Ecotourism About Eco Travel
Book Review: Slow Travel by Mari Rhydwen
Slow Travel by Mari Rhydwen
Allen & Unwin, 2004
If, like me, you’re constantly thinking of packing it all in to travel the world, read this book at your peril because you might end up doing just that.
And it’s exactly what author Mari Rhydwen and her husband, Allen, did. They sold their home in Western Australia, bought a yacht and set sail on a voyage around the Indian Ocean for three years, stopping at various islands and ports that few will ever visit.
Slow Travel is a journey of discovery and reveals in great detail how wonderful it is to shake loose the shackles of the everyday rat race and dive head long into your dreams.
Date: January 13th, 2008 |
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New Solution to Deforestation in Sumatra’s Rainforests
Due to the world’s demands for palm oil, timber and pulp an area the size of 300 football pitches is felled every hour in the rainforests of Sumatra.
Commercial loggers seek out Sumatra’s highly prized Dipterocarp, a hardwood tree, which fetches a princely sum on the international market. Then, illegal loggers move in to compete for the best of the leftovers, locals clear land for farming or development and sometimes areas are burned to clear undergrowth, frequently causing catasrophic fires, so that new companies can set up palm oil or commercial pulpwood plantations.
Few give a second thought to the consequences of this mass clearing. Certainly not those of us who use cosmetics every day, paper to write on or demand the best wooden flooring in their bespoke designed house. Now the lowland forests of Sumatra are regarded as some of the most threatened in the world.
Date: January 8th, 2008 |
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Best Eco Travel Guidebooks for 2008
If you want to travel responsibly but aren’t quite sure how to go about it or where to go, check out Eco Travel’s choice of guidebooks for the coming year.
Green Places to Stay, Alastair Sawday
This holiday handbook lists ‘inspiring places striving to be environmentally and socially responsible’. Including tree houses in rainforests, Fairtrade tented camps, eco chic hotels and down-to-earth B&Bs, the illustrated guide covers 160 places in 50 countries making it a great guide for planning trips at home and abroad.
$21.95, Globe Pequot Press; £13.99, Alastair Sawday Publishing
100 Animals to See Before They Die, Nick Garbutt
Bradt Travel publishes some stonker books and this one is no exception; 100 Animals to See Before They Die should be on everyone’s bookshelf. No, stroke that, it should be in everyone’s backpack in preparation for their next big animal adventure abroad, before it’s too late.
£16.99, Bradt Travel
Green Travel: The World’s Best Eco-Lodges & Earth-Friendly Hotels, Fodor’s
Oh, to have been a researcher on this book. This eco guide features 100 green getaways around the world that work to support local communities. It discusses some of the ethics behind eco travel and everything from budget beds to sumptuous stopovers are listed, along with their green credentials, so it’s a great all-round guide.
$25.00, Random House (Not available until April 2008)
Date: December 30th, 2007 |
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New National Park for Sierra Leone
Troubled Sierra Leone is discovering that tourism beats logging.
Until recently, residents of the Gola Forest, in Sierra Leone, made money by letting their land to loggers resulting in the area becoming endangered.
In a drive to stop logging and increase tourism the government have allocated an area of 75 sq km, which is home to chimpanzees, forest buffalo and leopards, to create a new national park. Locals are to be compensated for the money they would have made from logging via a trust fund to …
Date: December 21st, 2007 |
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The Japanese culture of whaling and sashimi
Whaling has been popular in Japan for centuries and in recent times the country has been asked to explain their questionable fishing habits. Those involved in whaling claim it’s all done in the name of research, and to make sure no one thinks any differently they have the word ‘RESEARCH’ emblazoned on the side of their whaling ships.
The idea is to determine a sustainable level of whaling. So, why is it then that after decades of research they are no further forward in the knowledge of minke whale management?
Enviromental activists such as Greenpeace are struggling to ban the practice as it’s thought the whales are killed purely for their meat.
This begs the question for all you eco travellers who’ve been dreaming of visiting Japan for several years and are partial to a slice of sashimi… would you eat whale? After all, tuna is bordering on the endangered list but it still ends up travelling round every sushi bar conveyor belt.
Date: November 26th, 2007 |
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Plans to Travel Asia? Bring Your Own Chopsticks
If you’re jetting off to Japan, make sure you pack an extra pair of chopsticks.
Every year, the average Japanese person chucks 200 pairs of disposable chopsticks. With 127 million people living in the country that’s a whopping 25.4 billion sets in total per year – or the equivalent to 90,000 tonnes of wood.
Japan has already outlawed the production of chopsticks within their own country and instead have them imported from China where it’s reported they’re made mostly from bamboo or timber that would otherwise be discarded. Or is it a move to shift the effects of mass logging to another country? A country where around 45 billion sets of chopsticks are made therefore must surely have some impact on deforestation.
But it’s when the chopsticks are used only once that the use of disposable chopsticks becomes a crying shame.
Date: January 8th, 2008 |
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Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Home to Africa’s Mountain Gorillas
In a desperate attempt to save Africa’s dwindling wildlife from poachers, ranger John Kahekwa of the Congo’s Kahuzi-Biega National Park set up a community-based conservation programme in the hope of encouraging ecotourism.
Originally a tracker at the park, Kahekwa was responsible for taming lowland gorillas, in a way. He would ‘habituate’ them to the presence of humans so tourists could visit and became so successful that he could eventually pick out and name around 155 animals. He now looks after 600,000 hectares of prime mountain forest on the east side of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has been recognised as a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1980 and more unfortunately as a World Heritage Site in Danger since 1997.
As local populations grew the fine line between people and animals became less distinct. Traps laid for game sometimes trapped gorillas and other animals and poaching was rife. ‘Keep Out’ signs were ignored and when, in 1993, Maheshe, the adult silverback depicted in blockbuster movie Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey, was killed there was wide-spread agreement that Kahuzi-Biega was just not working as a wildlife reserve.
Date: January 2nd, 2008 |
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Tourism Concern Works with Tsunami Survivors
The Tsunami of 2004 was the biggest natural disaster in modern history. Coastal communities across Asia were devastated, many loosing their relatives, homes, villages and livelihoods. Since then survivors have been slowly rebuilding their lives and have relied on tourists coming back into tsunami affected areas, adding much needed cash to the local economy.
Unfortunately tourism also adds to their problems. While many of the displaced of Sri Lanka and India are yet to be rehoused, there are plans for tourist developments on prime real estate positions which means the locals may …
Date: December 22nd, 2007 |
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Eco Travel Forum at Bootsnall
Check out who’s saying what over at the Eco Travel Forum at Bootsnall:
Most people recycle, some are even quite pedantic about it when they’re on their own home patch but what about when they’re travelling? Everett is running a poll to find out just how many people recycle on the road.
It’s getting closer to the festive season, a time when hard earned travelling coffers are drained so discover other traveller’s green pressie ideas and save some money into the bargain.
What are your feelings on travelling and pollution? Over a year ago, Lost76 asked, “Do you feel responsible …
Date: December 10th, 2007 |
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Global Warming - The Day The Question Mark Vanished
That’s how the scientists in Paris today are presenting their results. It’s time to stop debating whether or not humans are affecting the global climate system, and start working together to minimize the damage — to ecosystems and to ourselves and to the humans of the future.
You can listen to the Paris press conference, or download the 21-page executive summary, at this IPCC site. “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and …
Date: February 2nd, 2007 |
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