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D<\/span>urban, South Africa – The newly launched African Nature-Based Tourism Platform is 8 months into its first year of the three-year project phase. It is an innovative collaboration to channel vital COVID-19 relief and recovery funding to communities and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) involved in nature-based tourism in Africa.<\/p>\n Africa witnessed an estimated 90% drop in international tourism arrivals between April and December of 2020 (UNWTO, 2020). This translated into an estimated loss of $87 billion in revenue, 12.4 million jobs, and between 70-90% of conservation funding<\/strong> (WTTC, 2020).<\/p>\n \u201cThe COVID-19 crisis has crippled economies and industries all over the world, and nature-based tourism has been one of the leading economic casualties. For many African countries, this means a significant loss of funding for their conservation operations, local community livelihoods, and tourism enterprises.\u201d Dr. Nikhil Advani, Project Manager.<\/p>\n In response, with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the African Nature-Based Tourism Platform seeks to connect funders to communities and small and medium enterprises involved in nature-based tourism in 11 African countries.<\/p>\n Launched in April 2021, the platform has now succeeded in conducting over 500 surveys among communities and SMEs across the project focal countries, and data suggests a reduction of 58% of the staff complement across the enterprises surveyed to date.** The surveys are collecting baseline data of how communities and SMEs are involved in nature-based tourism, their financial and staffing situation prior to the COVID-19 crisis, how the pandemic has affected this, and relief and recovery opportunities they are interested in exploring.<\/p>\n In addition, the platform enhances knowledge sharing between relevant stakeholders, seeks to connect potential beneficiaries to funders, facilitates the development of funding proposals from communities and SMEs, and serves as a hub for everyone involved in the sector to share and access information.<\/p>\n