Where are you: Home Publications Special Reports

Environmental Impacts of Tourism Expansion:  The Case of Craft Products
By M Mutamba
Price:  [Z$110]

Proceedings of the seminar held on 12 October 1998 in Masvingo.  The seminar
was conducted under the auspices of the Environmental Research Co-ordinating
Committee.

A one-day seminar on the environmental impacts of the expansion of toursim, with
special emphasis on the woodcraft industry was held in October 1998 in Masvingo. 
The seminar drew participants from state institutions,, universities,
non-governmental organizations, the tourism sector and some wood carvers. 
The aim of the seminar was to bring participants together to discuss emerging
problems and this build consensus as to the direction of future research and
development initiatives.  The seminar took the form of two verbal presentations,
a number of poster presentations, group discussions and a trip to some craft
markets.

Some of the key issues that emerged were as follows:

• It is necessary to investigate whether certification can be used as a tool to
  promote sustainable forest management.

• There is need to investigate whether a system of royalties or fees on timber
  collection from local areas can be used to generate community assets.

• Monitoring and management systems should be implemented by the
  communities themselves, not higher-level government institutions.

• There should be some attempt to build larger associations of carvers so
  that they can represent themselves in various forums.

• There is a need to diversify the set of species use for carving.

• CAMPFIRE-type arrangements may not be easily applied to wood-carving.