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World Ecotourism News
Miss "Eco-Tourism" ?!
21 Nov 00 - New Straits Times
Maria Esperanza A. Manzano of the Philippines won
the Miss Tourism International 2000 title at the "grand ballroom of the
Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel". She also won two subsidiary titles which were
the Miss Lianasari Eco-Tourism
and the Miss Hospitality awards.
- What next, an Eco-Tourism football team?
GALAPAGOS - Battle over
Lobsters
22 Nov 00 ENS
Lobster fishermen protest over new catch limits by vandalizing the
Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos chain and threatening the
station's employees. Two fishermen get wounded in a tear gas battle.
ECOSERT for Sustainable Tourism
15/11/00 various
Project
ECOSERT (European Cooperation for Sustainable Environmental Regional Development
through Tourism) is an initiative dedicated to furthering tourism
developments that are sensitive to the environment. Led by the Prefecture of
Magnesia in Greece, this inter-regional initiative is
well under way, with the three partner regions coming from Greece, Italy and the
UK.
A "deep breath" and a
"killing"
15/11/00 - The Malay Mail
"Folks in several traditional villages in Dengkil can take a deep breath as
they don't have to move out
to make way for new development. They are encouraged to retain the kampung
houses with spacious compounds and orchards. While other villagers fringing
Putrajaya and Cyberjaya would opt for easy money by selling off their land for
developers, villagers in seven small villagers in Dengkil can
make a killing by being involved in eco- tourism."
- Take a deep breath indeed. In any case how would you feel if you had to
"move out" to make way for development.
Renewable
Energy Makes Wavess
20/11/00 - wavegen.co.uk
The world's biggest and first commercially viable wave energy power
collector Limpet, partly funded by the EU Commission under the JOULE program is
about to begin operating. It is estimated that if less than 0.1% of the
renewable energy within the oceans could be converted into electricity it would
satisfy the present world demand for energy more than five times over.
More World Heritage
in Danger
27/11/00 Unesco
The
Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary in Senegal, the historic city of Zabid in Yemen
and the Fort and Shalamar Gardens in Pakistan have been added to the list of
World Heritage in Danger by UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, which has been
meeting in Cairns, Australia, since November 25. Djoudj is threatened by the invasion of a water plant,
Salvinia molesta, which has crossed over the Senegal River and invaded the
Diawling National Park of Mauritania. Zabid, a former capital of Yemen from the 13th
to the 15th century, was a city of great importance in the Arab and Muslim world
for many centuries because of its Islamic University. Today the city is in
decline and in a very poor state of conservation. A mission of experts has observed serious deterioration in the
city's heritage: around 40 percent of the city's houses have been replaced by
concrete buildings, and other houses and the ancient souk are in a deteriorating
state. Pakistan's Fort and Shalamar Gardens in Lahore are a testimony of the brilliant
Mogul civilisation. "Tanks built 375 years ago to
supply water to the Garden's fountains were destroyed in June 1999 to widen the
road which borders the gardens on their south side. The perimeter walls of the
Garden are also deteriorating. The list is revised annually at the meeting of
UNESCO's World Heritage Committee.
UK bans mink farms
27/11/00 ENS
Tens of thousands of mink may be saved as the UK becomes the first country in
the world to ban raising animals for their pelts.
New protection zones in China
27/11/00 - Xinhua
"During the Tenth Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005) China will set up 40 to
50 key ecological protection zones during the next five years in several regions
including the source of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, the two longest rivers in
China, according to the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).
Different from nature reserves, where human activities are prohibited, the
ecological protection zones allow human activities"
- The third way to conservation?
"Cold Feet",
"Pigs" and no agreement at the Environment Summit
27/11/00 - BBC
UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott blames French Environment Minister
Dominique Voynet for scuttling the talks on curbing greenhouse gas emissions,
saying she had got "cold feet, had been tired and could not understand the
complex issues". Voynet replies calling Prescott a "male chauvinist
pig".
- Order, Order
Fumigation, futile
20/11/00 - U.S. Newswire
Coca and opium poppy production in Colombia tripled from 1994 to 1999, despite
fumigating over 240,000 hectares of illicit crops with more than two million
liters of glyphosate. Emperatriz Cahuache, President of the Organization of
Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon, stated "Fumigation violates our
rights and territorial autonomy. It has intensified the violence of the armed
conflict and forced people to leave their homes after their food crops have been
destroyed."glyphosate has well-documented deleterious effects on soil
micro-organisms, mammalian life including humans, invertebrates, and aquatic
organisms, especially fish." This represents a major cause for concern
since a significant portion of coca cultivation occurs alongside rivers in the
Colombian Amazon that flow directly into Ecuador and Brazil.
Global
Warming already drowning Islands, in costs.
