Education for the future
Eco-tourism only counts as development if the jobs it creates are real ones, with qualifications attached that nobody can take away.
Ten people from Mbotyi have now qualified in First Aid for Adventure Guiding — the first formal step towards a full Nature Guide certification. The qualification is theirs, and it travels with them whether they guide for us or for anyone else.
What the training covers
Practical skills and safety, taught to the standard the certification demands: leading a group, managing an incident, and making decisions in places a long way from a road. It is the groundwork for guiding a multi-day trek without a second person carrying the responsibility.
Fully qualified, they will be able to lead hikes anywhere on this coast and explain the flora, the birds and the ecosystems to the people walking it — which is the part visitors remember and the part that makes conservation make sense to them.
Where this goes
We want to put more people through it. Every guide who qualifies is one more household earning a living from this coast staying as it is, rather than from it being turned into something else.
