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Tour Operators can easily implement an environmental charity offering scheme

191010-to-charity Reforestation in the Scottish Highlands

As tourism becomes a bigger and bigger industry, it is important to be as environmentally conscience as possible. As carbon footprints mount up from flights, it is refreshing to see travel tourist companies try to offset their greenhouse emissions through a variety of processes. In Edinburgh, it is common to take day trips to the Scottish Highlands to see the majesty of Glen Coe and Loch Ness via tour bus, with your driver/guide showing you the secret spots and divulging interesting local facts.   In order to create an ecologically sustainable practice, tour operators such as Highland Explorer have implemented their own Environmental Charity Offering Scheme. They pioneered this scheme in order to allow guests to donate a small sum to preserving Scottish natural wildlife, while also promising to match any donations. This money goes to the charity Trees For Life, who have planted over half a million trees so far to restore the Caledonian Forest in the Highlands of Scotland and are working towards 100,000 trees this year as part of the United Nations Environment Programme “Billion Trees”. In todays ecological climate is imperative for everyone, not just in tourism but in all industries, to take steps to make their...

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Green Underground

191009-iera-odos The Sacred Way

The greenest, quickest and safest way to explore a big city often is to use the underground. No hopping on and hopping off double-deckers stuck in traffic or lethal (to you and pedestrians) electric scooters. No more so than in Athens where many underground stations are museums in their own right. Get off at any station and walk 1 km in each direction and you will sample the real sounds, tastes and smells of each neighbourhood. Taking Line 3 to Egaleo station today I missed a couple of trains due to the fascinating ancient artefact displays next to the platform. And two more trains must have already passed by while I was admiring the best preserved section of the 2,500+ year old Sacred Way or ΙΕΡΑ ΟΔΟΣ (see picture) discovered a few years ago when the station was built! 

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Dubai: 1,600 turtles rehabilitated so far by Turtle Project

191009-dubai-turtles Recent satellite tracking data from the last turtle releases

Earth has suffered five mass extinctions, the last one being approximately 65 million years ago. It wiped out the dinosaurs, along with 60% of species that populated the planet. These five extinctions have one thing in common - they were all caused by natural phenomena; a stellar explosion, tectonic plate movement or meteor showers. Our planet is now facing the sixth mass extinction. However, this one is different from the rest. For the first time in history, human activity is to blame. Our oceans are taking the brunt of the turmoil. We are facing sea temperature increases, pollution, over-fishing and bycatch deaths, just to name a few. One of the hardest hit species of all are Turtles. A species that swam the seas 96 million years before humans walked the earth could be wiped out within 10 years. All seven species of marine turtle are listed as vulnerable to extinction, endangered or critically endangered. The Hawksbill turtle, native to the Middle East, is listed as critically endangered with only an estimated 8,000 nesting females left worldwide. The Hawksbill Turtle has lost 90% of its population, 80% of which has been lost in the past 10 years. Started by Jumeirah in 2004,...

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Community-based marine tourism in the fishing village of Marsaxlokk, Malta

190930-marsaxlokk Marsaxlokk, photo by Remi Yuan on Unsplash

Traditional fishing villages are popular places for tourists and visitors looking for authentic portraits of which fishermen, fresh fish and seascapes are involved. This is seen by the tourism sector as an opportunity to promote marine and coastal destinations, offering a range of experiences that are linked to the fishing traditions of marine heritage. Tourism has the potential to “strengthen identities and regenerate local heritage”, in which local products, festivals, culinary and job-related skills find in tourism an opportunity for their preservation, stimulating sustainable development. Alternative opportunities are possible to gain additional income through innovation and diversification, e.g. by creating synergies between traditional sectors and tourism. Other economic returns of tourism are possible. For example, governments see it as a tool in rural development which can help to stimulate economies in danger of decline.  After 2000s, Marsaxlokk (south-east of Malta) experienced an important influx of tourists by international tourists from cruises and mass tourism because of the promotion campaign from the tourism authority to brand Marsaxlokk as the only fishing village left in Malta. As tourism in Malta was expanding, the village has been in a constant transformation. Since the development in the north has reached its limit in recent years, the less developed areas in the south...

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Casa de Piatra, a remote hamlet in the heart of Transylvania.

190926-ro-apuseni

In the heart of Transylvania, Romania lies a mountain area that is still little known: the Apuseni Mountains (the "mountains at the sunset"), also known (in geography books) as Western Carpathians. These mountains are a world unto itself. Comprising a large variety of geographical forms, not very high (the highest peak is 1849 metres asl) but with impressive karstic landscapes and traditional livelihoods, hosting a rich fauna and flora, they are unique in Romania and, in many respects, in Europe.  The local, native inhabitants are called Motzi and they live here permanently, in smaller or larger hamlets, some of them situated even at altitudes of over 1600 metres. The landscape of these mountains is among the last forested karstic landscapes in Europe. Caves, potholes, sinkholes, gorges, karstic glades covered mainly conifer but also deciduous forests. Casa de Piatra ("Stone House") is a remote hamlet somewhere in the heart of these mountains, in a picturesque valley limited by rocky walls and surrounded by conifer forests. Life was always harsh here, with long lasting winters, lots of snow till late spring and with short summers. Very few vegetables, almost no fruit (except wild berries and mushrooms). Fortunately, there are pastures with high natural value (given also...

