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Overview
The Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 560 miles east of Madagascar. It is a “hot spot” destination for wealthy tourists seeking sun, sand and sea get-aways. In order to benefit the country in the face of lost income anticipated due to falling agriculture prices and cut subsidies, the Government of Mauritius is interested in increasing the number of tourists in the country to 2 million by the year 2015. The Government of Mauritius has therefore begun exploring the idea of promoting inland tourism. (Natural resource based experiences beyond “sun, sand, and sea.”)
To these ends, Mauritius National Parks and Conservation Service (NPCS) requested US Forest Service technical assistance in making Black River Gorges National Park and other priority areas for conservation more user friendly for visitors. Ameliorating park services is one aspect of this larger government initiative to increase the number of tourists in Mauritius to 2 million by the year 2015.
A team of US Forest Service (USFS) experts worked in-country with counterparts from NPCS, Mauritius Forestry Service, and other sustainable ecotourism stakeholders in January - February 2008 on sustainable ecotourism priorities for Mauritius. During the mission, the USFS team visited priority ecotourism sites in-country; interacted with stakeholders including NPCS and Forestry staff, representatives of local government, and the Minister of Agro Industry and Fisheries, enabling informal exchange of information; and conducted a formal workshop on principles of sustainable ecotourism, including some basic technical instruction on topics such as sustainable trail construction and maintenance, visitor relations, and signage.
USFS welcomes the possibility of providing additional technical assistance to the Government of Mauritius in the future.
Please see our trip reports on the FRAME webpage under “Natural Resource Based Tourism / Ecotourism” for additional details: http://www.frameweb.org/ev_en.php?ID=84318_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC
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