Strawberry Fields Eco-Lodge, Ethiopia

Location: Konso Special Wareda, Ethiopia
Project Start Date: August 2007
Expected Completion Date: January 2009 (beginning of business operation – lifetime is 25 years)

Project Concept

Strawberry Fields Eco-Lodge (SFEL) integrates a lodge, farm, organic restaurant, and Permaculture design training facility. It is located in Konso Special Wareda in Southern Ethiopia. SFEL aims to generate funds through providing Eco Tourism services and offering Permaculture Design Certificate courses (PDCs) to customers. Cultural trekking tours will take in community based activities around Konso - renowned for its unique culture and sophisticated agricultural system. Profits will be directed into promoting local community development, through giving Permaculture design training and follow up services, to local community and stake-holders. Locals are trained alongside guest participants, the latter paying fees to facilitate training for the former.

Detailed Project Description

Project Objectives

• To benefit the project stakeholders directly and indirectly while demonstrating a model for successful community oriented development in the tourism sector, applicable elsewhere in Ethiopia.
• To benefit local community both directly and indirectly, by promoting, facilitating and implementing responsible community based tourism activities in the project area.
• To demonstrate and offer training in Permaculture on the project site to locals and outsiders.

The project location is Konso special Wareda in the SNNP Regional State, chosen due to the potential displayed by the area for tourism development (as previously recognized by the UNWTO which established the Konso community tourism project in 2007, funded by the ST-EP initiative - "Sustainable Tourism - Eliminating Poverty") and also due to the character of the local people, whose industrious farming culture is also renowned and has been recognized internationally. These features made Konso the ideal location to establish this project with its broad based concept of linking tourism sector development with local community development.

The Eco Lodge

The lodge is a cultural style hotel constructed using local techniques, labour and materials to insure a low eco-logical impact and appropriate reflection of the local culture and architecture in their appearance and structure. It will provide quality tourism facilities which are currently lacking in Konso. As a long term asset of the Konso people, it is important that they have been involved in its design and construction, giving them a chance to display their cultural heritage and artesian skills to those who visit Konso.

Responsible Tourism

Tourism has a great potential to infuse wealth into the locality and generate employment in the area, drawing as it does on economic reserves which come from outside and are far less limited than those available locally. Konso is well positioned to reap economic benefits from the tourism industry, boasting, as it does, a fascinating culture and a world renowned agricultural system, set amid the splendour of the Great Rift Valley. Positioned at a junction between routes to Arba Minch, The Omo Valley and the road to Moyale (Kenya) via Yabello, Konso already has a large flow of visitors passing by. Konso was named as one of the six first recipient destinations for projects aimed specifically at helping to reduce poverty, to be supported by the ST-EP Foundation. ST-EP, an initiative of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) launched in 2002 at the Johannesburg Summit.

However key to success in utilising tourism to tackle poverty and promote community development is to insure the flow of funds into the appropriate hands: visitors and the local people, which will encourage further growth in the tourism industry in the area.

Permaculture

Permaculture is a design system for sustainable land management developed in Australia in the 1950s. It addresses the issues of agricultural productivity and environmental stability simultaneously, so offers a solution to the problems of food insecurity and land degradation in Africa. Konso has repeatedly suffered from food insecurity in the past. The UNDP’s Rapid Assessment Report: Konso Special Wareda, SNNPR (1999) states that; “since the 1950s, drought induced famines have hit Konso and the immediate area almost once every ten years.” “Konso was devastated by the droughts in 1973/74 and 1983/84”.

SFEL incorporates a model permaculture farm, which demonstrates permaculture principals, strategies and techniques to the local community and to guests of the lodge. It is planned to bring experienced permaculturalists from around the world to SFEL, to work together with local farmers in developing an effective permaculture system for the local conditions, using the famous local agricultural system as a starting point, and introducing new techniques which have not been employed in the area till now, due to lack of information and capital.

Project Duration & Schedule

Construction Phase

SFEL is officially a business, currently under soul ownership, but will later be transferred to the ownership of a PLC to be formed with local partners. An investment capital of 6,000,000 Birr (US$60,000) needs to be realised and demonstrated before it can officially open for business.

Project Needs

Skills – we are currently searching for the operational team that will run the lodge and other eco-tourism components from the beginning of operations.

Funds - We are in the process of raising funds for completion of project construction and beginning the operation of the business and intending to raise US$25-40,000 to do so. Potential sources of funding have been identified, but the funds have not yet been secured.

Volunteers - We are keen to take on and facilitate volunteers to perform a range of activities in Konso, including WWOOFing, participation in community training schemes for Permaculture and Income Generating Activities (IGA), as well as for other roles including teaching and medical assistance for the Konso community.