WHY NOW? (A Slideshow)
The preservation of Africa’s cultural heritage is currently stuck between a rock and a hard place: it is neither seen as an economic growth opportunity, nor a conservation priority.
This slideshow is going to look oddly similar to any other that pins a purpose. But it will feel and read different. The presentation focuses best on the collective big picture for action. Lean forward and look closer.
Timbuktu, Mali
The crisis is no greater felt than in Sub Saharan Africa. Cultural
conservationists have long sounded the alarm bells as sites are the
most at risk in the world. Yet they are the least likely to receive
funding. In recent years, there are even more urgent threats of ISIS
and cultural terrorism.
Ibo Island, Mozambique
The slipping away of heritage is unlikely to be reversed by current
institutions. Sites have been left to deteriorate for so long that
traditional players in the private and public space believe it makes
more sense to leave them alone than to reverse the decline.
Machu Picchu, Peru
The difference between popular UNESCO destinations such as Machu Picchu in Peru, which earns $36 million in visitor revenue a year and revels in a constant state of conservation and preservation, and seldom-visited others lies in the extent to which they have been revived into modern attractions.
Giza, Egypt
Untapped potential of an UNESCO designation doesn’t stop with a
certificate. Indigenous communities need to be empowered by financial
impacts that follow. Locals in or around sites are less likely to reap
benefits as much as foreigners supported by big multi-national
investors. One sells souvenirs; the other sells hotel nights.
Open plains of the Serengeti, Tanzania
Tourists spent close to $500,000,000,000 in Africa the past 10 years
and had no effect in reducing the share of women and children living
on less than $1.25 a day. That amount should have had some impact.
Don’t you think? Bear in mind: tourism is the largest voluntary
transfer of wealth from the rich to the poor because money is “spent”
in places of poverty.
Tarangire National Park, Tanzania
Tourism leakages are the highest in the world in Africa, where returns
on tourism investments are also the highest in the world. Up to 90% of
the $45 billion visitors spend in the region “leaks out” to bank
accounts of foreign-owned businesses despite considerable efforts by
tourists to leave behind more, not less.
Nairobi, Kenya
Everyday Africans aren’t excluded from benefits of economic growth
because money doesn’t flow into their communities; they remain poor
because the money never stays.
South Africa
This is the sustainable reality:Tourism’s cash flow needs to
be redirected away from foreign-owned businesses and to the local
population, allowing empowered stewards to grow their own
multi-national business and support families out of poverty.
Fez, Morocco
The shift will drive greater prosperity to host countries while
demonstrating that the next generation of thriving tourism brands is
just as likely to be found in Zimbabwe or Ethiopia as it is in Germany
or the United States. Restored UNESCO World Heritage sites are the
leverage locals need to compete.
