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International: Revenues from international tourism shrank 2.6 percent last year because Sept. 11 "severely aggravated" the impact of a global economic slowdown, according to the World Tourism Organization. The United States was among the hardest-hit countries, with its earnings from foreign tourists falling by 11.9 percent. The global downturn was worse than forecast in the aftermath of the attacks, but the WTO forecast (if anyone can forecast anything) it will return to growth by the end of this year. France remained the top destination with 76.5 million visitors, followed by Spain at 49.5, with the US falling to third place with 45 m.
Greenpeace argued that 12 percent of the world's future electricity by 2020
could be derived from wind power, and that the
only thing that stands in the way of a Renewable Energy revolution is the lack
of political will. The Daily Telegraph, a UK newspaper, is holding a competition whereby a seven-night holiday for two at the Half Moon Club in Jamaica could be yours if you write to them "about an eco-tourism venue or project that merits being entered in the 2003 British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow awards". Entries (500 words maximum, preferably typed) should describe an eco-tourism scheme, either in the UK or abroad, and explain why you think it should be nominated. Send them to Eco-Tourism Competition, Travel Department, The Daily Telegraph, 1 Canada Square, London E14 5DT. The closing date is August 31,2002. For a set of terms and conditions, write to the same address, enclosing a stamped addressed envelope. The World Tourism Organisation and UNCTAD have agreed to take a new initiative "Sustainable Tourism
as a tool for Eliminating Poverty", under the acronym ST-EP, with the
purpose of "exploring a framework that could facilitate the involvement of the community of donors and secure multi-stakeholder support for
the poverty reduction policies". Details A recent study by a marketing company Trip Advisor found that
online buyers of "complex travel products" often take as long as one month to
finalise their purchase. Tourism Concern, a UK-based organisation vocal
against "Ecotourism" and the "International Year of
Ecotourism", has just launched a "consumer campaign" on fair working conditions for
mountain porters worldwide. Details Africa & M.East
A major killer in human populations, tuberculosis has now
jumped into populations of Africa's meerkats and mongooses, through tourism, say
the California Academy of Sciences Central African Republic: The rainforests of the Central African Republic's Dzanga Sangha national
park are inhabited by the Ba'Aka indigenous people, which counts with some
20,000 members. Like many other so-called "Pygmy" groups of
neighbouring
countries, they have been hunter-gatherers living in the heart of the
forest and have developed a whole body of knowledge on the local
rainforest resources. Now logging companies have arrived. To
reach selected trees a network of roads is built, which not only destroy
forest land but also open up the forest to outsiders, mainly immigrants
from Congo and Cameroon seeking employment at the company. Poverty and
unemployment drive many newcomers to poaching, supplying nearby bush meat
markets with gorilla, elephant, gazelle and antelope. Bayanga, a village of just
200 residents in the 1980s is now a boomtown of 6,000 complete with discotheques
and Western missionaries. Egypt: EgyptAir's longtime head resigned following a sharp a drop in international tourism associated with September 11. In more positive news, archaeologists found the world's oldest intact sarcophagus (4,500 years-old) one mile from the pyramids of Giza. Developmentex.com Jordan: The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) on Wednesday signed a partnership agreement with the Jordanian Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) to promote the Wadi Mujib Protected Area over a three-year period by "boosting eco-tourism with the participation of surrounding rural communities". MiddleEastWire.com Kenya: Mount Kenya, regarded as God's sacred dwelling by the Kikuyu, Embu, Meru, Kamba and Maasai ethnic groups, will be crowned with a monument to be constructed during the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Kenyan conservationists plan to construct a pyramid carved with the portraits of four former African statesmen on top of the mountain, Nelson Mandela, Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah. Uganda: President Museveni called
for an immediate, total ban on wild animal exports (elephants, great apes and
reptiles) from Uganda, a reversal of his governments decision two years ago to
resume these "exports". While launching a USD 100,000 conservation endowment fund at the Uganda Wildlife Education
Centre in Entebbe President Museveni said that he views wild animals as "treasures that can be exploited through
tourism". The fund's goal is to raise US$5m / A World Bank internal report
said A US$550 million hydroelectric dam project on the White
Nile in Uganda violates World Bank policies that require prior assessment of a
project's economic viability and impact on the environment, the bank's internal
watchdog panel said in a report. It said the plans also "do not mention or
even consider resettlement or compensation of people working in tourism
activities" in the Lake Victoria area "who may
