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TANAPA’s Loiboki attends US Parks course

Posted: Monday June 15, 2009 6:08 AM BT

The U.S. Mission is sending Betrita Loiboki, Tourism and Customer Service Manager of the Tanzanian National Parks (TANAPA) is off to the US to attend a three-week International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) on "Parks Biodiversity and Ecotourism Management" being held from June 8 to26, 2009.

According to a statement from the U.S. Embassy, Loiboki and 23 other participants from Botswana, Cambodia, Colombo, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Peru, Romania, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Zimbabwe would be introduced to ecotourism policies and practices and an overview of the U.S. National Parks System.

The participants will be briefed on U.S. federalism and meet with representatives from the U.S. department of State’s Bureau of Oceans, Environment and Science office of Ecology and Natural Resource Conservation which coordinates U.S. approaches to international wildlife and forest issues. The group will discuss current activities related to biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.

For Non-Governmental Organization perspective, the group will hold a panel discussion on advocacy, tourism strategies and the link between conservation and ecotourism. They will also visit the U.S. Department of Interior’s National Park Service to get an overview of the U.S. national park system, including the challenge of providing open access for tourists while sustaining the fragile ecosystems that the park service protects.

The group will also have a chance to visit the Anacostia Watershed Society and see an area that has been restored and they will also meet with the Environmental Investigation Agency - a private, campaigning organization committed to investigating and exposing environmental crime, such as illegal logging and wildlife trade.

The participants will then travel to Miami, Florida which has two national parks, national preserve and numerous state parks and protected areas which make it a popular ecotourism destination. South Florida is also one of the world's largest ongoing ecosystem restoration projects. The group will split into three teams and travel to El Paso, Texas; Rapid City, South Dakota and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Loiboki will join others and travel to El Paso, Texas, a site of bio-conservation issues of national and international significance. The group will meet with the faculty from the Centre for Environmental Resource Management responsible for management of the park and volunteers of Friends of the Rio Bosque who are active in conducting education and outreach programs, ecosystem management, faunal monitoring, and fundraising and advocacy.

For more than 60 years, the International Visitor Leadership Programme has brought international leaders and specialists to the United States for firsthand exposure to their professional counterparts and U.S. society, and U.S. Ambassadors describe it as one of the most effective foreign policy tools of American diplomacy. The Program's distinguished alumni include such individuals as Margaret Thatcher, Anwar Sadat, Indira Gandhi, F.W. deKlerk, and Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.

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