ATHENS, GREECE (1 July 2009)

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, ECOCLUB, the International Ecotourism Club™ announced today the results of its sixth annual eco-project competition, the "ECOCLUB.com Ecotourism Awards 2009" , through which it funds community and environment-supporting projects, proposed and implemented by its Members around the world. These alternative awards are not based on morally rewarding past performance, but on financially supporting future groundroots action through micro-grants amounting to a total of Euros 3,000 (approx. USD 4,200). This years' theme was "Their Crisis, Our Communities - progressive change through Social Ecotourism” and Members were encouraged to propose innovative projects that meet urgent needs, help create ‘another world’ at the grass roots level and improve life for all in their communities.

Candidate project details were posted online in a public forum, scrutinised by ECOCLUB Members, and the three winners were chosen democratically by a Member vote in late June. Presenting the Awards and congratulating the winners and contestants at a live on-line ceremony at www.ecoclub.com, ECOCLUB Director, Antonis Petropoulos, added: "The ECOCLUB Team thanks all our Members and Friends for their support during our first, formative decade. In the coming years we pledge to work together so as to press for real, social and ecological change through Tourism & within Tourism. This decade we also look forward to the development of a coherent theory and practice of Social Ecotourism, in sync with world social movements, and to many more community & family-owned successful implementations of Ecotourism, which would constitute a viable alternative model and a counterbalance to sprawling real estate developments & mega-resorts and to neoliberal, corporate & government greenwashing masquerading as 'responsible' tourism".

Jane Crouch (Australia):
Winning Project: Water Filters in Chichubamba Community - Peru
"Improving the health of the people of Chichubamba South by giving them access to clean drinking water, by providing ceramic water filters and education in their use and maintenance".
Project Proposal Details

Judy Karwacki (Canada)
Winning Project: From Wild to Web - Guyana
Ecotourism-linked wildlife monitoring activities by the village Wildlife Club will be enhanced by a dedicated laptop and cameras. Village youth will learn to digitally document field projects, to make web pages, and upload them online
Project Proposal Details

Manuel Apaza (Honduras)
Winning Project: Creating a Community Tourism Cooperative - Honduras
For a long time the local community of Buenos Aires has handled tourism activities inside the Cusuco National Park in a disorganized way so a local tourism cooperative is proposed as a step forward.
Project Proposal Details

The winners thanked ECOCLUB Members for their trust and pledged a timely implementation of the projects.