27/11/00 - Reuters
South Pacific island nations
have suffered more than US $1 billion in damages in the past 10 years from
rising sea levels and tropical storms, according to a World Bank report on
global warming.
Islanders protest against pearl farm
plans
28/11/00 - BBC Monitoring
In Cook Island, the Taporoporoanga Ipukarea environmental group, the petition protests
government plans to sub-lease part of Suwarrow's main atoll to an Australian
company which wants to start a major black-pearl farm and tuna fishery. Suwarrow
is a breeding ground for a variety of seabirds from all over the Pacific region.
The rule of chainsaw prevails
28/11/00 - AP
A thousand-year-old redwood tree which served as a home for environmentalist
Julia "Butterfly" Hill has been
cut by a chainsaw, authorities said. Hill drew worldwide attention for two years
as she perched on top of the tree she called Luna -- 18 stories high -- to
protest timber logging. She descended last December after its owners, Pacific
Lumber, agreed to spare the tree and a surrounding buffer zone.
Still, the coward who cut the tree had to wait two whole years.
Alternative
Agriculture Center in India
29/11/00 - www.farmedia.org
A novel venture
in the field of agricultural communication will be unveiled in Dharwad
(Karnataka State, INDIA) on December 3, 2000. The Centre for Alternative
Agricultural Media (CAAM), the first of its kind in the country, will be
inaugurated with many objectives to focus on farmer friendly communication
system.
Greek
environmentalists prevail (?)
30/11/00 - ECOCLUB
The Government Minister, responsible for coordinating the revision of the
constitution, promised to amend his controversial proposals for a new draft of
article 24, which deal with forest conservation and which according to
environmentalists would open the way to uncontrolled development in protected
areas, (see ECOCLUB issue 19), after a meeting with 30 representatives of
environmental NGOs. Meanwhile the government, under pressure from the
International Olympic Committee, is going full speed ahead with another
controversial project, the construction of the Olympic Rowing Center in an
Important Area for Birds, 40 Km north east of Athens.
Chernobyl again !
30/11/00 - AP
Workers at the Chernobyl nuclear plant found a highly
radioactive fuel fragment atop the sarcophagus that covers a reactor ruined in
the world's worst nuclear accident, officials said. The 8-inch fragment, emits radiation of some 200 Roentgen an hour
or a thousand times higher than normal.
ecoclub.com
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Monthly Poll & Editorial
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The
ecotourism .CC Poll:
Who
really cares about the environment?
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Final Certified Votes: 75
(New results including recounts)
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Share
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Gore
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32%
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Bush
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13%
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Nader
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25%
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Nadie (nobody)
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29%
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Best
voter comment remains: "They all care about the environment...Until next
Tuesday!"
In issue 19 we noted: "This poll proved very timely. To keep
it so we too decided to extend... the voting period for as long as the vote
recounts go on in the real election". Well, the recounts seem to have
stopped (?) and so did our poll. During the recount period "Nadie
(nobody)" narrowed the difference but still did not manage to come
first. So Gore wins this one, (who knows about the other one).
The new ecotourism .CC poll:
Who is to blame for the failure of the Global
Warming Talks:
1. USA
2. EU.
3. The procedure is a hoax.
Members Forum
A column for Ecotourism Ring
and Ecoclub.com Members news and views.
The Editors are
not responsible for any views expressed here and reserve the right to edit
or reject manuscripts.
Logging
Concession in Manusela National Park, Indonesia by Ecotourism
Ring Member
Djuna Ivereigh Executive Director Project Bird
Watch
"Manusela National Park is a hub of biodiversity for Maluku, the
far-flung "Spice Island" region of eastern Indonesia. Manusela
occupies nearly a tenth of the area of Seram island, and was intended to
protect all of the island's habitats and species. The park is a stronghold
for 25% of the endemic birds known to Maluku. These include such beauties as
Moluccan King Lories and Purple-naped Lories and the regal Moluccan (aka
Seram or Salmon-crested) Cockatoo. Unfortunately, Manusela is also up for
sale. The Indonesian Department of Forestry is currently renewing a logging
concession that includes some tens of thousands of hectares of Manusela's
primary lowland forest. [See map.] Primary lowland forest is a critical
habitat for birds. Its rich diversity of fruits are available year-round.
And old-growth trees feature hollows where parrots, cockatoos and hornbills
can nest. The lowland primary forest of Seram is also a critical habitat for
people. Seram's forest interior is one of those few places on earth still
inhabited traditional animists. Those at Huaulu are well-respected for their
ethnobotanical knowledge. The last living descendant of the Saka tribe
believes that his society rose up from the earth via an immense cave. These
are not people who will take readily to resettlement. Clearly, it's illegal
to log within Indonesia's national parks. But boundaries are poorly defined
at Manusela, and park encroachment is all too easy within an active
concession. Since the downfall of president Suharto in 1998, the spate of
illegal logging in Indonesia has reached catastrophic proportions. It's now
estimated that 70% of the wood harvest in Indonesia is illegal. Much of this
is from National Parks. What can possibly be done? We need to go find
out."
