Bogotá, Colombia (23 April 2012)

The local-travel innovators at LARGE minority (LM) (www.largeminority.com) are introducing their unique brand of adventure travel to Colombia. The team has spent over a year researching itineraries that disregard the guidebook "must dos" and bring travellers into Colombian local life.

Under the More Local (www.morelocal.co) banner, the half-Colombian team has launched a menu of trips that get inside the country's high plane (altiplano), coffee region, and Amazon jungle. The trips are designed to be highly experiential, beneficial to local communities, and just plain fun.

Itineraries are filled with details from Colombian daily life. A highlight of the altiplano experience is a hands-on wool workshop where travellers can try sheep shearing and wool spinning alongside local craftsmen. They can join in on a game of tejo, the beer-friendly Colombian equivalent of horseshoes.

On the Quindio coffee tours, travellers sample rural life. They can stay on a sustainable, family farm, try harvesting coffee, and explore the countryside on horseback and classic Willy's jeep.

The Amazon trip takes them across borders and into the heart of the Tikuna indigenous community. Other highlights cycling into Brazil for a cachaça sun downer, taking canoes into Peru, spotting pink river dolphins and catching piranhas to grill.

For LARGE minority's Chief Travel Aficionado, Juan Goicochea: "After more than a decade of learning the ins and outs of the travel trade, it's really exciting to share this knowledge on home turf."

The organized chaos of LM's auto-rickshaw rallies through Sri Lanka and Cambodia has proved a winning combination. "LM managed to strike the perfect balance between organisational rigour and genuine personal adventure," said Chris Orrell after the Lanka Challenge (www.lankachallenge.com).

Driven by the desire to have a positive impact on their locations, LM raise money and support schemes to help the local people and environment wherever they operate. In Colombia, in addition to carbon offsetting, they are setting up a project to provide reliable drinking water for an Amazonian community.

Cynthia Ord does freelance media and communications work for LARGE Minority and a number of other small-scale local travel businesses around the world. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

For more information and interviews, please email press[at]largeminority.com or call +57 320 243 3480.

For logos and pictures, visit http://tinyurl.com/6gg6j9y

Konso, Ethiopia (April 4, 2012) - A 13-day practical and demonstrative Permaculture Design Course (PDC) will take place in Konso, south Ethiopia, from 7th – 19th May, 2012, at Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge. It will have a special focus on the application of permaculture to communities in the developing world. It will involve practical demonstrations both form Strawberry Fields' own model permaculture site and from schools sites in the area which are participating in the Permaculture in Konso Schools Project. There will also be the chance to do field trips into other climate zones in the Ethiopian highlands.

Facilitators: Alex McCausland with local assistant trainer, Asmelash Dagne, and guest appearances from local elders and intellectuals.

Dates: May 7th to 19th, 2011
Location: Konso, South Ethiopia
Venue: Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge
Cost: US$850 ($500 for Ethiopians)
Includes: course fees, food and accommodation for the period of the course
Excludes: Transport, accommodation en-route, travel insurance etc.

The Course

This PDC will be lead by Alex McCausland, Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge's founder and director, assisted by Mr Asmelash Dagne, a local science teacher and trainee trainer who has excelled in implementing permaculture in his school site over the last three years. This PDC is of particular relevance for those interested in rural development and indigenous communities in Africa and the wider 3rd world. The focus is on appropriate technology, soil and water harvesting, indigenous knowledge systems and permaculture in schools. Schools are a key focus point for communities and a chance to influence the coming generation to shift away from the mentality of dependence on aid towards self sufficiency and sustainable resource use.

The Facilitators

Alex McCausland is an ecologist by background, and has developed as a permaculture practitioner and trainer over the last five years. He graduated with a BSc (2.1) in Biological Sciences in 2003 from Oxford University, but at that time became disillusioned with reductionist science and turned his back on academia. He then spent two years to travelling the world, WWOOFing, working on farms and learning about cultures and languages, during which time he became interested in development and food-security issues. In 2005 he heard about Permaculture and realised it combined holistic ecology with the practical action and community orientation that the academic approach completely lacked. 

Asmelash Dagne was one of a group of three primary school teachers first trained in permaculture in March 2009, during the pilot phase of the Permaculture in Konso Schools Project (PKSP), by the veteran Zimabwean trainer and consultant Tichafa Makovere. Asmelash has gone on to excel his peers in enthusiasm and achievement in the field, consistently showing the best results on the ground in his school at Debena Village. He has participated in various workshops and trainings acting as a translator and assistant trainer on PDCs for Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge, as well and the Slow Food Foundation's 1000 Gardens in Africa Project. Since October 2011 Asmelash has been transferred to Karat Konso Secondary School, where he has been single-handedly driving the school community and administration to implement permaculture on their school grounds, and with some success. 

The Venue: Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge (SFEL)

The venue for the PDC will be Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge, the first working PC demonstration site in Ethiopia, where a model design has been established over the last 3½ years on degraded land to incorporate elements such as drip irrigation, grey and black water re-use, composting toilets, hot composting, tree nursery and solar fridge, solar power, solar shower and much more.

