Ecotourism dilemma in Egypt: Loving the oasis to death
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A quietly growing eco-tourism movement is beginning to bring smaller groups to more out-of-the-way parts of Egypt, the places package tour operators don’t visit.
At the remote Dakhla Oasis, new eco-lodges have sparked both hope and apprehension among local villagers.
Many villagers agree that Dakhla needs visitors to supplement the uncertain agriculture-based economy. But they also worry that large numbers of tourists will stress the fragile environment that has sustained life for thousands of years.
Deep in the western desert, Dakhla has been largely insulated from outside contact. To the south is Gilf Kebir, the “great barrier,” 3,000 square miles of arid sandstone plateau. To the north is the Great Sand Sea — some 400 miles of wind-carved, shifting dunes stretching to the Siwa Oasis near Libya.
The escarpment at the southern end of a large plateau gives way to the depression containing the Dakhla Oasis.
Amid the sweeping landscape, there is evidence of Egypt’s tiny eco-tourism movement. Overlooking the mud-walled labyrinth of Al Qasr’s old city, a new eco-lodge made of the same local mud is starting to attract environmentally aware visitors. The Desert Lodge is the project of businessman and desert lover Ahmed Moussa, who used local materials and craftsmen to construct it. The inn employs villagers from Al Qasr and is powered by hydro and solar sources.
Not far away is the Al Tarfa Desert Sanctuary, which bills itself as a “luxury eco-lodge.” It offers well-heeled visitors such traditional amenities as a swimming pool and air conditioning. But Al Tarfa also used local construction materials and builders, and its staff is almost entirely local.
Owner Wael Abed is a longtime desert explorer who spent years following the routes of the early desert travelers, and then pushing beyond into uncharted areas.
Abed says there is still much to be discovered, with 11 archaeological missions working in Dakhla alone. Even though for now the sheer difficulty of getting to the area is keeping visitor numbers down, he says now is the time to be planning ahead to protect the oasis from being loved to death.
With Egypt’s industrial-scale tourism industry eyeing the oases as the next hot destination, it remains to be seen whether places like Dakhla can be opened up without being damaged forever.
Excerpted from an article by Peter Kenyon for NPR
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