ECOCLUB Blogs™

  The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia has recently compiled a case study featuring Intrepid Travel as a best practice in sustainability. Intrepid currently operates in over 100 countries, with offices in 25 and 900 employees. In May 2011 they won the coveted Tourism for Tomorrow Award. An excerpt follows:  Intrepid Travel Pty. Limited (Intrepid) was established in 1989 by co-founders Darrel Wade and Geoff Manchester initially to provide adventure trips to Thailand. Sustainability, or to be more exact Responsible Travel, was and still is the fundamental principle underpinning Intrepid products. There appear to be three distinct phases in Intrepid’s sustainability journey. Years 1 to 12 were the foundation years with hands-on owners, an ex-pat team of trip leaders and a focus on development of Responsible Travel product. Intrepid is now getting towards the end of the development period (years 13 to 23) with a more mature governance framework, specialist teams at a central head office, broader Responsible Travel product range around the world, with mostly local trip leaders. During this period, Intrepid has also developed and implemented a sustainable development strategy and will be reporting its integrated social, environmental and economic performance publicly for the first time in 2011. Intrepid...

Unfortunately the non-violent, colorful, pluralistic, direct democratic 'indignados' ("aganaktismenoi") assembly protesting neoliberal IMF recipes in Athens' main Syntagma Sq., already in its 3rd week, has been attacked by the infamous riot police 'MAT' units on 15 June, following a large demonstration on a day of general strike. In a city already plagued by air pollution, the police, besides batons, insist on using carcinogenic tear gas (banned under various treaties) despite repeated promises by the government that it will be phased out. Still it took only an hour for the people to return to the square. Let us hope that the direct democratic experiment, in the city that gave birth to the concept, with popular assemblies being held every night in Athens and other major greek cities, will continue. The tear gas seems to have mostly affected the government, which nearly resigned later on the day, a reshuffle is expected today 16.6 and elections cannot be far. You may follow the historic events at Syntagma sq. at http://www.real-democracy.gr/en If you are thinking of visiting Athens, you have one more reason to do so! Don't listen to the mostly ignorant tourism news repeaters spreading fear, the city is safe and peaceful, but equally determined for change.

  One of the best examples of tourism comfort and environmental sensitivity I’ve seen is found at Maho Bay Camps in the US Virgin Islands. I had the change to visit this great place recently and I thought you might enjoy this video and its story. http://tinyurl.com/3sjc5ml It is a unique place although it looks like land inflation is going to drive it out of business in the next year. Its a real shame so if you want to see Maho Bay before it’s gone, start making plans... Carol

Hot summer ahead, and not just speaking about climate change...some days it seems that the world is spinning out of control. While the Mediterranean peoples are revolting in violent and non-violent ways, rightly demanding real democracy (although somewhat ironically on Facebook), the great powers-empires are extinguishing and imprisoning real and perceived foes from dissident Nobel laureates, to environmental activists, to IMF heads, and doing everything, as always, they can so that popular movements are manipulated and/ore discredited. Over here in post-Athens-what-a-waste-Olympics-2004-Greece, geographically and culturally situated somewhere between the 1st world and the rest world, we may be experiencing early signs of Germany in 1920 (rapidly rising unemployment, bankruptcy in slow motion, rise of the far right which exploits the ever growing tide of refugees from Asia and Africa, but also a vibrant art scene - as misery & art always go together) while our post-modern socialdemocratic government, wearing a neoliberal straitjacket and following IMF recipes which have devastated many countries,  instead of focusing on creating real, green jobs, is cutting hard-won worker-rights and pensions and desperately seekinf foreign buyers for anything of value, including holiday home and golf developers for public coastal and island land. Tourism is supposedly our 'heavy industry', or so are we constantly told by short-lived clueless...

It’s not just the Spice Girls who recognized Girl Power; marketers everywhere are realizing females have serious buying power. Women make or influence over 80% of consumer decisions. In the next ten years, they will control two-thirds of the U.S. consumer wealth; some of that will come from gains in the workplace but they are also expected to inherit from their parents and their spouses. So do you recognize the influence women have in making travel decisions? While some businesses offer women-only trips, we need to think in broader terms (excuse the pun). Women are often the person making trip arrangements for the whole family and friends. This she-xplorer makes purchasing decisions differently than men. To learn how, check out our spring newsletter at http://www.kalahari-online.com/spring11.pdf or our video version at http://www.14dd5266c70789bdc806364df4586335-gdprlock/watch?v=Qpk-x7gKGpE

The Future of Food - Washington DC, May 4, 2011 - 9:00am - 4:30pm   "This conference will bring together many of the world’s leading experts on food, including The Prince of Wales, a lifelong environmentalist and organic farmer, Eric Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation,” and Wendell Berry, winner of The National Humanities Medal. How is American and international food production changing to respond to growing demand from consumers for healthier and more natural food? Experts from some of world’s biggest food companies, academia and nonprofits discuss trends in agriculture and consumer behavior that is shaping the future of food." Note from Nikki Rose -- I was at the premier of this film in San Francisco in 2004. People risked their careers to get this information out to the public. Things have changed but not fast enough. So many people still do not even know what GMOs are. But they are eating it...so we are what we eat.