SFEL integrates an Eco-Lodge, model PC farm, an organic restaurant, a PC design training facility and runs a program of trekking and community based cultural activities in Konso. SFEL's project objectives are to promote alternative livelihoods for the Konso community through facilitating community inclusion in eco-tourism activities, and to promote food security locally and more widely in Ethiopia, through Permaculture. SFEL employs 20 permanent staff and up to 30 temporary workers seasonally.

Location: Konso, SNNPRS, Ethiopia

Konso Woreda is in the South Ethiopian Great Rift Valley (situated at 5′15′ N 37′30′ E). Konso's capital, Karat-Konso, is at 1600m altitude, located 85km south of Arba Minch, and around 590km south of Addis Ababa. The Konso people have a unique culture, based on sedentary mixed agriculture, which distinguishes them from their neighbours in the lowlands to the east and west who are pastoralists. Their intensely social mode of life and love of hard physical labour is unique in Ethiopia. Their villages are remarkable for the beauty and simplicity of their workmanship, constructed entirely of natural materials, cultivated or gathered from the surroundings, and ringed by massive dry-stone walls, at least a meter thick and two meters high. Stone-lined pavements run between the housing compounds and the stones have often become polished to a shine by long years of service in the village's transport system.

Konso's agricultural system is renowned for its terracing, which has been constructed over large areas of the rugged landscape by centuries of communal labour. The terraces are crafted to balance maximum infiltration of rain water, with adequate drainage in times of deluge so they don't collapse. They are planted with sorghum, intercropped with a range of other species; including trees, Moringa stenopetala (also called the cabbage tree) Terminalia birowni, and Cordia africana; shrubs such as pigeon pea, coffee and chat (Catha edulis) (a cash crop) and annuals including sunflowers, maize, millet, chick peas, various bean species, cotton and cassava. The terraces are fertilised with wastes from the villages including partially burned plant residues mixed with animal dung, which acts to keep the soil fertile.

The Permaculture in Konso Schools Project (PKSP)

Nowadays Konso suffers increasingly frequent food insecurity due to climate change. The UNDP's Rapid Assessment Report: Konso Special Wereda, SNNPR (1999) states that; "since the 1950s, drought induced famines have hit Konso and the immediate area almost once every ten years." "Konso was devastated by the droughts in 1973/74 and 1983/84". In 2008/9 Konso was again suffering food shortage due to droughts.

The PKSP aims to promote permaculture practice in the Konso community as a means of empowering them to address the issue of food insecurity themselves, rather than continually relying on food aid from the other side of the world. Permaculture in this context seeks to preserve aspects of the indigenous (agri)culture which benefit the local ecology but fill gaps in the traditional system by incorporating new practises, ideas and resources to increase production from the same resource base. Since the coming generation always shows the best potential to adapt to new ways of thinking and practicing, working with schools is the most effective way to positively influence the whole society for the future. But, the school community, of course, also encompasses parents and teachers and who are also actively involved in the project along with the school environmental clubs.

To date teachers from 10 schools have been trained in permaculture and produced PC designs for their school compounds. From those, five schools have produced impressive model PC sites under phases one and two of the project. The PKSP is now expanding to include 12 schools and teachers from two more schools: Jarso Primary and Karat Secondary will be trained during this PDC alongside the international participants. Design exercises during the course as well as some of the practical demonstrations will be conducted on the school compounds in Karat and Jarso. By participating on this course you will be directly contributing to the PKSP.

For enquiries and course registrations, please email: info (at) permalodge.org

Visit the Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge Website at http://www.permalodge.org/

"PRESS STATEMENT" by Ecotourism Kenya

Nairobi, Kenya (25 March 2012)

KWS is responsible for Expert's Arrest by Police

Ecotourism Kenya refutes a statement by Kenya Wildlife Service appearing on page 6 of the Daily Nation newspaper, 24th March 2012, stating that Mr. Kahindi Lekalhaile, our Chief Executive Officer was never arrested and quizzed by the Criminal Investigations Department of the Kenya Police over his published opinion that the KWS could have understated the number of elephant killings in Kenya last year.

Mr. Kahindi was released from police custody on cash bail of KSh 30,000 till 9.30am, Thursday 29th March 2012 when he will report back to the police station as instructed by the CID Office. The cash bail period extension was signed last Tuesday morning by the Divisional Criminal Investigations Officer at Langata Police Station in the presence of two investigations officers from Kenya Wildlife Service.

Kenya Wildlife Service has no basis to deny that the arrest of Mr. Kahindi occurred. The police cash bail receipt (which clearly states that Kahindi was arrested for 'undermining the authority of a public officer' i.e. the complainant, KWS Director), together with Mr. Kahindi's statement written in the presence of KWS officers and and the occurrence book record attest to and confirms Kahindi's arrest, interrogation and detention related to a complaint by the KWS Director, Julius Kipngetich about Mr. Kahindi's published opinion. In an article published in the Daily Nation, 21st March 2012, page 36 the Deputy OCS of Langata Police Station confirmed the arrest and the proceedings at the police station.

