Illegal fishing, unscrupulous divers and pleasure craft dropping anchors are all issues facing the fragile seascapes which hold a diverse range of plants and animals. Increasingly the dive community is taking action to help preserve these ecosystems.

The Posidonia Pipefish is one such animal which has suffered recently. Living a camouflaged life in Posidonia Seagrass meadows, they have been suffering from the loss of the plants which support them. Recent fishing controls in the Mediterranean were hoped to reduce the loss of this ecosystem, however increasing numbers of pleasure craft are dropping their anchors and destroying the Posidonia meadows.

Divers are trying to help protect the species through research and awareness raising. You can see a full article here - Divers help protect the Posidonia Pipefish, with further links where you can find additional information.

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We recently received a thought provoking guest article on whether volunteering in local communities is a force for good. Whilst the intentions of the voluntourist are undoubtedly good, the effects on the local community may not be so obvious at first. 

This article looks at whether volunteers become a financial transaction, whether the transient nature of voluntourists really benefits communities and projects in the long term, and if larger numbers of visitors have an overall negative impact on the area.

We think it's an interesting piece, and would welcome your comments.

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Ethical adventure consumers rejoice. Ok, you may not save the world in one shopping frenzy, but you can certainly help.

We are delighted to announce a partnership between ourselves, Ellis Brigham - the UK’s leading independent outdoor sports retailer, and the Geotourism Development Foundation - a newly formed UK and US charity that provides funding to community tourism projects in the developing world.

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Conservation’s Dirty Secrets, Oliver Steeds' recent documentary for Channel 4 Dispatches, certainly provoked reaction and, whatever else you may say about the production, it definitely provides food for thought. If you have not seen it yet, I suggest you do.  You can watch it here.

We were shown how, while global conservation charities have been very successful at getting us emotionally attached to the world’s ‘prettier’ animals and raising funds, their actual conservation theories and methods leave plenty to be desired. Fast forward to the end, and the huge potential for ‘go local’ tourism to be an engine of conservation is made very clear.

Give local communities a real value and ownership in protecting their ecosystem, and of course they will. Alienate them and treat them as part of the problem, and you just end up with more problems. Nothing new in this theory, but perhaps finally it is starting to sink in. Now if only ‘go local’ travel can get off the ground in a more widespread fashion.

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Carbon offsetting is widely agreed to have many problems, and so we have been working closely together to bring travellers a muchbetter alternative. Finally, it is ready.

With the innovative carbon calculator you can accurately calculate the carbon footprint of your last journey, be it by plane, train, car, bus, boat, or even a combination of all of them. If you want to take action to counter balance your emissions, it will suggest a donation that you can make to The Converging World.

Donating to TCW brings carbon savings and social benefits above and beyond the traditional offsetting schemes available. Quite simply, your money goes further and works harder.

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To all at Eco Club,

Join Us in the battle to uncover the local gems, and support ethical local businesses.

We recently launched a campaign to encourage people to share suggestions of great local, ethical businesses they know about. If you have not yet done so, we would love to have your input. You can add it here: www.muchbetteradventures.com/joinus

We add all suggestions to the site for free so others can get straight in touch. We'll check them out ourselves, reward the most ethical (or 'muchbetter', if you will) with featured free profiles, and offer sustainability consultancy to help others start on the road to muchbetter-hood.

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Katrina from Alaska Ultra Sport introduces us to the wild wonders of the Alaskan wilderness, and exposes the numerous threats to these areas from mining. Perhaps a good adventure can help save the day?