lose their assets and primary source of income as a result of the project." Zimbabwe: Implementing an internationally controversial plan, the government ordered white commercial farmers to stop operations in preparation for a takeover of their land by the government, to give it to landless black citizens. The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund, the U.S. and Peruvian governments signed an "debt-for-nature swap" agreement, first of its kind. Under the agreement, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund committed a total of $1.1 million while the U.S. government allocated $5.5 million to cancel a portion of Peru's debt to the United States. Peru will save about $14 million in debt payments over the next 16 years, and will provide $10.6 million toward conservation over the next 12 years. Brazil:
The Brazilian Sustainable Tourism Council has been set up at a meeting in São
Paulo with the aim of promoting sustainable tourism through an independent
certification system with social and
environmental quality standards. Costa Rica: The Ecologist Association of Limon, Ser y Conservar, have denounced a certified "green label" logging company, for exploiting a zone in the Protected Wildlife Area of Banano River. The logging company has purchased over 2,000 hectares of land and has received authorisation by the Ministry of Environment and Energy to carry out logging activities in the zone. / IPS.org reported that the new Tourism Minister Rubén Pacheco wanted to modify the government's international marketing strategy in order to " change the idea that Costa Rica is just forest and jungle,''and to re-promote Costa Rica, up to now touted as the success story of world ecotourism, as a ''five-star tourism'' destination. ''Many people today think that going to Costa Rica means travelling to a region of gorgeous mountains and beaches, where they will have to sleep in tents or outside under the stars,'' said the new minister, probably implying that something was wrong with that notion. Ecuador: The Achuar people of Ecuador and Peru are completing a historic
process to form a bi-national organization that will bridge the
international boundary that has divided their people since 1941. USA: The International Herald Tribune reported
that the US
government was considering whether Web sites selling air tickets should be regulated and whether
they are indeed offering the lowest fares. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has named David Winstead, a former
state transportation secretary in Maryland, to oversee a nine-member commission
created by Congress to investigate prices and practices of various airline sites
and independent sites - such as Travelocity.com and Expedia.com - and their
impact on travelers and travel agents. USA: The United States is facing one of its worst fire seasons with more than 2.5 million acres (1 mln hectares) have burned this year. During June firefighters continued to battle nearly 20 large fires in nine Western states. At least one fire was proven to be arson by a seasonal firefighter while a wildfire burning in Alaska's interior was ignited by state biologists using firecrackers to " ward off an aggressive cow moose". USA:
According to the 2002 American Express Leisure Travel Index, almost half of all
travelers (48.2%) said they will wait until the last minute to book their
vacation plans. Americans will also be budgeting 7% less for their vacations
this year than last. USA: A Jupiter Media Metrix Report called the Mass Affluent Population Online, examined the online buying habits of households with a yearly income of $75,000 or more and found that 59% of people in this segment bought travel online, compared to 45% of people in the $45-$75,000 dollar segment and just 35% where the household earnings were under $45,000. USA: Hawaii has become the second US state within a year to completely prohibit shark feeding dives. Details USA: A female air passenger who dared make a
joke and asked a flight attendant whether "the crew had been checked for
sobriety", referring to a recent incident when two pilots of the SAME
airline had been found drunk, was removed from an Americas West flight, "as
a security precaution" Details Asia & Pacific China:
China is planning to open up 14 million hectares of land to ecological tourism
by 2005, according to the National Forestry Administration with the number of forest parks is
expected to total 1,450 in three years' time. More than 100 million tourists visited China's forest parks and nature reserves
last year providing US$6 billion in income, up 25 per
cent over the previous year. Meanwhile the State Council, China's cabinet,
issued a document detailing a national program on converting part of farmland
into forest and grassland. The document says the government would compensate
farmers who stop plowing on erosion-hit land to make way for forests, grassland
or wetlands. Total investment by the government is likely to surpass 12 billion
US dollars when the program is completed by 2010. The compensation is based on
300 yuan (about 36 dollars) each year for every hectare of farmland given up for
forest, plus 750 yuan per hectare in subsidies to purchase seedlings. Farmers
can get the compensation for as long as eight years, and will own the forests. India / Andaman Islands: Jarawa, a largely uncontacted people who inhabit the Andaman Islands in the
Indian ocean and have voluntarily chosen to continue almost completely isolated, have been harassed by encroachment on their lands by
settlers from the Indian mainland in the last 150 years. Pressure from poachers on the coast has driven them inland, and their
nomadic and hunter-gatherer way of living has thus been increasingly threatened. Although a few Jarawa, particularly women and children, still
come out onto the road or into settlements, they continue to live a self-sufficient life in the forest. They live in groups of 40-50 people,
hunting pig and monitor lizard, fishing with bows and arrows, and gathering seeds, berries and honey.
