The use of eco-tourism as a tool for development and conservation of endangered species like the Gourma elephants is a critical question for communities and organizations in Africa and around the world. Most certainly eco-tourism can provide economic revenue for a community, thereby encouraging the community’s investment in the animal’s protection and continued existence. However the corrupted local government officials, and tourist overridden poor villages who have pursued tourism as a source of income and sold their culture and livelihood for the lowest price serve as examples of how tourism can treat and damage a culture and heritage. Yet we must draw distinctions between tourism and eco-tourism and with the standards and principles of ecotourism, it can be an integral and successful means for a community to not only preserve and honor their patrimony but also to profit and aide future generations.

The needs, desires and standards that an eco-tourists expects from his or her experience are the first means that benefit the community and the environment. The definition of eco-tourism requires not only an “eco” attraction but also the sustainable practices to protect and conserve the eco-system and its natural wonders. An eco-tourist expects energy efficiency, water conservation, and proper waste management among other green environmental practices. Activities where the tourist can actually help the community or the protected eco-system in some way are also offered at many eco-tourism sites. Working with the community and by leaving little to no impact on the environment they are enjoying, the eco-tourism experience allows a tourist to not only appreciate the eco-system but help protect it as well. Eco-tourism also promotes responsible sustainable living in the community itself. The example and standards that an eco-tourism campement or resort can set teach the community responsible environmental practices that they can adopt or imitate in their own lives. These ideas and techniques have yet to be employed in the Gourma region but are starting to be introduced in other parts of Mali and Africa

Additionally, within the village, the income generated from eco-tourism addresses one of the main barriers to conservation, namely money. In developing countries like Mali and other parts of Africa, the poorest communities which cohabitate with the endangered species may not be concerned with conservation when they struggle to provide food for their families. Farming or herding in a protected area reserved for the elephants or even hunting for ivory are not inconceivable when no other options exist. When communities or even individuals of the community can see that profits are to be had in eco-tourism, they can be more supportive and even active in protecting the endangered species. The communities in the Gourma region can be more engaged in protecting the elephants if they see a tangible benefit in their conservation.

This photo was taken during a workshop hosted by WILD and STE with local community members about the benefits of conservation for the community.

Finally from the income eco-tourism can generate, revenues can go towards education and conservation so that the community can understand how they in turn can benefit monetarily and environmentally from conservation efforts. Education and eco-tourism are inextricably linked, especially for the populations who don’t feel the immediate monetary profits. They must understand how and why they will benefit even if they aren’t employed in the tourism trade.

For all these reasons, eco-tourism can be an effective means to protect an endangered species while also ensuring benefits and financial profits to the community. Of course eco-tourism must be regulated and monitored to protect the integrity of the industry and the communities implicated but with sufficient standards and requirements established, this new way of traveling could radically change the tourism industry while simultaneously protecting our remaining natural treasures.

It may be because I’m unfamiliar with the cultures of the South, their history and lifestyles, but I think I’ve been spoiled by the cultural diversity of the north and its rich traditions. When I head down to this region of the country, the view out the window becomes boring and even depressing and I truly feel separated from the people in our air conditioned car, speeding by, only slowed down by the speed bumps they’ve placed at the entrance and exit of the town, a protective measure for the children and adults running back and forth across the highway on their daily errands.

In the beginning of the trip, I enjoyed watching the camels reaching up, bending their necks like a pool noodle, eating the few leaves remaining on the trees as hot season approaches and food becomes scarce. The elephants have evolved in the same way, using their trunks and tusks to shake leaves off the trees. The goats gathered beneath them benefit from the leaves the elephants have missed, a symbiotic relationship, one of many in the Gourma. On my trip down yesterday I started to think about the dependent relationships including those that exist between humans and animals here.

In the states, unless you are a farmer or a rancher, you are disconnected from the animals that provide us with our food and products of daily life. Here, I walk out my front door every morning and have to dodge cows and goats to just get to the bathroom. My family spends a good part of their day, preparing and setting out the food for their animals and for this work, they get some milk and occasionally some meat, when they slaughter a goat.

Their animals are like their bank account, when they need money they sell a cow or goat, and when holidays come and its time to celebrate they tap into their funds, and have a special meal, one goat or two eaten over three days, meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Their choice of investment is not necessarily the most secure option with the threats of drought and desertification but banking isn’t readily available. The nearest caisse de credit and savings system I know of is 3 hours away.

Even between the elephants and the humans there are numerous connections and relations, although some growing increasingly complicated and negative. With dwindling resources and easy access to the farmers’ fields of millet and sorghum, an elephant will sometimes serve him or herself from the storage granaries located in the fields. As they pass through these increasingly agricultural areas in the southern part of their range they are put at risk of falling into the large, deep watering holes that farmers dig to water their fields. If they fall in, they can’t get out on their own, and if the government is unable to get a crane there in time, the elephant may die. The elephants for the most part have started avoiding large population areas, choosing to “streak” through areas where there are human settlements, to get through as quickly as possible. Females and Calves are especially wary of humans, and tourists are advised to stay far from them. Near Gossi, my site, there is a group of males who brave Gossi mare, a heavily populated zone for the region, and where most of the rest of the herd will not come. When you go to see them, they are aware of you but don’t hurry off and continue on with their business.

It can be a tense relationship at times, especially when an elephant has just eaten someone’s reserves for hot season. Yet the people here appreciate and claim the elephants as their own and I have confidence that with education and discussion this relationship can continue to be a positive one and just as the humans here get along with their own herd they can also share the land with a much bigger herd that we all own.

The tammasheq proverb, Amane Iman, water is life, sounded in my head and I felt the basic instinct in all of us for survival. My need for water brought my thoughts to the elephants and their unquenchable thirst especially this time of year. All the populations, human and elephant, of the Gourma have evolved to survive the heat and lack of water. People here spend the hot part of the day in the shade, lying down, beat, conserving all energy and movement, only children moving to fetch water in response to the call from adults.

The elephants spend their days in the thickets, a haven of cooler temperatures and move to the watering holes at dusk and dawn. Their migration route has evolved and adapted to bring them to food in the rainy season when forage is most plentiful and to water in the hot season, only available in the less green north. They trek the route each year to survive the stresses of their habitat but if they didn’t migrate they would certainly die. The threats to this route now, including the lack of rain received at their main mare/ water supply this year, make it an all too possible outcome. WILD and Save the Elephants are working with the Malian government to repair the pumps that will fill the mares with water, saving the herd of over 500 elephants this year. The other stresses along the route continue to pose threats to their existence.

I continued through the gardens, running back towards my house to my own water, ever more conscious of what everyone here is up against.