"When I first came to Alaska in 1996 I fell in love with this huge wild place. I moved to Alaska permanently from Germany in 2002 and have since guided people from all over the world into Alaska’s vast wilderness on multi-day hiking, rafting and kayaking trips. Alaska is one of those rare places in the world where true wilderness can still be found. Adventure and exploration in Alaska, paddling down rivers and hiking through remote mountain ranges, is all still possible without seeing another soul. Alaska is one fifth the size of the entire United States, and it contains two thirds of the land protected in the US national park system. Healthy populations of bears, moose, caribous, wolves and fish, salmon in particular, can be found here. Yet even at the beginning of the 21st century harsh climate and topography has kept Alaska’s population under a million. Half of them live just on the edge of the wilderness in Alaska’s largest city: Anchorage. Many remote villages are not connected by a road system. People in remote villages and towns live a subsistence lifestyle. 

Over 1,5 Million tourists (that’s 1.5 tourists per resident) come to Alaska every year to experience this last frontier and the wildlife, mountains, rivers and glaciers. These wild lands and untouched places we experience today could be gone in the future. Ongoing and proposed mining projects supported by multi national companies are threatening wildlife, fish, water quality, air quality, and a way of life. The state of Alaska has never shut down a mine despite of multiple violations of permits by some of the mining operations. Alaska has no law to protect water quality. Alaska's mining projects are remote and far away from the road system and most people have never heard of them. As you will see, the impact of them on the incredible Alaskan wilderness, even the National Parks, is very real.

Donlin Creek Gold Mine is a mining prospect near the famous Iditarod Trail – home of the worlds’ longest winter Ultra race – 350 or 1100 miles unsupported across the ice and snow of Alaska, from Knik, just north of Anchorage, to McGrath, then on to Nome. So far the mine has been in its exploration phase. Open pit mining could last for 25 years leaving toxic waste in the remote roadless area not far from the Kuskokwim River. They have been looking into building pipelines to power the mines, which would change the Iditarod Trail forever, as this recent report suggests.

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Not so much an ‘adventure with purpose’ as a ‘set of adventures with a common purpose’ this month. Everyone has heard of the Annapurna trail, Mount Everest and other Himalayan hotspots, which draw thousands of trekkers and mountaineers to Nepal every year. Well, now there is a new trail in development which is likely to go straight to the top of many an adventurers to do list, and the people behind it hope it will to spread the benefits of trekking tourism to little visited regions of the Himalayas.  

The Great Himalaya trail, a feature of Nepal Tourism Year 2011, is set to be the longest and highest alpine walking tracks in the world. Winding it’s way through 4500kms of the world’s highest peaks and most remote communities, it links five Asian countries: Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Pakistan. We catch up with some of the trail blazers behind early expeditions to find out more about what’s going on.

Robin Boustead on researching the trail.

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Both Sky and BBC news recently featured reports of an Everest clean up expedition where “20 people braved the dangerous "death zone" conditions of Mount Everest” to clear the peak of rubbish left behind by climbers. Sky news calls Everest the “world’s highest dump”, with “more than 4,000 adventurers having scaled the peak since 1953.” The reports also featured a video of the trash collection by tourism officials in Nepal. Extreme Everest Expedition 2010, led by Namgyal Sherpa, went above the 8,000-metre mark to collect empty oxygen bottles, gas canisters, torn tents, ropes and utensils. The expedition grabbed the attention of the media as this was the first team to venture into the thin air and freezing temperatures of the so-called death zone.
There have been many expeditions to clean up Everest over the years. Just how dirty is Everest and does it really need such massive clean up operations? Or are these expeditions just a way for people to raise the finance for their Everest climb? And what actually happens to the waste? Katy Dartford takes a look at the issues involved.

How dirty?

Himalayan expedition and trek leader Roland Hunter, who runs The Mountain Company, says Everest is actually relatively clean these days. “Most gear left over by expeditions such as abandoned tents and used O bottles will be brought down by Sherpa’s for resale. Most expeditions bring all rubbish down with them at the end and all toilet waste is brought down in barrels from Base Camp. There are also many liaison officers from Nepal government who will check Everest Base Camp, if they are not happy then the team will not receive their environmental bond back.”

