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THURSDAY 26 FEBRUARY 2015 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741 inside Geneva CAMPUS • Concert pianist Jie Chen Motor Show visits Compass International School Madinat Khalifa debuts P | 4 P | 10 FOOD • Mozzarella in 40 minutes: Not a stretch No more than 16 visitors are allowed at any time on Chumbe P | 7 Island, off the coast of Tanzania. The tiny island is owned by a FILM private nonprofit that uses tourism • Oscars 2016: And to support the protection of its next year’s awards spectacular reef, home to hundreds will go to… of fish and coral species. P | 8-9 HEALTH • Timely meals, early to bed can prevent mental illness P | 11 TECHNOLOGY • iRobot Roomba 880: A vacuum cleaner that’s almost a pet P | 12 TOURISM FOR A LEARN ARABIC • Learn commonly used Arabic words CAUSE and their meanings P | 13 2 PLUS | THURSDAY 26 FEBRUARY 2015 COVER STORY Off the Zanzibar coast, Chumbe Island champions marine conservation By Paige McClanahan All of this we learned during our first briefing with members of Chumbe’s t first, the island was just a staff, just after we got off the boat. We blur on the horizon; a low, and the other guests — some of whom gray smudge on which I fixed were visiting for the day, others, like Amy gaze in the hopes of keep- us, overnight — piled onto brightly col- ing myself from losing my breakfast oured sofas on the veranda of Chumbe’s over the side of the boat. The morning main building, a high-ceilinged struc- mist had turned to rain, and the steely ture made of local timber and coconut blue swells outside our wooden vessel leaves that serves as restaurant, visi- were getting bigger as we cruised away tors center and head office. from Zanzibar, the island from which In line with its status as a conser- we were venturing even further afield. vation area, Chumbe has some strict We were heading toward Chumbe, a rules, we were told. A maximum of 16 sliver of coral reef and jungle that sits guests are allowed on the island at any in the Indian Ocean about 20 miles off time. Fishing and scuba diving are both the coast of mainland Tanzania. The forbidden, as is shell collecting, which island has no roads, no power lines and I admit I was slightly disappointed to fewer than a dozen buildings; it covers hear. But we were actively encouraged an area of 54 acres, about one-third to explore the reef the old fashioned the size of Washington, DC’s Mall. But, way: with flippers and a snorkel. small as it may be, Chumbe is breaking And so we did — at least half a dozen ground in marine conservation. The times during our stay. On our first ven- island was going to be our home for the ture into the water, I stuck close to next three days, and I (and my stom- our guide, who introduced himself as ach) couldn’t wait to get there. Matata, since I figured he would know By the time our guide turned off the where to find everything good. But I boat’s engine, the sun had emerged didn’t need any guidance, it turned out. and the ocean had transformed into As soon as I stuck my head under- a peaceful lagoon that shimmered water, I was face to face with a maze of a miraculous shade of turquoise. corals that were branching, ballooning, Following the half-dozen other pas- or just waving in the gentle current. It sengers off the boat, my husband and felt like I was swimming through an I jumped into knee-deep water and underwater botanical garden, with the waded the few yards to the shore, tak- coral flowers blooming salmon pink, ing care not to step on the shells that mustard yellow, a deep maroon. And littered the sand. then there were the fish. Schools of And there we were: Chumbe, said glimmering damselfish hung lazily in to be the world’s first privately man- the water — so tame that I could almost aged marine protected area and still swim into them. Matata pointed out the only one in Africa. Being private, sea cucumbers, angelfish, sea urchins Chumbe doesn’t get any government and an octopus, and I spotted a neon- money; its conservation work is funded flecked stingray gliding along the sea- by the visitors, like us, who come to the floor. It was another world, and I was island to relax and get a close-up look happily lost in it, the water so warm I at one of the most pristine coral reefs could have spent hours exploring. in East Africa. PLUS | THURSDAY 26 FEBRUARY 2015 3 known as “coral rag.” The forest is home to 75 tree species, including the storied African baobab, one of which