ECOCLUB

ISSN 1108-8931

INTERNATIONAL ECOTOURISM MONTHLY

Year 6 - Issue 70

Sponsored by: Zante Feast Discovery Holidays, Purple Valley Yoga Centre, Hana Maui Botanical Gardens, Jorth Consult Limited, Pacuare Lodge, Ecolife 2005 Fair

ECOCLUB.com wins UK Web Award.

ECOCLUB Director & Founder, Antonis B. Petropoulos takes the Responsible Tourism Award from Eleanor Baume of Worldspan

Our website www.ecoclub.com has won the "Best Responsible Tourism Site" Award, at this year's Travel & Tourism Web Awards, organised by TravelMole in London, on Friday (Earthday) 22 April. The judges said www.ecoclub.com "stood out for its straightforward approach, engendering sense of community and display of ecological intent". On accepting the Award, ECOCLUB S.A. Director Antonis B. Petropoulos said: "Being recognised as the best responsible tourism website by the leading UK tourism professionals online community, is a milestone in ECOCLUB's groundroots efforts to support and promote genuine ecotourism, with limited funds but unlimited passion".

The Best Responsible Tourism Site Award was sponsored by Worldspan. Travel industry heavyweights such as Virgin Atlantic and Lastminute were among the winners in other categories. Over 300 candidate websites were analysed by a team of Internet professionals and academics according to ease of navigation, clarity of purpose, functionality and effective and aesthetically- pleasing design. The shortlist also included SATH.org, responsibletravel.com, and gonomad.com. TravelMole is a leading Travel & Tourism Industry Online Community with over 40,000 members, most in the UK.

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ECOCLUB.com Ecolodge Awards 2005 & Live Meetings

ECOCLUB is holding its own annual ECOCLUB.com Ecolodge Awards, for the second year. Deadline for submissions is May 15, 2005. The candidate projects will be introduced in a live meeting at the ECOCLUB.com Chat Centre on June 1, 2005 at 15:00 GMT and the winners will be announced on July 1, 2005, following an open discussion of candidate projects and a member vote during June.

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ECOCLUB participates in Ecolife 2005 Fair in Athens

ECOCLUB will be an exhibitor at ECOLIFE, the first major Environmental Fair in Athens, held  Friday 3 to Monday 6 June, at the Athens Olympic Sports Complex.  ECOLIFE has also decided to support ECOCLUB.com by becoming a  Sponsor Member. Our Members and readers in Athens, and those who happen to be visiting Athens, are requested to show their support by visiting our stand.

Details about the exhibition can be found at: 
http://www.ecolife.gr

Rural Tourism Conference & Live Meetings

Planeta.com's online Rural Tourism Conference that ECOCLUB.com proudly co-sponsored, has successfully concluded. We thank those members who attended the two related live meetings at the ECOCLUB.com Live Chat Centre. A final meeting to review conclusions reached during the conference will be held at our Live Chat Centre on Tuesday 10 May at 14:00 GMT.

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ECOCLUB Correspondent Reports:

The problem of funding
by Miles Davis, ECOCLUB Correspondent in UK

Correspondent Miles DavisThe vast majority of people who are in any way connected or interested in the need for protection of the environment and culture realise that sustainability is the way forward for development in a variety of sectors. So why is funding for such important issues so hard to come by?

It is an unfortunate situation that we find ourselves scraping around for the funding needed to protect not only important natural features but cultural ones too.

Important environmental and cultural issues are all too often left to NGO's to highlight the urgent need to protect a particular area, species, heritage, tradition and to bring to light the dangers and evidence of pollution and man's damaging effect on our fellow man.
Should it not be governments that take the lead in such issues of global significance?
Unfortunately, the majority of governments and politicians around the world are shortsighted when it comes to such matters. They operate on a reactive basis as opposed to a proactive one. This point of view is backed up by the recent completion and publication of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (www.millenniumassessment.org), which states that the majority of the world's ecosystems are still being degraded and used in an unsustainable manner. Another stark statistic the Assessment states is that between 10 and 30 % of the world's species face extinction. This is yet more evidence, as if were needed, that not enough is being done to protect our ecosystems. There is certainly no shortage of people and organisations around the world with very valid proposals for projects, but the biggest obstacle is usually obtaining funding for assessment and implementation.

With all the evidence pointing to the urgent need for a more solid framework with regard the environment and the natural world, such issues should be an integral part of many government's policies.
Many politicians pay only lip service to the environmental and cultural cause, but fall short when action is needed on the ground.
If the government's of the world took a more long-term view concerning the environment, it may well be easier to implement many of the programmes needed to protect and conserve our fragile habitats, ecosystems and species by making funds more readily accessible.

Correspondent's Profile - Contact

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NEWS from our Members

Nikki Rose (Supporter Member, US/GR), wrote a letter to the Editor of the New York Times to protest an article by Michelle Green, "Regarding "Eco-Tourism: The Director's Cut" where, as is often in non-specialist publications (the ones that spell ecotourism as "eco-tourism"), ecotourism is equated with adventure or nature tourism. In her letter Nikki, points out that "Ecotourism is not a bumpy ride through the Jungle in a Jeep, or disrupting the habitat with a private landing strip, so that you might get closer to nature faster". The full letter can be found at http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/04/17/travel/17mail.html

Nikki also published an article on "GROW BIOINTENSIVE: a sustainable mini-farming program of Ecology Action, a non-profit environmental research and education organization based in Willits, California". This innovative method of soil preparation claims that it can build the soil up to 60 times faster than in nature, with a tailored-formula required for each region of the world. Article can be read at Slow Food's website at http://www.slowfood.com/eng/sf_sloweb/sf_sloweb_dettaglio.lasso?passaswe=SW_01645 

Nikki Rose runs culinary and agrotourism programs in Crete, Greece and in San Francisco.

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An article about Kerala Gramam (Ecolodge Member, IN) appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, written by Jeremy Iggers.

Excerpt: "We returned in time for a boat trip on the backwaters. Djoshi, one of Jos' neighbors, arrived in a long dugout canoe, and with a long pole, punted us across the shallow waterway to a nearby island. Waiting for us on shore were three brothers, Lawrence, Anthony and Martin, who were quickly joined by half a dozen friends and neighbors. It turned out that the brothers, perhaps inspired by Jos' example, had also started offering home stays at the homestead they call Kallancherry Retreat, and they were eager to show off all that their tiny island had to offer. First, they demonstrated the working of their Chinese fishing nets. The elaborate cantilevered contraptions with large nets on long poles are lowered into the water, then raised again, to yield small catches of prawns and an occasional fish. A table and some plastic chairs were hastily set up on the water's edge so that we could sample the catch, which was quickly transformed by Lawrence's wife into a savory and spicy Keralan curry."

Full article can be found at: http://www.startribune.com/stories/1611/5141529.html

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Eric Stronkhorst (Supporter Member, NL), has just presented his MSc Thesis on " Exploring the Potentials and Pitfalls for NTFP (Non Timber Forest Product) Related Tourism -The Case of the Bituri Forest in Brazil" to the University of Wageningen and has kindly prepared a summary for ECOCLUB. Eric tackled an important issue, that of whether and how tourism can help eradicate poverty. We wish him every success in his future endeavours and hope he will actively pursue the important topic of his thesis.

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