The Simien Mountains National Park is an important tourist destination for Ethiopia as it receives an average of 10,000 visitors per year from around the world.
Since 1978, the Park has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List; however, in 1996, it was added to the World Heritage in Danger List due to enormous environmental damage caused by agricultural activities and grazing land expansion.
To provide alternative ways of livelihood to the local community and save the Park from environmental crisis, JICA is implementing "Project for Community Tourism Development through Public-Private Partnership in Simien Mountains National Park and Surrounding Areas (SIMCOT)" .
With key partners, the project aims to benefit the local community through sustainable community tourism, and to remove the the Park from the World Heritage in Danger List. Advise for the Park's land utilization plan and management development plan was given
in cooperation of C.W. Nicol, the first director of the Simien Mountains National Park.

свернуть