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.
Gibb’s Farm – Tanzania, Part III: Obvious luxury rife with responsible subterfuge
May 8, 2008
Gibb’s Farm is a responsible employer and community member, yet the efforts made in areas of environmental preservation and resource protection shouldn’t be overlooked, as craftily shrouded as they may be. As one might imagine, access to services and supplies in this far-flung region have never been a cakewalk and a natural interdependence with the community of Karatu developed when the farm was established in the late 1920s.
For this lodge, necessity is not only the mother of invention but also sire to sustainable building practices that leverage the skills and know how of the local community in such a highly creative, extraordinarily functional fashion that one can appreciate its craftsmanship and beauty independent of its extremely responsible bloodline. Over the course of 80 years as a working farm in Africa, structures at Gibb’s Farm have had to endure hard wear from daily use and formidable weather conditions. When time comes for replacement or renovation, virtually all building materials are salvaged and reused, including cement, roofing sheets and timber.
Gibb’s Farm has been known to have saved the smallest metal scraps – nails pulled from timber are melted down and repurposed into spectacularly crafted decorative hardware – you’d never know the pretty bathroom hook and window locks had rich former lives as lug nuts and bedsprings. New guest cottages are built with local labor from almost entirely local + salvaged material. Of the minimal new materials brought to Gibbs, significant vigilance goes in to assuring they come from responsible sources. Cottage walls are 50% glass, offering generous doses of natural light. Almost all furniture is made on site using local materials and labor in workshops on farm property.
The behind the scenes at Gibbs is teeming with activity… we toured the barnyard, said hello to the pigs and cows while inspecting the large scale composting operation that naturally fertilizes the farm’s 10 acres of organic crops. We then perused the storage facilities where seemingly EVERYTHING that was ever brought to the property has been salvaged and carefully stored and categorized for future use.
After visiting the furniture building workshop, we spotted their great big sun farm: Gibb’s has recently installed one of Tanzania’s largest solar water heating systems. It’s an impressive operation and 90% of their water is now heated by solar power, cutting down on firewood consumption by about 50%, the firewood they do use is primarily scraps from the carpentry shop. Walking back to the lodge, a WWII truck lumbers by … in fine repair and daily use. Reduce/reuse? That’d be Gibb’s Farm.
Oh but back to those gorgeous, decadent bathrooms… deep soaking tubs, indoor and outdoor showers. You already know that the water is solar heated, but isn’t a truly luxurious bath multi-galloned, excessive and wasteful? Not when your tub water has a second career.
Grey water from guest baths, laundry and the kitchen are reclaimed in a water treatment system that leverages the natural filtration properties of calla lilies, papyrus and cat tails to clean the water on its way to irrigate the property’s ample organic crops. Naturally born, it’s the prettiest water filtration system I’ve ever seen.
Truly a slice of heaven on earth, one can follow a fresh farm meal with a lengthy meander through the flower-saturated grounds at Gibb’s Farm, myriad bird calls echoing across the property. Elephants trumpet from the fields below as the staff congregate, raising their voices in song, marching toward the interlopers, urging them out of the crops back into neighboring Ngorogoro Crater.
Take an interpretive hike with a Maasai healer, visit with an artist in residence or simply retire to the quiet of your porch to listen to the cheerful crow and chuckle of farm life, watching the sun shift across the verdant landscape. A longstanding good neighbor that happens to be a luxurious wayside, Gibbs Farm’s delivers environmental responsibility, social mindfulness and charm in spades.
Gibb’s Farm – Tanzania, Part II: Good neighbors, fantastic food
May 5, 2008
A working farm that also operates as a high end guest lodge, Gibb’s Farm stands apart from countless other traveler accommodations in its longstanding mutually beneficial relationship with the local community, Karatu.
Generations of families have been a part of the Gibb’s Farm workforce – most staff have worked at Gibb’s for 10 years; many over 20 years. 99% local, the staff receives free healthcare – services that are extended to their families.
Gibb’s Farm backs the Karatu Education Fund that services several area schools, supporting the construction of new buildings and establishing a “sponsor a student” program that enables Gibb’s Farm guests to help local children attend secondary school.
