Challenges before adopting Sustainable host communities:
Discuss about the Sustainability in Uganda for Economic Development.
The case study on sustainability in Uganda takes into two principles of sustainable development namely, sustainable host communities and demand driven tourism industry. The following are the key issues and challenges which are faced to apply these two principles of sustainability:
The economic development level of Uganda is very low compared to the countries like the United States of America which have large natural resources. Uganda is underdeveloped as far as industry is concerned which generates very low rate of revenue. The people living in the country have low level of literacy and in fact very few people even have the education till in the sixth standard as shown in the case study. The two main industries in the country are agriculture and tourism, both of which are underdeveloped. Thus, low economic development standard limit the revenue generation in the country which threatens its sustainability (Mowforth & Munt, 2015). .
The case study clearly shows that the level of employment opportunities available in Uganda is very low which can also be attributed to the low level of industrial development in the country. The local people as a result have to depend on agriculture and have to clear large tracts of forests, thus harming the environment. Margaret, a young entrepreneur who leads of group of women who make sustainable craft products from the locally available resources clearly mention that the employment opportunities are very limited especially for women (Childers et al., 2015). She further reports that women from the local communities make crafts and sell them to earn their own living. The video also shows that the local people open shops to sell their produce to earn income. The number of shops along the rural road are large which creates intense competition among the entrepreneurial Thus, this analysis of the video clearly shows that low rate of employment opportunities limits sustainability among the local population (Wood et al., 2014).
Tourism is the second most industry of Uganda after agriculture which faces several challenges as far as sustainability is concerned. The following are the challenges which pose threats before development of demand driven tourism industry in the country:
The first challenge which development of challenge driven tourism in Uganda faces is low of awareness about the locally resources among the local people. The video clearly mentions that agriculture is the most important industry in Uganda followed by tourism. A large of local people depend on agriculture and fell trees to expand their farmlands. This reduces the areas of forests into isolated forested stretches which are insufficient to support the food requirements of the resident wild animals. The wild animals enter the crop lands in search of food and are killed as pests. This hampers the second industry, tourism, which is dependent on wildlife (Waas et al., 2014). Thus, low level of awareness among the local people regarding the key role wildlife plays in tourism and the resultant generation of income among them acts as an impediment before attaining sustainability following the demand driven tourism industry model.
Challenge 1: Low level of economic development
The case study mentions that tourism which is the second most important industry in Uganda is dependent on its wildlife. The country of Uganda suffered from low image among international tourist which resulted in low number of tourist visits. This limited the income the industry earned which in turn resulted in low level of economic development among the local. Thus, low number of tourists resulted in low income among the local people of Uganda.
The Ruhija Gorilla Friends in Uganda can successfully steer local population of Uganda towards sustainability using the people, planet, profits and progress (4Ps) model:
The Ruhija Gorilla Friends project in Uganda would result in development in the human resource development among the local people. The case study mentions that agriculture and tourism, which is largely based on wildlife are the two main industries in the country. The case study also points that the local community destroys wildlife and forests to acquire more land for agriculture. Thus, the local people hampers the second industry to expand the first, thus bolstering their low unemployment all the more. The development of the Ruhija Gorilla Friends project would require training of the local people to guide the tourists. Thus the project would lead to development of talent among the local people (the first component of 4P model). They would recognize that preservation of wild life is crucial to bring about development of tourism and their income generation (Abubakar, Al-Shihri & Ahmed, 2016). Thus, they would preserve the flora and fauna instead of destroying them to expand agriculture (planet-the second component). The abundance of wild life and well trained tourists would attract more tourists, thus causing more revenue generation. The increase in the number of tourists would call for development of development of facilities like accommodation and food supply services. This would create more employment opportunities for the local people and decrease the intense pressure on agriculture as a source of occupation. This would lower the destruction of forests for agriculture for agricultural land and in fact promote preservation of forests to promote wildlife based tourism (profits and progress). Thus, Ruhija project would enable in achievement of sustainability using the people, planet, profits and progress model.
The following are the two business principles which can reinforce successful management relations:
The traditional business principles strong recommend exploitation of existing natural resources to bring about economic development instead of destroying them. The case study clearly mentions that the people of Uganda destroyed forest and wildlife, its two important natural resources to bring about development in agriculture. The people instead of destroying wildlife should preserve it and use it to attract more tourists, thus bringing about economic development.
