ECOCLUB Blogs™

Greetings,It's great to have an opportunity to discuss the diminishing quality of our food sources and a chef's integral role in supporting sustainable foodways. As well-informed spokespeople about the crucial issues impacting our safe food sources, chefs can and should play an important role in conveying the problems to the local and global community and devise ways to collaborate on solutions.I began working Greece 11 years ago on educational programs that linked visitors with traditional chefs, bakers, fishers, shepherds-cheesemakers, organic farmers, olive oil and wine producers. They share their invaluable knowledge about centuries-old sustainable living practices, their culture and excellent cuisine. In return, we pay our teachers well for their time and expertise. We benefit from a great learning experience and our teachers benefit from our support to carry on their traditional trades that are fast disappearing. Back in 1998, we did not call our work *green* but considered it to be common sense. By linking the global community with local communities that are actively involved in sustainable living practices -- including organic agriculture and sustainable tourism, chefs have a unique opportunity to present big-picture issues and work together on solutions. The key is to provide concrete support to the people...

As the old adage goes tourism is like fire, it can cook your food, or it can burn your house down.But it was not tourism, but probably pro-mining interests, that burned down the house of eco activist Stefanos Kollias in the village of Kaloskopi in the Mt Giona area of Central Greece, on Sunday night (March 30). Kollias, originally from Athens, has been campaigning against the further expansion of bauxite mining in this largely pristine area. A few days ago he had tried to legally block an environmental impact assessment study conducted for a large mining company. This is the second time in recent months his house is set on fire. A campaign is underway to rebuild his house see here for details (in Greek)while protests are also planned.Next time you think of consuming a multinational soft drink or beer packaged in an aluminium can, remember that it is created and transported through a process which probably involved a lot of human and environmental misery. Not to mention that it (aluminium, not beer of course) may have various adverse health effects.

It's been a long winter in North America. To help ease people into spring, Kalahari Management is launching a contest that will have you remembering happier (and possibly warmer) times.Readers are invited to share their travel stories on our forum at www.reinventuretravel.com/forum They can be funny, heart-warming, quirky or thought-provoking.Our illustrious panel of judges (bribed by free beer and pizza ) will pick the best story posted during April and May.The winner will receive a complementary copy of Reinventure: How Travel Adventure Can Change Your Life by Carol Patterson and Saving Paradise: The Story of Sukau Rainforest Lodge by Albert Teo and Carol Patterson.I look forward to reading your travel talesCarol

CAMAT was established in 1998 by a wide spectrum of tourism stakeholders for the promotion of ecotourism in Chitral and Northern Areas. It is not-for-profit registered tourism company. The objective of the association is to diversify people’s livelihood opportunities by creating off-farm job opportunities so that pressure on land resources will decrease and natural biodiversity and ecology will restore. From 2003-7, CAMAT worked through the financial and technical support of UNESCO with a project titled ‘promotion of ecotourism in the mountainous region of Central and South Asia’. The project had eight partners from Central and South Asia. In Pakistan the project rested with CAMAT, which implemented the activities under the following themes to achieve the project's broader objectives: Protection of traditional cultureProtection of natural environmentCapacity buildingNetwork buildingAdvocacy campaign Though UNESCO project came to an end, CAMAT is continuing its activities mostly by the voluntary support of its Board of Directors and cultural groups and natural club throughout the Chitral district. We would like the like-minded NGOs around the world to come forward and support CAMAT in its efforts to protect the virgin natural environment and traditional culture of both the Kalash and Khow communities. CAMAT’s BoD and the Kalash and Khow...

(Editorial in Issue 100 of ECOCLUB, International Ecotourism Magazine) QUOTE“The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labor—not by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally established rules” – Albert Einstein, Why Socialism? , Monthly Review, May 1949 No one really knows how long this latest systemic crisis may last or how it will end - hopefully not in tears, not like the 1929 one. But it does present a unique opportunity: it can help reveal the resilience and the necessity of small-scale, sustainable tourism, family & community-owned, and prove the unsustainability of mega-resorts, in particular all-inclusive, condo hotels and golf, the funders of which are getting weaker by the day! Within Ecotourism as well, we need to move away from discredited neoliberal recipes, dependencies on aid and other agencies, nefarious mushups like corporate social responsibility, triple bottom lines and carbon offsetting. As Murray Bookchin pointed out “we live in a highly cooptative society that is only too eager to...

Diane was a hotel housekeeper in the Niagara Falls area of Ontario, Canada. When she tried to start a union in her hotel, she was fired. Following action by UNITE HERE, she was re-hired by the hotel, however harassment has not stopped.More details:http://www.istandwithdiane.ca/index.php?op...id=44&Itemid=59Related Report:http://www.niagarahotelworkers.ca/download...otel_Sector.pdfFrom Unite Here's website:UNITE (formerly the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees) and HERE (Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union) merged on July 8, 2004 forming UNITE HERE. The union represents more than 450,000 active members and more than 400,000 retirees throughout North America.UNITE HERE boasts a diverse membership, comprised largely of immigrants and including high percentages of African-American, Latino, and Asian-American workers. The majority of UNITE HERE members are women.

The new 703km long - 8m tall wall separating the West bank from Israel, will eventually have the luck of the old one in Berlin. In the mean time, it can also start looking more colourful, like the Berlin one eventually did, with graffitti!With Euros 30, you can have something written on it (not as exciting as Banksy's of course)and at the same time - organisers promise - support peaceful, small social, cultural and educational projects in Palestine.How about the classic "walls have ears, and ears have walls"Related:http://www.sendamessage.nl

Every mainstream politician seems to have an opinion about the root causes of the latest crisis. But let's hear it from someone far more intelligent: The Einstein few know, writing in 1949, in the first issue of the Monthly Review: QUOTEI have now reached the point where I may indicate briefly what to me constitutes the essence of the crisis of our time. It concerns the relationship of the individual to society. The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence........Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society. The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labor—not by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally established rules......Private capital tends to become concentrated...

Given the turbulent state of affairs, Pakistan received fewer tourists as compared to years in the past. We still expect less turn out of tourists—both national and international ones—in the year 2009. However, it is realized that tourism industry is very much affected by the tense situation at national and international level, which are in many ways outside the influence of the local communities, who always bear the brunt of such untoward situation. Pakistan has consistently being projected as a turbulent destination by tour operators, tourism companies and governments around the world because of the prevailing condition in the country. This is where things take adverse turn for the people in those region where tourism has been a thriving industry in the past and people invested in the invested in improving tourism infrastructure within their given financial resources but for nothing to earn in return. In the meantime, social projects linked with tourism industry have also suffered a serious setback. Whatever is the capacity of the local indigenous communities, they do not spare their efforts to correct things. Let’s hope for the best in the years to come and to work with great commitment in order to promote ecotourism in the...

Kalash communities in Chitral are considered to be the remnant of the army of Alexander the Great. They entertain rich and colouful culture. To them festival is not something as entertainment. Rather it is a part of thier faith and workship. Next Chilimjosht will fall in the month of May when spring will sweep through the Chitral district. It is such a beautiful time to visit Chitral in general and the Kalash valley in particular. Contact us to make your visit enjoyable ane entertaining.