Trade Shows / Conferences
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organising or are aware of an ecotourism related Trade Show or Conference please
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news@ecoclub.com to publicise it for free.
For more info on these and other events please visit http://ecoclub.com/events
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Africa Travel Associations (ATA) Fourth Ecotourism Symposium
December 3 to 8, 2000 in Abuja, Nigeria.
European Seminar of Experts on
Ecotourism
December 13 to 15,2000 in Barcelona, Spain
Cultural
Tourism in Africa Conference
December 13 to 16, in Mombasa, Kenya
International Ecotourism Conference
and Eco Expo 2000
December 13 to 20, 2000 in Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Tourism On Islands & Specific
Destinations Conference
December 14 to 17, 2000 in Chios, Greece
International
Symposium on Community Based Eco-Cultural Tourism 2001
January 10 to 14, 2001 in Tamil Nadu, India
Waste 2001, the
"Middle East Congree & Exhibition for Recycling & Waste Management
Feb 28 to Mar 2, 2001 in Cairo, Egypt
2nd International Conference
"From Eco-Efficiency to Overall Sustainability in Enterprises"
May 15 to 16, 2001 in Dusseldorf, Germany
Internet & Law Watch
Daughter
buys mother
21/11/00 - yankeegroup.com
In a strange twist, ebookers.com Plc, Europe's
largest online travel agency, announced that it had completed its acquisition of
Flightbookers Plc, the 17-year-old brick-and-mortar travel company that
originally gave birth to Ebookers.com.
Carnivore
approved
23/11/00 - wired
The independent review of the Carnivore e-mail
surveillance system says the FBI should continue to use it, but it also warns
against potential abuse.
Much ado about .travel
24/11/00
IATA and ASTA fight over the .travel Top Level Domain (TLD), however icann
completely ignores the domain.
Personal emails
banned, at work
28/11/00 - ZDnet
The British Chamber of Commerce has warned that employers may ban workers from
sending personal emails to avoid legal liability, in light of a draft code of
practice from the Data Protection Commission. The warning comes shortly after a
tribunal ruling Monday, which upheld a company's decision to sack two employees
for wasting resources by distributing joke emails.
Japan eases Internet
30/11/00 - www.nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com
Japanese Parliament passes a bill to try to boost Internet use in Japan. The legislation, which takes effect in
January 2001, is designed to ease regulations for the Internet
Living
La Vida on-line
30/11/00 - EIU
The use of the Internet in Latin America has shown explosive growth, rising from
just 1.4m users in 1995 to over 17.2m in 1999. This meteoric rise is predicted
to continue, reaching 162m by 2005.
Eco - Quiz
Last month's Question was:
Where is Fanning Island and under which other name is it
known?
The answer was: TABUAERAN, Republic of Kiribati
Tabuaeran, atoll (1990 pop. 1,309), in central Pacific, one of the Line Islands
and part of the Republic of Kiribati. Visited by and originally named after the
American explorer Edmund Fanning in 1798, it was annexed by Great Britain in
1889 and became a part of the colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in 1916.
It was renamed Tabuaeran when it gained independence as part of Kiribati in
1979. The atoll is composed of several islets, with a total area of 35 square
km, that surround a lagoon 32 miles (51 km) in circumference. It served as
a transpacific cable-relay station, which was in service until 1963. The island
is owned by Fanning Island Plantations, Ltd., a copra-processing and export
company.
(Source: Britannica and Columbia Encyclopedias)
Winners C. Alexopoulos, Athens
(again !), and P.V.P., Bucharest, (again !)
They win a 20% discount at the Ecoclub Shop, valid for one purchase until 31/12/2000.
A
SUPERB NEW YEAR GIFT FOR THIS MONTH'S WINNER:
The best answer by email to news@ecoclub.com will win
a gift subscription to Wildlife Conservation Magazine for 1 year !
The new Eco-Quiz:
You have just lost your backpack in the jungle. Your sport shoes are wet, the
night is cloudy, you can not see the moon or the stars. All you have is a
candle, a box of matches, and a razor. Your ecolodge is 2 km north but you can
not see anything or hear anything in the dense jungle. It is very dangerous to
stay there and wait for the break of dawn, you need to get to the lodge
immediately. How do you find your way?
To Contribute your Letters to the Editor of
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Edition & Copyright 1999,2000 ECOCLUB S.A.
ISSN 1108-8931
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