In an effort to stem the tide of deforestation + proliferation of exotic species, Gibb’s Farm established an on-site nursery of native tree species that supplies a grassroots conservation organization named Mazingira Bora Karatu (translated: “A Better Environment for Karatu). MBK promotes environmental awareness and conservation, planting native trees and promoting rehabilitation of degraded lands throughout the region.
The actual farming part of the Gibb’s Farm operation is formidable: 30 acres of coffee, 10 acres of vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs, a working dairy and pig farm, all of which are treated solely by organic pest management and fertilization processes. A remarkable 80% of the food served at Gibb’s is raised on the property, the remainder is sourced locally. The glorious raw materials are not wasted.
I’d like to preface this by stating that I come from a city that has a vibrant food culture and a lot of damn good places to eat. In addition, I’d been apprised prior to my trip that one can’t count on food safety in Africa so I had figured that I’d spend most of my time on the continent drinking beer and bottled water, eating bananas and hard boiled eggs. And while I found myself pleasantly surprised by meals in a number of places we visited, nothing rivaled eating in my hometown.
Until our first meal at Gibb’s.
It was like getting religion. Fresh and finely executed: Oven-warm bread, tender meats with flavorful, light-handed sauces, crisp, bright vegetables and a main course finished with property grown French press coffee, bread pudding, pot de crème….can I get a…”Hell, yeah?” We barged into the kitchen and gave the staff a round of applause.
Alright, we’ve dug into Gibb’s Farm history, community, crops and incredible meals. Can there be more? Come into my lair, said the spider to the fly.
Gibb’s Farm – Tanzania, Part I: Gracious, green and hospitable to all
May 4, 2008
Established in 1929 near the village of Karatu, Tanzania, Gibb’s Farm grew from a simple coffee farm into a generously appointed traveler’s rest, a well-placed jumping off spot for adventurers and ultimately a decadent luxury travel destination that elevates and embraces environmentally and socially responsible practices in every level of their operations.
Amongst its charms? Location, location, location: A short distance from Lake Manyara National Park, Gibb’s Farm also shares a mile long property border with Ngorogoro Conservation Area (NCA) where the world’s largest unbroken, unflooded volcanic caldera lies. Ngorogoro Crater hosts virtually every species of East African wildlife with an estimated 25,000 animals living within the crater including herds of zebra, gazelle, and wildebeest alongside the “big five” of rhinoceros, lion, leopard, elephant, and African buffalo. If it’s critters you want to see, it’s critters you’ll get, right next door to Gibb’s Farm.
The NCA also includes the Olduvai Gorge, one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world (you may have also heard of it by its familiar alias, “The Cradle of Humanity”). Research and excavation work in Olduvai, pioneered by Mary and Louis Leakey in the 1950s, has been instrumental in furthering understanding of early human evolution, producing evidence that various hominid species have occupied the area for 3 million years. During her tenure in the region, Mary Leakey befriended former Gibb’s Farm owner Margaret Gibbs. Mary was a frequent guest to the lodge and fan of its spectacular gardens that, as she describes:
“…generously supplied my camps with superb fresh vegetables, so essential to our well being.”
The wealth from Gibb’s Farm gardens that enchanted Mary Leakey have been retained and possibly even elevated – the 30 acre organic farm, crops that include coffee alongside fruits and vegetables, provide 80% of the bounty that Gibb’s Farm guests enjoy at every meal on the property.
Layer 1 of Gibb’s Farm: it has a very, very pretty face. Glasses of fresh avocado juice are offered in welcome upon our arrival (I kid you not and have no idea what it takes to extract avocado juice, but it was amazing). As we entered the property, a series of low slung, clean-lined, unassuming guest quarters came into view, their borders graced with a profusion of verdant tropical plants and tempestuously hued flowers, birdlife a-chatter in the trees…Is this for real?
Then I was taken to my room – the square footage alone makes one the the envy of most NYC apartment dwellers, the porch overlooking a reed pond alive with weaverbirds under a shady canopy of avocado and acacia trees. The cottage was well appointed without being ostentatious -box beam ceilings and smooth, rich wood floors; a fireplace that faced both the sleeping quarters and a heavenly bathroom – a massive, extremely private yet flooded with natural light. Did I mention the outdoor shower? The two-person Terrazzo soaking tub? For a girl who’d spent the better part of the month grubbier than she’s been since age 6, it was a slice of high end spa heaven.
