Dispatches from the Field & Project Summaries
One Year Update
April 8, 2010
Questions & Answer: Bradford Zak
Responsible tourism is becoming a popular holiday choice. Did you see a rise (or decrease) in guests at Gibb’s Farm this past year?
Overall traffic lowered due to the ‘great recession’. However, we are experiencing clients that spend more nights on the farm – as there is more to do, learn and proximity to Lake Manyara National Park and Ngorongoro Crater directly. Why spend your time in a standard camp or lodge with little to offer.
Sustainable building practices is at the core of Gibb’s Farm. Is construction on the farm still active? Have you engineered any new furniture or fixtures in your workshop?
Facility construction is presently not occurring on the farm. For the most part, the guest cottage phase Kyle shared in the video has concluded. We did complete 3 more cottages since then, these are a different style in keeping with the originals – actually the oldest on the farm. As part of the Living-Museum concept (download newsletter #3), all cottages are now documented in The Cottages of Gibb’s Farm to showcase the art collections (download art newsletter) and information presented in each. The new cottages are called Anniversary House, Deutsch House, and Oldupai House.
Has the self-sufficiency in terms of crops and livestock of the Farm increased over the past year? New crops added, etc.?
We have improved the vegetable garden’s considerably under the direction of an executive chef who previously worked at a destination spa. Chef Kuntal (announcement download) has taken great care to label the beds, even discovered some that went dormant over the years like asparagus. He is now offering classes around organic living, cooking and propagation. About 60 items are now harvested: vegetables, herbs and a few fruits. A second herb garden has been developed in the guest cottage areas – a formal knot herb garden design. Additionally, we have improved the organisation of the gardens. Instead of just flower and vegetable gardens we now have eleven which is a better way to share the collection as we continue to improve them. They are presented in the SANAA Art website as Garden Art. We are finalising the census listing which may be of interest. The 7 acre historic gardens and 30 acre private forest of Gibb’s Farm represent an array of species: 100 flowers, 40 trees, 15 herbs and 25 shrubs. We are still counting the cactus and roses gardens. Virtually no additional species have been introduced. We have simply been improving the horticultural displays.
Can you tell us more about Dr. Labiki and his educational seminars on traditional medicine? What kind of impact have these talks had on the guests?
We have spent a bit if time developing the Integrated Medicine program (spa newsletter download). As part of the African Living Spa a program currently under development is called Personal Journeys, which we plan to position as an alternative medicine destination to really put north Tanzania on the map for an entirely new travel market. As part of the Living Museum concept, Labiki and others share oral history, legends and fables as part of the Cultural Safari project.
What are some of the employee opportunities at Gibb’s Farm for people from the local community?
From the local community we have appointed 2 naturalists (and now recruiting a third) to support our guide and information programs, as explained in the ecology web pages, a section called community development. These and most of our efforts regarding responsible and sustainable tourism are expressed in terms of Triple TOP Line assessment. There are numerous ways Gibb’s Farm contributes to the community and ecology in addition to employment opportunities. We example these activities by facilitating and preserving Indigenous Knowledge. The outcome offers practical ways for the traveller and community member to use the (re)discovered knowledge through integrated medicine, festivals or lessons. ETC (Educational Travel Community) awarded Gibb’s Farm first place in 2010 in recognition of these efforts (download press announcement).
Last year, we were introduced to Gibb’s Farm’s efforts to promote the Karatu Education Fund’s “Sponsor a Child” program. Can you give us an update on the success of this program? Are there any other give-back opportunities like this one in place that guests of Gibb’s Farm can participate in?
Ways to give back opportunities are many. To highlight a few, lets us consider the ‘helping hands‘ programs recently constituted involving the carpentry of school desks at the Farm’s wood shops for the traveller to construct for a Karatu school; the planting of erosion abating trees in the community farm or shamba.