Challenge 2: Low level of employment among the host communities
As per traditional business principles allocating available resources like capital and manpower among multiple sources of incomes boosts sustainability. The case study clearly mentions that the people of Uganda destroyed wildlife to promote agriculture. This put intense pressure on agriculture and left the wildlife based tourism in the Uganda unproductive. The people of Uganda instead of destroying wildlife must emphasize on preserving wildlife and boost wildlife tourism in the country. This would absorb a large number of people. Increase in the number of tourists would lead to development of fooding and accommodation facilities, thus encouraging entrepreneurial opportunities. This would boost economic development and revenue generation in the country.
The following are the recommendations for the future development of Ruhija project:
The people of Uganda should preserve the forests and wildlife in order to minimize degeneration of weather conditions in the country. This would also promote wild life tourism development and revenue generation in the country.
The government should initiate projects to lead to development of other sectors like IT and mining. This would lead to creation of more employment opportunities among the local population and bring about their economic development.
The government of Uganda should aim towards improving the standard of lives among the local people of Uganda. The case study clearly mentions that large of people die due to HIV and diseases. Provision of better health treatment facilities would enable the people of Uganda lead better standards of lives.
I can reflect on the case scenarios and point out that sustainability plays a very significant role in positioning of organizations and even countries in the global market. This is because stakeholders like consumers, investors and suppliers today take sustainability into account while operating with organisations. The customers today take into account the entire sourcing of materials and manufacturing processes business organisations follow while making purchase decisions. The business organisations, as a result source their raw materials from sustainable and ethical sources of raw materials. The supplying firms in turn are also opting for producing more environment friendly raw materials to attract these business organisations purchase raw materials from them and gain profits. I can also reflect that business organisations today adopt sustainable strategies at all levels namely apex, middle and lower levels to establish themselves as socially responsible organisations. Thus, I can point out once again that sustainability plays significant role in deciding the images business organisations gain among the stakeholders and the positions they hold within the market.
Demand driven tourism industry:
I can reflect that sustainability plays a great role in the legitimacy of the environmental positioning of the organisations. The business organisations which follow high level of sustainability are able to reduce their wastage of raw materials and recycle their wastes. Thus, they are able to reduce their costs and boost their profit margins. Thus high sustainability enables organisations attain high social positions. However, I can also point out that promotion of fake news about sustainable practices can hamper the social positioning of concerned in the long run.
I can also point out that customers today accept products from manufacturers which adopt sustainability as a part of their core operations. This factors has encouraged companies to adopt sustainability and social responsibility right from their apical levels.
I can also take the thread from the discussion and reflect that suppliers today prefer adopting sustainable methods of acquiring and producing raw materials to attract more companies. I can also point out that this acceptance of sustainability among suppliers can be attributed to emphasis which customers put on sustainable products and pressurise the companies to adopt for sustainable supply chains to get raw materials.
I can also point out that intermediaries like retailers and wholesalers also indulge in acquiring raw materials from farmers. Organic products are more expensive and attract upper class customers, thus generating more revenue for the companies marketing them. Thus, the intermediaries are also shifting towards sustainable operations.
I can finally point out that customers perceive environment friendly products as more sustainable compared to their synthetic counterpart. Thus, they are emphasise on purchasing and consuming organic products.
References:
Abubakar, I. R., Al-Shihri, F. S., & Ahmed, S. M. (2016). Students’ Assessment of campus sustainability at the University of Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Sustainability, 8(1), 59.
Childers, D. L., Cadenasso, M. L., Grove, J. M., Marshall, V., McGrath, B., & Pickett, S. T. (2015). An ecology for cities: A transformational nexus of design and ecology to advance climate change resilience and urban sustainability. Sustainability, 7(4), 3774-3791.
Mowforth, M., & Munt, I. (2015). Tourism and sustainability: Development, globalisation and new tourism in the third world. Routledge.
Waas, T., Hugé, J., Block, T., Wright, T., Benitez-Capistros, F., & Verbruggen, A. (2014). Sustainability assessment and indicators: Tools in a decision-making strategy for sustainable development. Sustainability, 6(9), 5512-5534.
Wood, R., Stadler, K., Bulavskaya, T., Lutter, S., Giljum, S., de Koning, A., … & Simas, M. (2014). Global sustainability accounting—Developing EXIOBASE for multi-regional footprint analysis. Sustainability, 7(1), 138-163.
YouTube. (2018). Uganda; Sustainable Tourism. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HSIzOdca4w [Accessed 20 Jun. 2018].
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
