ISSN 1108-8931 |
Year 6 - Issue 70 |
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Sponsored by: Zante Feast Discovery Holidays, Purple Valley Yoga Centre, Hana Maui Botanical Gardens, Jorth Consult Limited, Pacuare Lodge, Ecolife 2005 Fair |
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ECOCLUB.com
wins UK Web Award.
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. 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. 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: 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. ECOCLUB Correspondent Reports: The problem of
funding The 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. 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. Correspondent's Profile - Contact 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. 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 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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