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ECOCLUB, Issue 92
ECOCLUB®, the International Ecotourism Club™ celebrates 8th Anniversary by holding its annual Ecotourism
Awards and funding eco-projects in Rwanda, Ecuador and Cambodia
ATHENS, GREECE (1 July 2007)
To celebrate its 8th anniversary, ECOCLUB®, the International Ecotourism Club™ announced today the results of its fourth
annual eco-project competition, the "ECOCLUB.com Ecotourism Awards 2007" which fund community and environment-
supporting projects, organised and implemented by tourism companies around the world.
Candidate project details were publicly posted online in May 2007, scrutinised by ECOCLUB.com Members, and the three
winners were chosen democratically by Members through an online vote at www.ecoclub.com in June 2007.
Presenting the Awards at a live on-line ceremony, ECOCLUB Director, Antonis B. Petropoulos, said: "Building on the
experience of the past three years and thanks to the enthusiastic support of our Members in 80 countries, this year we were able
to increase the awards prize to Euros 3,000 (approx USD 4,000) so as to equally fund three eco-projects. Our awards are
different in that they are not based on morally rewarding past performance, but on financially supporting future action. Winners
are not determined by a panel of judges but in a transparent and democratic manner by ECOCLUB Members".
Following a tightly run contest between nine worthwhile projects, the 2007 winners are:
Winning Project: Turning Gorilla Poachers into Farmers
Creating an alternative means to local people around gorillas’ national park with an alternative livelihood that will absent them
from wildlife poaching and the degradation of mountain gorilla habitat.
Details
Winning Project: Pig Farm for Wildlife Protection
The difficult to balance carrying capacity of the lodge and the desires of local indigenous people to hunt fresh meat all come
together in a pig farm.
Details
Winning Project: Plastic Bag Recycling Microentreprise
Creation of a microenterprise to collect and recycle discarded plastic bags by turning them into a range of useful products.
Details
All three winners thanked ECOCLUB Members for their trust and pledged an early implementation of the projects. In
particular, Edwin Sabuhoro, Managing Director of Rwanda Eco-tours Agency, said: "In the name of communities around
Rwanda's Parc National Des Volcans, this is absolutely good news, we cannot believe we were entrusted with ECOCLUB
members sense of understanding, feeling and being part of us as we struggle to make mountain gorilla conservation a reality in
Rwanda by empowering local communities with principles of adaptive management, that will not only give gorillas a future but
also enriching local communities in Rwanda to be part of of the whole cycle in the global ecotourism spectrum.
Eric Schwartz, President of La Selva Jungle Lodge added: "It has been my great privilege to be associated with the ECOCLUB
for many years. La Selva Jungle Lodge in the Amazon basin of Ecuador applauds the work of the club and we are glad in our
small way, this year, to take an active role in the good works of a singular organization with our winning proposal for measures
towards sustainable ecotourism. In the spirit of the ECOCLUB we will forge ahead with all the resources we can muster."
As every year, the winning projects implementation and completion will be transparently presented and monitored online at
www.ecoclub.com, the world's most popular ecotourism business portal. The full implementation of the projects is a pre-
condition for the payment of 70% of the Award funds.
For details on the ECOCLUB.com Ecotourism Awards
