Did you know on the World’s highest free-standing mountain Mount Kilimanjaro is located in Tanzania, Africa, close to the border of Kenya, and is typically recognized as being the tallest free-standing mountain in the world. The mountain is located at a latitude of -3.065653, and longitude of 37.352013, and stands at a height of 5,895m. It is a large dormant volcano positioned in Kilimanjaro National Park, and attracts around 35,000 tourists annually, whose aim is to climb this landmark. Kilimanjaro region has a population of over 1,641,000 people, in which typically speak Swahili as their native language. The Tanzanian population relies heavily on tourism and agriculture as their main employment and source of income. Job roles such as farming, porters, tour guides, head guides, chief guides, and cooks, all rely on tourism into the region to provide a source of income, which is then distributed amongst their families and into the community to protect livelihoods.

To help protect Mt. Kilimanjaro there are a number of rules and regulations that must be adhered to when entering Tanzania and Kilimanjaro National Park. One of the main rules when climbing Kilimanjaro is climbers must have a trained guide with them and must follow one of the designated routes as stated by the National Park guidelines. Government guidelines and tour guides also inform tourists of environmental rules and regulations such as, soft/singleuse plastics, alcohol and cigarettes not being permitted on the mountain.

Another rule tourists must follow includes not leaving any trace of litter behind on Mt. Kilimanjaro. Kilimanjaro National Park highlights the phrase, ‘Garbage in, garbage out’. Tourists are not to remove anything that belongs to the mountain such as natural resources as a ‘souvenir’, as this damages the landscape overtime. Tanzania introduced a regulation in 2019 to ban plastic bags entering Tanzania, with exception to the ziplock toiletry bags which tourists may possess from their flight, however must stay with the person and not be discarded of within the destination. Desks are situated at Tanzanian airports, to deposit any plastic bags to later be disposed of.