Masingini forest is also called the lungs of Zanzibar, it is located on the highest point of Zanzibar and consists of hill ridges with steep gullies in between. A tropical forest with monkeys and many species of birds.
Unfortunately, the land around the forest has been released for construction and there is now a proliferation of housing construction and with it the pressure on the forest, despite the fact that it is prohibited, many trees and animals are stolen from the forest.
Many of the students at Kawa Training Center come from this area. Kawa has been doing Outreach programs here for a few years to make youth aware of the career opportunities that tourism has to offer. In this area is both the forest and the location of the famous Spice plantations and many of the youth become Spice Tour Guides but without much knowledge of the subject itself hence Kawa tries to help these youth with a good education and thus more knowledge but also more opportunities to guide elsewhere and to generate more income. Of course, Kawa always has the environment high on its agenda, so our graduates are guides that are aware of nature and its protection.
We (Panda Juu and Kawa) have come up with a plan to create a buffer zone between the forest and the growing residential areas by purchasing the land on the border of the forest.
We have the idea to restore the piece of land to its original state and leave it alone except that we use it for nature education and eco-tourism activities
We have devised a model in which travelers can pay off their CO2 compensation locally, with that money we can buy land, restore more forest to its original state, create more awareness, etc. We expect this to be a success as there are around 500,000 tourists fly to Zanzibar every year and we have a good network here, but it will take some time to get it going.
Unfortunately we don’t have the time, the pieces of land are selling like hot cakes so it’s time to hurry. That is why I would like to ask you to donate our money to purchase the land.
Initially we need 16,000 euros, we already have a commitment of 2650 euros, every little bit helps.
You can view the project application via this link