But really… with all this seeming decadence, how can this place embrace responsible tourism? All that space? What of the waste, the apparent epic use of water? Gallons of greenwashing, surely.
But that’s what THRILLS us about this lovely African safari wayside… it’s anything but.
Follow us to the back stage and the surrounding community – you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Manyara Ranch – Tanzania (African Wildlife Foundation), Part II: Nine villages, one success story
May 4, 2008
African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) was able to make a sweeping gain for migrating wildlife and local Maasai pastoralists with the establishment of the Tanzanian Land Conservation Trust at the 44,000 acre Manyara Ranch.
The region of Burunge lies just south of Manyara Ranch – another region AWF identified as critical to wildlife migrating between Lake Manyara National Park and Tarangire National Park as well as the region’s overall ecosystem. However, unlike the large, singularly held property at Manyara Ranch, Burunge consists of 9 villages representing about 30,000 residents. AWF faced a new set of challenges getting 9 separate villages to align on conservation-focused management for 60,000 acres of community lands.
Their efforts began with education, engaging key members of the 9 villages and conducting village level seminars regarding the benefits to protecting and promoting their wildlife-rich region as a tourism destination.
AWF worked side by side with the villagers, talking through issues ranging from conservation policies and the benefits of community-based natural resource management to the land-use planning and ultimately the demarcation of designated land for what would become the Burunge Wildlife Management Area (Wildlife Management Area).
The people of the Burunge WMA came out on the side of conservation, moving people and buildings away from key migration areas to minimize human-wildlife conflict, encouraging and protecting the ready flow of animals through their region. Two short years later, the Burunge WMA now benefits from more than 50% of the income generated from operations of two new safari lodges, the Maramboi Tented Lodge and Lake Burunge Tented Lodge, monies that are distributed to the 9 WMA member villages, supporting numerous community development projects including health services and the construction of 3 schools.
The region now has more than 40 village game scouts who’ve received formal vocational training. Game scouts coordinate anti-poaching and wildlife monitoring patrols, promoting conservation outreach among the nine WMA villages with an overall effect of encouraging positive attitudes toward wildlife conservation amongst local residents and reducing poaching.
In a tidy room on the roadside in Mwada, the speaker and representatives of the nine member villages in the Burunge WMA educated us on their organization’s history and programs, after which they inquired earnestly as to what we in the United States have done to achieve our successes in conservation. Well, we’ve set aside lands for parks. That’s good, right?
And then I considered the myriad species and habitats we have sent to the brink or straight into extinction in our brief 200+ years as a country and the irony of our giving conservation advice to people who have lived in this region for thousands of years without a parking lot, shopping mall or subdivision gracing their landscape. Their lack of our western concept of “progress” has kept their skies filled with birds, elephants and buffalo lumbering through their crops – inconvenient neighbors but not subject to annihilation for the affront.
We told them that we were, in fact, here to learn from them – people who haven’t been raised believing they were supposed to blow more than their share of the earth’s finite natural resources. The WMA members had opted in to save and protect their resources before they were too far gone, giving them a more rewarding return on their efforts.
One of countless lessons from Africa: On occasion, progress defies its own definition.
Manyara Ranch – Tanzania (African Wildlife Foundation), Part I: Kids, cows and cultural exchange give wildlife a hall pass
May 4, 2008
The story of our visit to Tanzania with African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) cannot begin to be told without an unjustly short overview of the Maasai in this region.
Among the most readily-recognized ethnic groups in Africa due to their distinct dress, fierce adherence to their traditional ways and residence adjacent to national parks, the Maasai are a pastoralist society with an aversion to hunting birds and game animals. In a historic context (some might say to their demise), the Maasai were de facto conservationists and their lands have held the richest wildlife populations. Maasai land was appropriated wholesale and turned the region’s most significant wildlife preserves and national parks: Amboseli, Nairobi National Park, Maasai Mara, Samburu, Lake Nakuru, and Tsavo in Kenya; Manyara, Ngorongoro, Tarangire and Serengeti in Tanzania.
