In a move geared towards supporting the local community living near Rwenzori Mountain National Park, the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) together with the World Wildlife Fund Uganda (WWF) country office and Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) have collaborated in the construction and hand over of a coffee house.
This is one of the latest synergies created to support communities living around tourism destinations.
Tourism is one of the country’s leading exports with the country registering an improvement in the sector annually.
As the country reaps big from the sector, Uganda Tourism board is now turning attention to the communities that live in the surroundings of these tourist attractions.
The idea is that they must benefit from the features which they have co-existed with for quite some time now.
In the surroundings of the Rwenzori mountain national park, coffee farmers living in the area have been selling coffee cheaply and in its raw state. In a bid to curb this down, a synergy between the UTB, WWF and UWA has zeroed on value addition to the coffee, hence the establishment of the coffee house.
The Coffee House will not only ensure that tourists visiting the Rwenzori area get a taste of Uganda’s authentic coffee but also help develop coffee as an attraction with an added revenue stream to the farmers. The background of this project has been inspired by a lot of factors alongside government support.
With this synergy between three vibrant sectors; coffee and tourism will have a greater impact on the economy given that Uganda’s coffee has already built a reputation amongst global coffee specialists for being ‘great tasting and well-balanced. On this itinerary, guests will be taken through the whole coffee processing right from the nursery bed to the coffee cup.
Being strategically positioned in a touristic destination around the Rwenzori ranges, trecking the mountain spiced up this milestone.
It is estimated that over 516 farmers, 379 being female, under the Busongora Joint Farmers Association are improving their livelihoods by utilizing this coffee house initiative to roast, package and sell their coffee for both domestic and international tourists that visit the Rwenzoris which is one of the must be tourism destinations in Uganda the Pearl of Africa.
The coffee house project was initially funded by the European Union and the French Facility for Global Environment and currently stands out as one of the latest tourism products developed to improve financing for Rwenzori National Park through diversifying sources of income for the locals.
