scanning airwaves, e-waves and brainwaves - reader submissions welcome International The Earth Summit produced 290,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. And what else? A Brazilian proposal, calling for a target of 10% renewables by 2010, was blocked by the United States, Japan and OPEC member countries. No further reductions in debt relief for the poorest nations were achieved. No biodiversity protection benchmarks and timetables were set. What was agreed: a European Union Water Initiative to halve the number of people without clean water to one billion by 2015, policies to protect fisheries, to improve sanitation, the setting up of a "world solidarity fund" to combat poverty". The UN Secretary General found that "the summit has put sustainable development firmly on the world agenda". Most NGOs however were unhappy that the World Trade Organisation scored important points and only just failed to be recognised as the ultimate decision maker for development issues, that the role of international corporations was upgraded in the quest for sustainable development through "partnerships" between "stakeholders" (300 partnerships were announced) and in a muted effort by the conference organisers to achieve high-level commitments from business leaders. During the Summit it was announced that Russia and other countries would ratify Kyoto, leaving only U.S. and Australia disputing the effectiveness of the Kyoto agreement in reducing carbon emissions. PATA Vice President Peter Semone told delegates at a forum on sexual abuse of children in tourism destinations, in Pnom Penh, Cambodia, that law enforcement agencies need to strictly enforce their country's current legislation on child prostitution. Africa & M.East The US Ambassador to Botswana, condemned the Botswana government's eviction of the Gana and Gwi Bushmen from their ancestral lands in the country's Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Earlier this year, the Botswana government evicted all but a few of the last Gana and Gwi remaining in the reserve. The Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa issued 'responsible tourism' guidelines for the South African hospitality industry and gave out awards to hospitality businesses that have implementedsustainable economic, social and environmental programmes. See http://www.fedhasa.co.za A Nigerian court of appeal upheld the verdict of death by stoning of Amina Lawal for adultery. The United States and the United Nations Foundation announced a $3 million donation to help protect the Mesoamerican reef, the Atlantic Ocean's largest barrier reef 450 miles long, stretching from Mexico's Yucatan peninsula to the Honduran coast. 25 percent of global fisheries are associated with coral reefs. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez speaking at the WSSD proposed the creation of an OPEC-type cartel by 12 countries enjoying great biodiversity, that would be able to set practices and prices to pharmaceutical companies and other bioprospectors... The first Ecotourism Exhibition in Venezuela Expoecoturismo 2002 takes place on the 10th and 11th September at the Hotel Tamanaco, Salón Naiguatá, in Caracas. According to scientists , September 11 was also an environmental tragedy, as high levels of dioxins, PCBs, and metals. polluted the air and Hudson River. One year after, downtown NY residents still worry about lingering ash and dust, some of which is asbestos-tainted. A US federal appeals court has ordered the Federal Aviation Administration to write new rules to reduce noise from tourist air traffic over Grand Canyon National Park backing an environmentalists move. Oil-rich province of Alberta in Canada has threatened to go to the nation's top court to stop the Kyoto treaty from being implemented by the national government. In a survey commissioned by Orbitz twenty-nine percent of US travellers are less inclined to take an international trip since the events of September 11. Brazilian Agency IBAMA will open Reservas Extrativistas (Extractive Reserves) to ecotourism. More than 80% of the 5 million hectares of Extractive Reserves, established to protect rubber tapers and other low impact residents from wholesale habitat destruction, are in Amazonia. The European Union announced it will invest USD 24.4 million in eco-tourism, agriculture, road construction and development projects in Dominica. In January, Dominica's government announced it had received a grant of USD 1 million from the government of Libya for similar purposes. Asia & Pacific A hazy brown cloud covering South Asia to a depth of three kilometers is disrupting seasonal monsoon weather patterns, damaging agriculture, and risking the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the region, according to UN Environment Program (UNEP). The haze is the result of forest fires, burning of agricultural wastes, dramatic increases in the burning of fossil fuels in vehicles, industries and power stations and emissions from millions of inefficient cookers burning wood, cow dung and other biofuels. In what would have been considered a Monty Pythons joke a few years ago, BP's (the oil co) head in Australia, Greg Bourne blasted Australia's government for not ratifying the Kyoto protocol. "America is big enough to look after itself, people will have to do business with it because it's so, but Australia risks being left in the lurch." Pakistan introduced its first fully air-conditioned train, the Karakoram Express, built in cooperation with China. To celebrate the International Year of Ecotourism, the Ecotourism Society Pakistan (ESP) awarded its first "International Award for the Promotion of Ecotourism" to Jeremy Garret, former Director - Publicity and Promotion of The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) "for his tremendous services, contact with regional partners and promotional work." Chongzuo Ecology Park, part research station part protected area, in Chongzuo County of Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region opened to the public on August 11. It is one of the world's last natural refuges of the endangered primate White-headed langur (Trachypithecus francoisi leucocephalus). Fewer than 800 of these monkeys still inhabit the hillsides - a smaller number than the also endangered giant panda (1,000). David Lusseau, a New Zealand dolphin researcher, presented research findings to an ecotourism conference in the southern NZ city of Dunedin whereby 7 percent of bottelnose dolphins in Milford Sound fjord, a big tourist draw, bear scars from boat propellers and keels and argued that there are too many tourist boats in the area. East China's Fujian Province plans to invest at least 70bn yuan (8.43bn US dollars) in making it an "ecological province". Fujian Governor Xi said Fujian hoped to gain both economic and ecological benefits, adding that the province would consider ecological impacts when making economic decisions, and would encourage the development of ecotourism. The Sri Lanka Ecotourism Foundation (SLETF) has launched what it calls the first Community Based Ecotourism Enterprise at Matara province, Southern Sri Lanka, called the 'Kirala Kelle Wetlands Ecotourism Project'. The first community meetings were held in the Nadugala and in Hithtetiya villages. SLETF also announced it was "thoroughly disappointed" that the National Project Task on Ecotourism had been terminated after the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources withdrew funding. Animal welfare campaigners demonstrated outside the arena in the medieval walled French town of Carcassonne, a tourist attraction, which held its first bullfight in 50 years on the weekend, attended by 2,000 bullfight "afficionados". The U.N. Development Program and the German Tourism Organisation for Development and Investment are devising a project to support tourism on Panama's Las Perlas island chain. 'Destination Sustainability' on Wednesday November 13th, will be the key subject at this year's World Travel Market Environment Day, in London under the auspices of WWF, ABTA, UNEP and Green Globe 21. The National Forum 'Ecotourism, Mountains and Protected Areas - Partners in Prosperity', will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, October 2-4, 2002. Info at: http://moew.government.bg/ecotourismforum The Prespa Lakes were declared "lakes of peace, cooperation and civilisation" in a meeting of Greek, Albanian and FYROM Ministers of Culture on the occasion of the Prespeia festivities held on the island of Agios Achilleios in the greek part of small Prespa every 10 years. It was agreed to turn the festivities into an intercultural event with participation from all three countries and to propose the inclusion of the Prespa Lakes during the Olympic Torch Relay of the Athens 2004 relay. Agios Achilleios is where our Ecolodge Member Agios Achilleios http://ecoclub.com/achilleios is located. About a thousand owners and employees of small businesses in the Ialyssos-Petaloudes Prefecture on the Greek island of Rhodes, signed a petition blaming local all-inclusive tourism resorts for having pushed their businesses to the brink of extinction. They demanded from local and central government the introduction of legislation banning all-inclusive tourism in the area as it harms the local economy. Copyright © 1999-2002 ECOCLUB
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