Hunter argues that “the real scandal is the amount rubbish at the other 8,000m base camps in Nepal such as Makalu and Dhaulagiri, places that don’t catch the eye of the BBC or Sky news.” Caroline Letrange who runs “Reach Summit”, another company running Everest expeditions, agrees; “We pay a huge tax to Nepalese authorities that is only refunded when we bring back all our rubbish, included human waste, so that we don’t contaminate the glacier's water to villages downstream. Cylinders are sometimes left nowadays but only in extreme situations as a single cylinder cost around 420 dollars.”
Eight-time Everest summiter, Kenton Cool, has had more experience than most of what it’s like on each of the Camps on Everest. “My experience is only on the South Side and most clean ups are held there.  Base camp is actually very clean and tidy, Camp 1 and the ice fall are not too bad as at camp 1 new snow comes down and covers the trash. “He says it’s from then onwards that things get worse. “ Camp 2 at 6400m is a bit of grim really and it’s got a lot worse this year.” He explains that “ at end of 2009 a sudden severe storm came in and a number of teams had to get off the mountain quickly and couldn’t get back on to clear the camp out.  There are bits of tent, kettles, pots and pans, Kerosene, Mars bar wrappers and human waste. It's got significantly worse in the last few years.”

The Extreme Everest Expedition 2010 team were trying to clean rubbish form Camp 4. This ground above 8000m is the death zone and the highest camp. “It is a filthy place with pots, pans and tents, from both commercial and non commercial expeditions” says Kenton. So is it excusable to leave waste behind? “Possibly not, just because its 8000 meters up rubbish shouldn’t just be dumped. But it is logistically harder to get your rubbish down and you may not be fit enough to do it, so is it more excusable than the mess at camp 2. There are also some bodies up there and it’s a big operation to bring them down.”

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Over the last two years Fieldskills, an adventure travel operator in Borneo, has considerably developed its rigging arm through Ropeskills Rigging, a specialist rope access provider working mainly on film and TV projects but also supporting canopy science in the tropical forests.  In the last few weeks however they’ve been working on a highly unusual but rewarding rigging job, building bridges for orangutans in the fragile Kinabatangan wildlife reserve, Malaysia.

The wildlife reserve is bordered by plantations so the orangutans (and many other species) cannot cross the many tributaries to move along the river. Genetic mix is extremely important for the continuance of a robust population of orangutans and while small populations become isolated this is not possible.

Conservation research has shown that by providing special bridges made from fire hoses, the orangutans can migrate along the river to find mates and dietary variety with relative ease. Camera traps placed on these bridges have shown them to be successful and a full-scale operation is under way to install the orangutan bridges the whole length of the reserve in Malaysia

"It takes a while for the orangutans and other animals to get used to it. ... If we are not able to reconnect them, they will go extinct very soon," said Marc Ancrenaz , co-founder of French-based conservation group Hutan, which is working with Malaysian state wildlife department officials on orangutan protection.

Conservationists estimate about 11,000 orangutans live in Malaysia's Sabah state in Borneo, but many are isolated from each other because swaths of forest have been cut for development, logging and oil palm plantations.

Hutan estimates the number of orangutans in Sabah has decreased eight-fold in the past 15 years, though conservation efforts in recent times have slowed the decline.

Dom from Fieldskills has this to say: ‘It has been a great project for us to be involved in, working with the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), non-governmental organisation HUTAN, Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) and Borneo Conservation Trust Japan.  Since starting Fieldskills we have always looked for ways to combine our adventure holidays, training and rigging skills to make a living whilst supporting local conservation efforts and the people of Borneo.  It was very rewarding to put our skills to such good use working on such an important conservation project. ‘

DGFC director Dr Benoit Goossens said similar orangutan conservation bridges would be set up at tributaries in the vicinity of DGFC following a survey carried out by HUTAN last year which identified sites suitable for bridge construction to alleviate the issues of orangutan population fragmentation.

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