COUNTRY: Egypt

CLIENT:
Veronaland Tourist Development SAE, KfW DEG

PROJECT TITLE:
“Sustainable ecotourism development of the Wadi El Gamal National Park (NP) through public – private partnership “

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Currently Egypt’s 27 protected areas cover about 15% of the nation’s total land area and thus build a cornerstone of Egypt’s national and international biodiversity commitments. Even though Egypt has developed an effective protected area system, with significant investment in the development of staff capacity and protected area information, plans and infrastructure, properly functioning ecotourism development, creating local employment by conserving the national resources, are not in place. The prevailing tourism model, particularly, in the national parks, are mass tourism activities (e.g. bus tours in the park), that do not create substantial income for the local communities living in and around the park, nor contribute to the protection of the park’s biodiversity

The overall objective of the project is to develop the National park Wadi El Gamal as a lighthouse example for sustainable park management in Egypt and to promote ecotourism as an alternative to low-level mass tourism in Egypt. Therefore, Veronaland Tourist Development SAE joined forces with DEG within the framework of a development partnership, to commonly develop a sustainable ecotourism model for Wadi el Gamal with the local park authorities and other local key stakeholders

AGEG Tourism for Sustainability Consulting measures:

• Elaboration of the technical project proposal
• Successful fundraising and process consultation