Conservation in Egypt:

Egypt has a surprisingly rich fauna and flora. It’s major desert plain and montane systems contain a varied set of habitats: the Nile Valley, oases, brackish and saline wetlands, and two distinct marine environments. Egypt is connected to the Mediterranean world and that of sub-Saharan Africa by way of the Nile valley, and to the tropical Indian Ocean through the Red Sea. Of the vertebrate fauna, birds are the most diverse and prominent due to Egypt’s position as an important stop over on a number of migratory routes. 

Habitat destruction remains the largest threat to bio-diversity. Because of the barren nature of so much of Egypt, plants and animals are generally restricted in their distribution to oases, wadis, marshes, mangroves and the Nile system. Species density therefore tends to be high in localised areas while remaining low for the region or country as a whole. So habitat destruction has a very critical impact. Much of this destruction is a function of economic development. 

The challenges of rapid economic development need to be aligned to the growing awareness of the importance of conservation. 

Egypt may not have the high visibility fauna of central, east and southern Africa, notwithstanding the small population of cheetah in the Quattara depression; but it does have a unique historical and cultural setting which, allied to the diversity of its marine, desert and riverine eco-systems, offers new opportunities for significant increases in national revenues as a direct result of the conservation of bio-diversity. Park entrance fees are being collected in Sinai. Fees for visiting the southern Red Sea Islands are also being collected. Sound foundations are therefore being laid for developing market based systems that will ensure that bio-diversity conservation is not seen as a luxury but as an intimate part of Egypt’s national economic development.

Egypt hosts 262 higher species found nowhere else on earth. About 24% are classified as threatened, including 19 plants that are endangered (the highest category of risk). 53 endangered species of Fauna are also found in Egypt. These endangered species represent a priority for conservation measures such as habitat restoration, protected areas and special land management schemes. As habitat destruction continues the monitoring of its impact on these endemic and endangered species becomes of increasing importance.

Law 102/1983: provides for the establishment of protected areas. There are currently 22 Protectorates covering 80,000km², or about 8% of the country. Egypt has plans for the total area protected to rise to 15% of the country.

Protected areas
 

The Eco-Lodge concept, as currently proposed by the TDA, has a number of attractive features that are likely to influence the Nature Conservation Sector’s attitude towards Parks and Tourism development. Egypt, along with most other countries, is well aware that it cannot afford an attitude of strict preservation with respect to its protected area heritage. So compromise is inevitable along the principle that people must be encouraged to become partners for conservation and not become a threat to it. Conservation rooted in sound sustainable development principles will therefore guide us forward. 

For conservationists every compromise with development has a number of costs associated with it. Guidelines must therefore be even more rigorous within parks than outside of them. Actions that compromise the overall conservation value of any protected area undermine the principles upon which it was declared and therefore serve no one in the long run. However within this rather restrictive statement there is a great deal of room for manoeuvre.

So what then of the TDA concept and how might we adjust it to fit within the concepts of protected area management ?

There are benefits to both parties if we can do this. For tourism there will be an obvious increase in tourism numbers. This alone would be considered beneficial. But tourists visiting protected areas would be a new type of tourist, demonstrating that Egypt has more to offer than just the Nile valley and beaches. A more diversified tourism product will increase revenues and some of these revenues can be re-invested in conservation. In principle therefore we will seek ways to accommodate eco-lodges within the protected area network of Egypt.

Let us please not forget that;