  A great article by Gene Logsdon: "...a farmer can learn more about sustainable farming from history rather than from current science. Agriculture has been taking giant leaps “forward” and archeology giant leaps “backward,” both with intriguing and absorbing results. Both work under a handicap. Archeology studies a silent past and has to worry that it’s getting the story right. Agriculture assumes a future that may not turn out to be true either. The two sciences have markedly different philosophies. Agriculture is interested in making farming a money-profitable business. Archeology is interested in finding out why profitable farming invariably leads to wrecked civilizations." Gene and Carol Logsdon have a small-scale experimental farm in Ohio. Gene is the author of numerous books and magazine articles on farm-related issues, and believes sustainable pastoral farming is the solution for a stressed agricultural system. Full article on the Contrary Farmer Blog: Note from Nikki Rose: Good timing! CCS developed a whole seminar series related to this issue:  Historic Food and Wine Routes of Crete, June 6-14, 2011.

  Now it is a deadline for applying to speak at European Ecotourism Conference 2011, which will be held on May, 29 – June 1 in Geilo, Norway. Proposed topics include: Marketing & PR: What are some of the key ingredients of successful marketing strategies for ecotourism businesses? Business: Why do some ecotourism projects and initiatives manage -and why do others fail- to become financially successful tourism enterprises? Destination Management: What are some best practice examples of developing, managing and promoting ecotourism destinations? Conservation & Communities: How are tourism stakeholder groups working together to support conservation and communities through ecotourism? http://www.european-ecotourism.com/last-day-for-euroeco-2011-speaker-application/

  Petition created by Yiorgos Dimitriadis, Sustainable Organic Farmer in Crete, Greece: To: Mr. S. Arnaoutakis, Elected head of the Prefecture of Crete Island Cc. Mr. K. Skandalidis, Minister of Rural Development and Food, Greece We, the undersigned, members of the international community, strongly believe that, the official Cretan Diet dietary model, which is currently being formulated by your office and is intended to become the official guideline for the professional food-service, must include and promote as its first priority the use of local and, as its strong preference, certified organic food products. If this direction is omitted, Crete will have missed a historic opportunity to bring out the true value of its diet, offering healthy food for all, supporting the Cretan farmer and at the same time directing him towards a sustainable way of farming that protects the environment and ensuring self-sufficiency for the future. The link: http://www.gopetition.com/petition/44206.html (text in Greek follows)   κ. Σ. Αρναουτάκη, Αιρετό Περιφερειάρχη Κρήτης κ. Κ. Σκανδαλίδη, Υπουργού Γεωργικής Ανάπτυξης και Τροφίμων Εμείς οι συνυπογράφοντες, θεωρούμε ότι το επίσημο διατροφικό πρότυπο της Κρητικής Διατροφής, το οποίο επεξεργάζονται οι υπηρεσίες σας ώστε να αποτελέσει γνώμονα για την κρητική κουζίνα επαγγελματικής εστίασης, θα πρέπει να προβλέπει και...

  The Cacao Festival for 2011 is definitely on, despite any rumours to the contrary and will be as entertaining as ever. The dates are set for the weekend of May 20-22. It will be packed with exciting events and activities for young and old alike, not only to pay tribute to the finest organic cacao grown by local Mayan villagers, but also to honor Ek Chuah, the ancient Mayan god of merchants and cacao. Friday night opens with the classy Wine and Chocolate Evening with music by one of Belize’s foremost singers, Nelita Castillo and will be held for the first time at the Coral House Inn. Saturday’s festivities will feature the town of Punta Gorda and the natural wonders of the district. Visitors and townies will have a map and list of events around town that will include music in Central Park, the morning market, a cacao center at Cotton Tree Chocolate in town, a tour of the fire house, a chance to sit inside a Tropic Air plane, a tortilla making exhibition at the Fajina Centre, an art exhibit and an archeology exhibit and art display sponsored by NICH. The archaeological display will be held in the Special...