes of hundreds of tour operators in the region is also in jeopardy.The studies show that the mountains are the main source of attraction for tourists from different parts of the world.
Commenting on the study results, Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa) public relations manager Paschal Shelutete, admitted yesterday that the melting of glaciers will impact heavily on the tourism industry.
“The real magic about Mount Kilimanjaro is its snow. This is what attracts thousands of climbers each year to climb it and see the snow,” said Mr Shelutete over the phone.
He said Tanapa was implementing projects aimed at saving the Kilimanjaro National Park (Kinapa) from further environmental degradation.
He said the projects included discouraging people from felling down trees for making charcoal and giving them alternative means of energy such as biogas.
“Deforestation is one of the reasons behind the trend,” he said, adding that Tanapa has been running tree planting projects in surrounding villages.
Evidence links snow melting to global warming, he said, adding that the government should partner with other countries in pressuring industrialised nations—whose gaseous emissions are mainly behind climate change—to provide funds for adaptation and mitigation.
According to a UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) study and studies by other environmental experts, glacier loss on the three EA mountains is likely to mean a loss of tourism revenue that is important to the economies of the respective countries.
Tanzania received 945,794 tourists in 2012 while Kenya’s stood at 1.7 million during the same period.
Tourism earned Tanzania Sh109.3 billion in 2012 while Kenya earned over Sh1.7 trillion in foreign revenue in the same period.
A big part of this income could be wiped out unless global warming is controlled.
According to a tour guide, Mr Faris Mtui, a resident of Marangu-Mbahe Village in Moshi on the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro, the effects of the diminishing glaciers have started being felt.
“There is not only change in weather patterns, but some plants that were found around here have disappeared. A number of springs and water falls like Monjo, Kona and Kipungulu in our village have also dried up,” he said.
“The red cabbage, a medicinal plant that villagers used to treat fractures with in the 1970s has disappeared,” he said.
Mr Mtui said in the 1970s and 1980s there used to be snow in villages on the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro but this is no longer the case, while the dry spells were also more intense. source The Citizen
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