soars majestically above the otherwise low canopy. We learned about local fauna, including a (nonvenomous) lime- green tree snake and the 16-inch coconut crab, the world’s largest land-dwelling arthropod. In the evenings, we wandered back to our seaside bungalow to relax and shower before dinner, a generous buffet heavy on seafood and spices. Shaped like a giant, upside-down clam and constructed of the same local timber and coconut leaves as the main building, our little house was straight out of “Swiss Family Robinson.” Like everything else on the island, Chumbe’s bungalows — which use only solar power, have pit latrines and harvest rainwa- ter for the showers and sink — were designed to minimize any environmental impacts. It seemed perfectly fitting that we shared our little jungle cottage with a clutch of hermit crabs that had set up house under the front steps. It’s all in keeping with what Kloiber describes as a “green line” that runs through everything that’s done on Chumbe — the fundamental commitment to conservation that underlies how the project was designed and how it con- tinues to be run. Conservation is their focus, but tourism is their lifeblood, Kloiber tells me. “The engines of the project are really the guests,” Kloiber says. “As long as the eco-tourism is working, it’s a self-sustaining project.” WP-Bloomberg At one point, a sharp tap on my reefs anymore because there are communities to educate them shoulder made me jump. I turned hardly any left,” Ulli Kloiber, about the reef and its inhabitants. to see Matata jabbing his finger into Chumbe’s manager of conserva- They soon started to reach out to the hazy blue distance. I squinted tion and education, told me during local high schools, inviting students through my snorkel mask but saw a chat on the veranda of the main to the island at no cost to learn only light and shadow. building. about the reef, and experience it “Did you see it?” he said, resur- The waters around Chumbe were firsthand. Both of those outreach facing with a splutter a moment still relatively untouched when the programmes are still active, with later. “The shark! It was just over protected area was established in all of the work funded by tourists’ there.” the mid-’90s, Kloiber explained. visits. It was a blacktip reef shark, The Tanzanian military had owned “At the beginning, of course, it Matata later explained, a species the island for a time but hadn’t was quite tough, because the fish- that is apparently fairly common made much use of it. Otherwise, ing communities had no idea what along the East African coast. He Chumbe had simply been a stop- a marine protected area was or assured me that the sharks didn’t off point for fishermen trolling the what the benefits [of conservation] pose a threat to humans. But waters between the mainland and were,” said Kloiber, adding that still, the idea of sharing the water Zanzibar, a semiautonomous region there isn’t even a word for “coral” with such a predator gave me the of Tanzania; the island’s lack of in the local language of Swahili. shivers. fresh water kept away any poten- Chumbe’s staff also act as watch- It didn’t scare us away, though; tial long-term inhabitants. The dogs, reporting any fishing to the we were back for more later in the only buildings were a lighthouse authorities in Zanzibar, and offend- afternoon. There was just so much and a small mosque that had been ers are either fined or forced to If You Go: to see. built by British colonisers around hand over their fishing gear. They Indeed, the 74-acre protected the turn of the 20th century. still spot poachers about four or five Where to stay: area is home to more than 400 spe- So setting up the conservation times each year, Kloiber tells me, Chumbe Island Coral Park cies of fish and 200 species of hard area was relatively straightfor- but that’s much less frequent than Chukwani Road coral — 90 percent of the marine ward, Kloiber told me — the island it used to be. Chumbe Island, Zanzibar biodiversity that can be found in was pretty much empty. Today, Indeed, after two decades of con- 011-255-242-231-040 all of East Africa. The managers Chumbe’s educational and conser- servation work, Chumbe’s reef is www.chumbeisland.com of Chumbe have worked hard to vation activities are managed by now one of the best protected in the Eco-bungalows, Afro-Indian cuisine, and protect their little patch of ocean, Chumbe Island Coral Park Ltd, a region.

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