1. every track and trail for a motor vehicle is source of erosion
2. that every visitor is a potential source of litter
3. visitors may be tempted to remove plants, animal remains, geological and prehistoric artefacts
4. every facility that accommodates a visitor generates problems for solid waste management
5. every facility erected has an impact on the landscape
6. every facility erected requires materials for constructionSo guidelines are required to keep these types of disturbance to a minimum. The TDA’s vision is sensitive to many of these issues:
7. It promotes architectural harmony in design and materials, and
8. It is sensitive to the types of material used in construction.
9. It promotes an Eco-Lodge, not as an hotel, but as an integral component of the landscape in which it is set requiring that access be given to that environment, and that along with access goes information and education.
10. It is sensitive to noise pollution.This is all good as far as it goes. Can we, or should we, go further ? I believe we can. Three examples may help:
11. In many well established parks on this continent no building may be erected that cannot be completely removed within a specified time period. Such a statement challenges architects and designers to innovate without sacrificing client comfort.
12. In other situations tourist facilities in buffer zones are required to provide significant benefits to local communities; in some cases going as far as giving them land tenure rights which force tourism companies into direct contractual relations with local communities. This actively promotes a partnership between people and parks.
13. Existing traditional structures, locally owned, can be adaptively re-used to provide accommodation for tourists which both enhances the value of traditional building systems as well as generating additional local revenues. This we have already begun promoting in the St Katherine’s protected area.In Egypt we have challenges unique to ourselves. 
14. How can we stop bird netting in northern Sinai without robbing people of an important source of income ?
15. How can we cater for the mass religious tourism attracted to St Katherine’s Protectorate without encouraging further unsightly developments ?
16. Would Eco-Lodges be the answer to the pressures we face to open up more of the Red Sea islands ?
17. Can we use Eco-Lodges to attract more of the international bird watching community to Egypt’s migratory splendours ?
18. Are Eco-Lodges the way to open remote areas such as Jebel Elba to high paying, low impact tourism that can promote a better understanding of a fragile ecosytem and the complex socio-economic structures that have evolved there ?
    If we are to take the next step, and in truth we alrehave in places such as St Katherine’s and Wadi Rayan, then we must be absolutely clear as to the policy which will guide us. We need to be far more stringent than the TDA. After all the job of any official tourism organisation will always be to promote more tourism. More means better for those looking at job creation and foreign exchange revenues. More certainly does not mean better for those of us charged with the conservation of natural resources. The ‘more’ in this case is usually more disturbance and more conflict. However we recognise that, in Egypt, our resources are not conserved simply to be locked away; they are conserved in order to be appreciated and enjoyed.To support open access without compromising the integrity of a protected area is no simple matter. It requires a combination of good policy and sound management, supported by adequate resources. 
19. Limits to carrying capacity must be established. We will be guided in setting these by estimating:
    i. How many people a protected area can accommodate, given that most people remain grouped close to the key sites of interest and their lodging. Some indicators will be the tourist’s own perceptions of when visitor numbers affect his or her enjoyment of the site; when littering becomes a problem; and when tracks and trails become both unsightly and prone to erosion.
    ii. The overall conservation value of key areas. Some protected areas share geological and landscape features with others. Others have unique and rare attributes which can be shared by a few but not all if they are to remain conserved. Such significant conservation values must then be translated into significant economic values. Other sites may too valuable in research terms and may need to be kept closed.
20. The Resources available to us will greatly affect our ability to absorb visitors. There is no point in laying out tracks and trails if we cannot ensure that they are kept to. We should not invest in building visitor and education facilities if we cannot recruit and train staff to run them efficiently. 
21. These are generic issues not directly related to Eco-Lodges, but they do guide us into better understanding what sort of tourist is appropriate in Egypt’s protected areas. We have three main types of environment of interest to the tourist: 
22. Marine,
23. Desert, open and montane,
24. Sites of significant migration.Each of these requires separate consideration in respect of lodging. Currently not all areas representing these three types are in protected areas with the result that there is a wide range of lodging on offer for tourists from the free market. There is everything from massive 5star constructions to reed and mat hostels. We enter such a market with due caution.
    As custodians of Egypt’s protected area network we intend to play our part in promoting tourism, BUT on our terms, and to the benefit firstly of conservation and only secondly of tourism. Eco-Lodges within protected areas and their buffer zones must therefore promote conservation values while generating revenues for the maintenance of the protected area system. If we cannot generate revenue, we cannot manage visitor numbers and maintain the infrastructure that will guide people around a Park.
    We need therefore to select operators and determine bed numbers. It is vital that an operator of an Eco-Lodge in a protected area be our partner, be an investor with a clear commitment to conservation. We need to review with an investor architectural guidelines to ensure that landscape values are enhanced and not diminished, as has been the case with much development at St Katherine’s. Each protected area will have clearly different priorities.
    Our marine protected areas include islands of great importance to breeding birds and turtles. They are surrounded by many of our more pristine reefs. Development on remote islands must be the most strictly controlled of all. It is here that we are likely to demand that all structures be removable and that visitor numbers and activities be carefully fixed to minimise damage and enhance an appreciation of the wildnerness qualities of these sites.
    Our desert eco-systems are where care will be taken to control vehicle access. It may be that only Lodge vehicles may take visitors into the desert following pre-determined routes. It is here that opportunities exist to involve local communities in more than just demonstrating traditional skills and customs. There are significant opportunities in ensuring that they have an economic stake in management in order to use conservation as a tool to bring marginal economic groups into mainstream economic development. 
    The key migratory birding sites are a potential area for significant expansion in eco-tourism in Egypt. While we will never compete with the mega-fauna of east, central and southern Africa, we do have sites for watching birds that are un-paralleled anywhere in Africa except perhaps at key locations in the Great Rift valley. That Egypt has wildlife sites of international significance is little known. It is here that the Eco-Lodge concept can perhaps make the greatest contribution. 
    To conclude; we would like to applaud the TDA’s initiative in promoting a diversification of Egypt’s tourism market through Eco-Lodge development. It creates a challenging opportunity for us in conservation. An opportunity that we intend to rise to. We seek:
25. A dialogue with TDA as to what constitutes sustainable eco-tourism development in a buffer zone. 
26. To adapt the TDA’s guidelines to establish Eco-Lodge guidelines that reflect the unique requirements of the Protectorates. Development within a protected can only take place according to contractual conditions that ensure that the integrity of a protected area is not compromised by the either the construction itself, the supporting infrastructure or visitor numbers.
27. To ensure that revenues generated by Eco-Lodge development in protected areas and their buffer zones develop significant revenues that are applied for the benefit of conservation.