Their survival became more jeopardised in 1970, with the building of a road through their forest, which brought more settlers, poachers and
loggers into their land. Survival International, an NGO, has been calling for years the closure of the so called Andaman Trunk Road
and removal of settlers from tribal reserves. In 2002 the Indian government accepted to abandon resettlement plans for
the Jarawa. And finally, in the face of strong political opposition, on last May 7, the Supreme Court of India accepted the recommendations of
commissioner Shekhar Singhs, and issued the order to close the road, withdraw encroachers from the tribes' land, and end logging of their
forests. The order was issued in a petition about logging on tribal lands filed by the Society for Andaman and Nicabar Ecology (SANE), Bombay
Natural History Society (BNHS) and Kalpavriksh. Laos: Eucalyptus industrial plantations,
promoted through the Asian Development Bank (ADB) appear to be causing forest, soil and water resource degradation.
A private company with majority New Zealand ownership has been granted concessions to develop eucalyptus
plantations on 50,000 hectares of land in central Laos. Wild mushrooms are one of the most important sources of cash income for
villagers in Ban Palay, and the best areas for collecting mushrooms are in the dry dipterocarp forests that are beginning to be converted into
eucalyptus plantations.
Southeast Asian nations agreed to help each other
tackle the land and forest fires which have periodically
blighted the region's agriculture and cherished tourist
industries with choking clouds of smoke. Meanwhile the Cambodian government has cancelled the timber concessions of a Malaysian
company accused of illegal logging. Russian Far East: In a historic conservation measure, six areas of wild
forestland in the Russian Far East totaling 1.7 million acres were designated as protected.
These areas are now off-limits to all major industrial activity, with some of the land
designated as "areas of traditional use" for the indigenous Evenk
peoples. All of the protected areas are located in the vast Amur River watershed in
the Russian Far East, one of the world's ten great rivers. It was the culmination of years of advocacy by the local organization Amur Socio-Ecological Union (SEU), with assistance from
the Oakland-based non-profit organization Pacific Environment, as well as the Russian Far East branch of the Worldwide Fund for Nature.
This designation is the single largest in the history of the Amur region, and one of the largest in the world. It comes at a time when many timber
and mineral industries have taken a great interest in extracting the region's resources.
