About Us
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Mission
To change attitudes, people and communities through responsible tourism
Vision
To link tourism, conservation and communities for sustainable development through awareness creation, networking and promotion of best practices in responsible tourism
Core Values
We are passionate; We value people; We are partners; We use nature's resources to the fullest potential
Our story
Metropolitan Infrastructure Development Limited (MIDL) promotes Ecotourism through Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the governments of Nigeria and other West African countries. Ecotourism enables the sustainable exploitation of natural resources. The conservation of the environment and natural resources has been hampered by lack of funding from government. The PPP will develop the required infrastructure that will enable ecotourism to be introduced and sustained.
Sustainable Ecotourism Development Initiative is the implementation arm of MIDL. SEDINT achieves its goals through Advocacy, Lobbying, Market Development, Community Sensitisation and Infrastructure Development. The most important outcomes of the activities of SEDINT are Conservation of natural resources, including the flora and fauna; Empowerment of Communities through Skills Acquisition and Poverty Alleviation; and Infrastructure development.
The objectives of Sustainable Ecotorism Development Initiative are to:
- Stimulate activities and investments of the private sector to promote sustainable tourism by demonstrating the benefits and opportunities of particular management practices, and the impacts of sustainable tourism initiatives
- Stimulate activities and investments of the private sector to promote sustainable tourism by demonstrating the benefits and opportunities of particular management practices, and the impacts of sustainable tourism initiatives
- Create destinations for nature-based tourism in a manner that is not harmful to the environment
Public Private Partnership
Sustainable Ecotourism Development Initiative will use Public Private Partnership (PPP) to develop infrastructure for ecotourism development and promotion.
A PPP is a long-term contract between a private party and a government entity, for providing a public asset or service, in which the private party bears significant risk and management responsibility and remuneration is linked to performance.
SEDINT is ready to partner with government and other organisations in developing the basic infrastructure to support ecotourism. Some of the outcomes that are envisaged are:
- Empowerment and funding of a secretariat of experts to work in the fields of natural resource management, community development and tourism
- Development of a participatory planning programme involving all stakeholders
- Review of transportation corridors that are necessary to develop ecotourism. These will include, but are not limited to road and trail systems, small scale river transportation systems and small aircraft access. The empahsis in all this is to preserve the environment
- Development of a community programme to develop community participation
- Development of a visitor information programme
- Development of finance mechanisms for the development of small ecolodges
The strategic goal of Sustainable Ecotourism Development Initiative is to promote responsible tourism practices that conserves the natural environment while at the same time improving livelihoods of associated communities.
This is enhanced through the following:
- Development and implementation of Industry Standards and Best Practices
- Increased awareness and sharing of information on quality and compliant tourism sites, products and services
- Nurturing of appropriate leadership skills, knowledge and attitude in responsible tourism
- Strengthening of the ecotourism organisations’ capacity for conservation and sustainability
- Improvement of community tourism enterprises
Environmental Policy
Our policy is to ensure incorporation of sound environmental and social practices in new and existing tourism enterprises. We seek to increase recognition of environmental and social issues in the development of tourism in West Africa and in all work that we undertake. Toward this end, we intend to remain at the forefront in the implementation of environmental best practices in tourism development, and to promote social responsible practices applicable to tourism. We will empower communities through training, exposure and investment in small industries and other infrastructure.