Conservative by tradition and skeptical from having their remarkably well-preserved land appropriated by the government, the Maasai remain significant stakeholders in land dealings near the national parks, the wellness of their communities mirror Tanzania’s challenge to balance conservation and needs of local residents.
One of the most significant projects on the Maasai Steppe in Northern Tanzania is the Manyara Ranch and the establishment of the Tanzanian Land Conservation Trust (TCLT).
Think of a figure 8. Put a square in the center and shade it in grey. The upper section of the 8 is Lake Manyara National Park. The lower section is Tarangire National Park. The grey square is Manyara Ranch, which until recently, was privately held land.
As one might suspect, wildlife in Africa is no more gifted than wildlife elsewhere… they don’t understand property lines and Manyara Ranch’s location is an obvious corridor for animal migration between the two parks. Established in the 40s as a cattle ranch, the owner willed the property to the government when he passed in the 60′s. Ensuing private lessees ran sub par businesses (and were not exactly stellar land stewards). The Tanzanian government reclaimed the area, at a crossroads as to what to do with the property.
Recognizing it as a critical wildlife corridor directly affecting wildlife in two significant national parks, the AWF spearheaded the formation of Tanzania Land Conservation Trust (the first trust of its kind in eastern Africa) and the acquisition of Manyara Ranch.
Their accomplishments since the establishment of the TLCT:
- Manyara Ranch had long operated a primary school to educate ranch employee children (the majority of whom were Maasai). TLCT recognized several issues with the school including the inevitable human/wildlife conflict in having a school in a key wildlife corridor, not to mention the Ranch school’s profoundly dilapidated and overcrowded conditions in both classrooms and dormitories. The TLCT has built a new facility outside the wildlife corridor. To give an example of the enhancements – each child now has their own bunk, formerly packed together with 4 children to a single bunk. Overcrowding is an understatement of former conditions and the improvement is marked.
The Maasai deal in cows. They are cash, status and subject of constant conversation, but traditional pastoralist society hasn’t been completely in step with leveraging their assets for the modern day market. Ironically, in this cattle filled land, much of the beef provided in high-end restaurants is imported from Kenya and South Africa due to a dearth of high quality, reliable local beef processors and distributors. The AWF aims to change that and has established a series of projects to improve the financial rewards to the Maasai for raising livestock:
- Creation of a livestock feedlot at Manyara Ranch to improve cattle health and yield, providing education in key sale ages of livestock.
- Acreage set aside on the ranch for local Maasai to use for grazing during drought.
- Construction of a local abattoir (sexy French name for the unsexy English word “slaughterhouse”) and teaching Maasai about the increased profitability of processing younger, healthier cows inside Tanzania instead of shipping their herds to neighboring countries with a fraction of the financial reward.
In addition, AWF worked with local Maasai women to create of the Isilalei Cultural Boma, a women-run cultural tourism destination that is an income generating pursuit that educates visitors to Maasai lifestyles and traditions.
And while the aforementioned is very factual, it’s a rather boring description. We visited Isilalei. Our introduction to the women of the boma (village) was striking… greeted by a large group of tall, deeply black, beautiful women of varied ages, heads shaved, children wrapped ‘round their backs, ears and necks heavy with jewelry, bodies swathed in rich reds and radiant indigo. Standing 3 feet away with no shared language between us, I am certain that they stared at me with my pink skin, tee shirt and floppy hat in similar wonder, my visage as strange to them as theirs to me.
They welcomed us with dance, song, tours of their homes and herds, cups of tea. As the boys shot footage, I approached a group of women and children. A woman with a child on her back put a traditional thick Maasai necklace around my neck. I did an attempted rendition of their jumping dance that evoked laughter… one woman stood at my shoulder and sang the tune as I bounced and shrugged my shoulders… the children reeled. Formality falling away, the women came closer and we admired each other’s accoutrements, inspecting ear piercings, footwear and jewelry… something I suppose we women instinctually do wherever we land.
Support, education, exposure and elevation for the Maasai – just a small portion of the great things that AWF is doing in Africa… next stop, Wildlife Management Areas.