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Birdwatchers' Paradise: Axios Delta National Park, near Thessaloniki, Greece

190925-axios-delta

For visitors to Thessaloniki, a densely populated city brimming with cultural treasures, it is always a pleasant surprise to learn about natural treasures nearby, such as the Axios Delta National Park, located just 25 km from the city's centre, considered as one of the most important wetland systems in Europe! A sizeable area of 338 km² is protected under the Ramsar Convention and included in the European Union Natura 2000 network of protected areas, serving as a permanent or temporal habitat for over 700 animal and plant species, many of them being rare or endangered. Even though a degraded area, since the 00s local people and authorities from the nearby villages have positively contributed towards a sustainable tourism model. Nowadays, there is a variety of businesses helping to preserve the area while benefiting from it. Tourists can enjoy a ride on horses, taste local delicacies such as mussels and deserts made with buffalos' milk, climb atop the numerous birdwatching towers, visit the wildlife care centre, go on hiking or cycling on the specially designed routes, and educate themselves. The living standard and economy of adjacent areas' residents has risen significantly thanks to eco-tourism development, thus, future investments appear to be aimed towards an even more ecological-minded...

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Thomas Cooking No More

190923-thomas-cook

Does the sudden demise of Thomas Cook, two years after that of Monarch, another tour operator-airline, signal the end of the era of the giant, mainstream tour operator hit by the giant internet meteorite? Is it a welcome step away from concentration (Thomas Cook having merged with MyTravel in 2007 to create a European 'giant') towards economic democracy,or just a shift from the high street chain, where now only a small minority purchase their holidays, to bookings through Online Travel Agencies/platforms and, to a lesser extent, directly through provider's social media and websites? Thomas Cook's rivals such as TUI, do not seem to suffer from such problems as they are vertical companies that own their accommodation, so it is too soon to say, if Thomas Cook's demise is part of a broader trend of socioeconomic significance. Other factors at play, according to analysts were Brexit-related uncertainty and the devaluation of sterling it caused (which probably was the last straw for the company that had nearly went bust as early as 2011). The shift away from sun and sea packages towards city breaks, encouraged by Airbnb-style supply and cheap airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet was also pivotal. In the meantime, the UK...

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Small accommodations and environmentally unfriendly guests

190915-unfriendly-guests

There are plenty of guidelines on what hosts need to do to become eco-friendly but precious little on how to get the guests to also be environmentally friendly, which is a different matter than how to attract eco-friendly guests. Most small establishments, apart from luxury boutique accommodation, are not choosy and do not exclude guests through pricing. In most parts of the world, the average price-sensitive guest in small accommodations and short rentals does not enjoy being lectured and will probably not venture further than the first page of your long list of do's and don'ts. She/he feels that as they have paid for this holiday, they are entitled to use as much electricity and water as he wants without sparing a second's thought for the Amazon fires and the Climate Crisis. Since, as they think, 'it is included' in the price, it makes sense having the air-con 24/7 and at a low temperature and setting the fridge at the minimum temperature so that those beer cans are ice cold. Why waste precious holiday time to separate bottles and tins and packaging from the rubbish - we have had enough of this back home while in this destination 'it seems they do not even bother collecting the rubbish...

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Agroecology Europe Forum, Crete, Greece 26-28 September 2019

News from our fields: Join us in Crete, Greece 26-28 September for the Agroecology Europe Forum. I'll be there - participating in a Workshop on "Scaling Up" to discuss my work in connecting sustainable organic farmers with sustainable tourism initiatives.Agroecology Europe Forum 2019

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Why Veganism Is More Healthy For You (And The Planet!)

Photo by Gemma Evans on Unsplash

{mnf=off} Recently, the sight of the Amazon rainforest on fire has captivated the concern of people around the world. Watching the huge swath of greenery, which provides a habitat to 10 percent of the nearly 9 million different species on earth, literally go up in smoke has struck fear into the hearts of many. Insofar as there is every indication that the forest fires can ultimately be blamed on the longstanding practice by farmers of burning to clear land for cultivation, the recent fires have raised the profile of and stirred up debate about the relationship between agriculture and deforestation. If we hold that what farmers choose to grow is largely the result of consumer demand, then eating itself becomes not just a personal choice which impacts one’s own health but also a political act - one that can lead to burning the amazon and similar destructive acts on the one hand or preserving the environment on the other. Farmers Clear Forest Land to Grow Cash Crops and Feed Domesticated Animals One of the primary reasons farmers deliberately burn the land to clear it for planting is the amount of money that can be made from crops like soybeans. Unfortunately, crops like soybeans are very...

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