Ecotourism Kenya still agrees with Mr. Kahindi that last year witnessed one of the worst episodes of ivory poaching in recent times, which may have resulted in the death of hundreds of elephants throughout the country. The gravity of the problem cannot be underestimated. KWS claims that over eight tons of ivory on illegal transit were intercepted in Kenya; there is a possibility that a lot more tonnage was trafficked unnoticed by the wildlife authority. Wildlife poaching was reported frequently in 2011 by KWS, community conservancies and locally-based conservation organizations.

The poaching menace has been continued since the beginning of this year and the situation is growing worse daily, given the high number of poaching incidents reported by KWS and other wildlife stakeholders, including tour operators countrywide. This is a big threat to tourism.

Therefore, it is a fact that Kenya currently has a serious wildlife poaching problem. It's in this realization that Mr. Kahindi candidly expressed his opinion as entitled and enshrined in Kenya's constitution. Kahindi cannot be persecuted or incarcerated for expressing his opinion, albeit different from the KWS Director. Ecotourism Kenya urges KWS to engage Ecotourism Kenya and other stakeholders in addressing the poaching menace, while tolerating, respecting and upholding freedom of speech on the matter.

For further information on this matter, please contact the Ecotourism Kenya Chairman, Mr. Andrew Muigai on tel: 0722600346 or Mr. Kahindi Lekalhaile on 0721-226577.

Mr. Andrew Muigai, 
Chairman, Ecotourism Kenya

Website: www.ecotourismkenya.org

Update - 31 March 2012:

Charge Against Tourism Expert Dropped (Ecotourism Kenya Press Release)

A criminal charge against the Ecotourism Kenya Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Kahindi Lekalhaile was dropped on Thursday morning at 9.30am, 29th March 2012 after KWS withdrew its complaint against the expert. The cash bail was also returned. Mr. Kahindi had been arrested by CID officers from Langata Police Station on Monday, 19th March 2012 following his opinion published in a newspaper article recently that the number of elephant killed in Kenya last year was possibly 10 times more than the official figure stated by the KWS Director, Dr. Julius Kipngetich. His arrest triggered a global outcry by Ecotourism Kenya members, Tourism Practioners and conservation activists, especially through social media and the press.

On Wednesday evening, the Ecotourism Kenya Board, including Mr. Kahindi, held a lengthy meeting with Dr. Kipngetich to address and resolve the case given the escalating wildlife poaching in the country and threats to tourism business in wildlife sanctuaries, including national parks and reserves. Both Ecotourism Kenya and Kenya Wildlife Service agreed that all forms of poaching must be controlled and eliminated urgently to safeguard the integrity of coastal and inland tourism attractions. Dr. Kipngetich explained that KWS was working hard to combat ivory poaching and other forms of wildlife persecution.

The KWS Director assured Ecotourism Kenya that KWS strives to find all elephant mortality especially those arising from illegal killings. On the other hand, Mr. Kahindi reiterated that he stood by his speculative figure of dead elephants in 2011 which is based on anecdotal evidence and reports from many tour operators and local communities operating wildlife conservancies in elephant-rich areas, whereby elephant poaching was reported throughout the year to date.

Therefore, both KWS and Ecotourism Kenya agreed to exchange reports of dead elephants and rhinos promptly and candidly henceforth. Ecotourism Kenya will continue to highlight the poaching problem within its ability and also support efforts by KWS and other stakeholders in eliminating the problem. It was on the basis of this agreement that KWS withdrew its charge on Mr. Kahindi to facilitate cooperation and collaboration in effort to combat poaching in Kenya.

Ecotourism Kenya wishes to thank all its members and supporters throughout the world for their interest to address the rampant elephant poaching in Kenya. Let us all protect our precious wildlife resources.

Mr. Andrew Muigai, Chairman, Ecotourism Kenya

 

Gunjur, The Gambia & Athens, Greece (21 March 2012) - Footsteps Eco Lodge near Gunjur, in the South Kombo Region of The Gambia, has been accepted as an ECOCLUB.com Ecolodge Member following a rating procedure. The rating procedure can be seen online in detail. Footsteps is the first ECOCLUB.com Rated Ecolodge in Gambia and one of just 19 Rated Ecolodges worldwide.

Reacting to the news, Mr David White, founder and proprietor of Footsteps Eco Lodge said: "On behalf of all the staff who work so hard each year to make Footsteps better and better, I would like to say how delighted we are with our rating of 3.8 from ecoclub, we will continue to strive to improve our service and its delivery and look forward to a bright and sustainable future".

Built as a traditional african village compound, Footsteps Eco Lodge comprises of 9 large huts with ensuite facilities and 2 log cabins. Eco features include solar power, permaculture landscaping, greywater filtration, composting toilets and a unique fresh water pool. Guests may enjoy meals alfresco with fresh produce from the garden, watching some of the 576 species of birds from the purpose built hide, many local ecotours and cultural visits to the nearby community. Visit http://www.footstepsgambia.com for more details.

ECOCLUB.com Ecolodge Membership is a free, specialist promotion & eco rating package offered to eligible accommodation facilities. For more details see http://ecoclub.com/join/lodge

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