community based ecotourism, Wunania-Kosoye, tourism, development

Abstract

Tourism can play a vital role in protecting the environment, conserving biodiversity and maintaining sustainable development. Furthermore, tourism has the power to enhance the environment, to provide fund for conservation, to preserve culture and history, to set sustainable use limits, to protect wildlife and to add value to biodiversity. In this paper, a cross sectional study in Wunania, Kosoye, was used to describe the existing situations and events in the area. For the study, both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed. The study established that the local community’s awareness level of biodiversity conservation and the economic significance of ecotourism in Wunania-Kosoye natural attraction site was very high. Yet, this contrasted with a loss of biodiversity in the last decades due to deforestation, uncontrolled grazing, and land degradation. The research finding suggested that Community Based Ecotourism is becoming preferable when it is compared with other alternative approaches for conserving biodiversity in Wunania-Kosoye natural attraction site. Keywords: community based ecotourism, Wunania-Kosoye, tourism, development