The Amur River flows over 2,700 km, winding unencumbered by dams through a wide diversity of landscape, including desert, steppe, and temperate forests. The Amur region in the Russian Far
East is home to a wealth of Russia's biodiversity, including Brown Bear, Roe
Deer, and Oriental White
Stork. Indonesia: PATA announced the incorporation of a mart into the 1st PATA
Sustainable Tourism Conference & Mart, October 23-26 in Banten, Western
Java, Indonesia. The one-and-a-half day mart component will open up a host of
business opportunities for attending delegates. The mart, in the form of
table-top displays, will showcase the region's "sustainable tourism-related
products, facilities and services". Indonesia: Forestry Minister Prakosa announced a permanent ban on log and wood chips exports to protect the country's dwindling tropical forests. Prakosa said around 5,000 hectares (12,300 acres) of Indonesian forests had been lost to illegal logging every day for the past five years. Indonesia first imposed a ban on log exports in 1980 but later replaced it with a 200 percent export tax theoretically aimed at encouraging exports of higher-value wood products, practically encouraging smuggling. Cyprus: A saga took a violent turn as arrests were made for trespassing when environmentalist groups led by two Members of Parliament staged a sitting protest to prevent the installation of a network of communications antennae in the environmentally sensitive area of Akrotiri Salt Lake, which lies within a British sovereign base, one of two retained on the island since 1960 when Cyprus gained its independence from the British Empire. Some 500 Cypriot protesters came back and managed to free the arrested MP Marios Matsakis from the British Base police station, torched vehicles and injured 27 policemen. The environmentalists support that the antennae system will have an adverse effect on local residents and migratory birds. Germany: Preussag AG said the development of its tourism business this year continues to be marked by weakness in the German market, with total summer bookings currently down 7.2 pct and down 12.4 pct in Germany, its largest market. Greece: With the tourist season well under way, the lower crews of all passengers ferries went on strike over social security demands, effectively cutting off all Greek islands from the mainland, apart from air traffic, for over a week. Following calls of "desperation" from the tourist and shipping industry, the government decided to impose the rare and controversial measure of "civil conscription" on the striking crews to force them to return to their positions, and the crews promptly obliged. Ireland: Ireland risks paying a hefty fine from the European Commission for "failing to bring its archail laws on animal experiments into line with European Union rules". Italy: At the recent 3rd European Conference on Travel Medicine, in Florence, Conference on Travel Medicine, the Hepatitis A vaccine was proposed as an easy and safe solution for Travellers, protection lasting for 10 years. There are over 8000 cases of travel contracted Hepatitis A cases resulting in 50 deaths in Europe every year and these could have easily been avoided. Italy: Joined by a video link, Pope John Paul II and the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos signed a declaration stating that protecting the environment is a "moral and spiritual" duty. Malta: The chairman of the Malta Tourism
Authority John Grech has recognised that the problem of illegal hunting had reached
"epidemic" proportions and was one of the factors dealing a blow to
Malta's most important industry - tourism. The MTA chairman also recognised the risks posed by fish
farms and tuna pens. Malta's Green Party issued a statement congratulating the Malta Tourist Authority for
realising that that tourism and the
environment are interdependent but expressed their disappointment that "in the international year dedicated to eco tourism, the government is not
doing enough to promote Malta as a serious and environmentally friendly
destination" " while arrogant lobby groups dictate over the
rest of the community". Romania: Tourism officials vowed Friday to continue plans
to build a Dracula theme park in Transylvania despite criticism from UNESCO that the project threatens
Sighisoara, a nearby medieval citadel, a World Heritage Site.
Deputy Tourism Minister Alin Burcea called the fears for the Dracula
"unrealistic.''
The park, to be privately funded, will cost about USD 15.6 million, with
another USD 19 million needed for infrastructure
improvements.
The park will include rides, a golf course, a Gothic castle wired with spooky
effects, a zoo, horseback riding, restaurants and
shops. Spain: Afraid not to annoy tourists by asking
them to pay the...gigantic regional government eco-tax amounting to sum of 1
EURO per night (approx. 1 USD), many of the Balearic islands' hotels are
paying the tax themselves for now. Since brochures for this summer's package
holidays were printed before the court allowed the tax to go ahead, many
hoteliers are reluctant to ask guests to pay more. What is certain is that the
islands' 10 million tourists are continuing to exert immense pressure local
infrastructure and the environment. Other hotels are levying the tax but are sugar-coating the bitter pill by giving guests vouchers for an equal amount to spend on drinks or other goods at the hotel. UK: Representatives from Association of National Tourist
Office Representatives in the UK, ANTOR, with 85 countries, threatened
boycotting this years World Travel Market if prices are not reduced by 30%
for the next two years. protested fee hikes and the transfer of the World
Travel Market from Earls Court to another venue. Reportedly the cost for a
kiosk reaches 250,000 USD,. Mr. Panos Argyros, director of the Greek
National Tourist Organisation Office in London, was reported as saying that
the WTM is 2.7 times more expensive than ITB, and wondered if GNTO should be
spending their funds in a more efficient manner UK: Buckingham Palace started an inquiry into how the new pounds 20m Queen's Gallery came to use tropical hardwood from endangered rainforests, in contravention of the official policy of the royal household property. The revelation was made by Greenpeace. Copyright © 1999-2002 ECOCLUB
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