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Last Updated
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A CHALLENGE FOR CONSERVATIONISTS
World Watch published a must-read article by Mac Chapin in
the November/December 2004 issue. A
Challenge for Conservationists is available in PDF format.
Login required.
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An excerpt: "As corporate and government money flow into
the big three international organizations that dominate the
world's conservation agenda, their programs have been marked
by growing conflicts of interest--and by a disturbing neglect
of the indigenous people whose land they are in the business
to protect."
World Watch has also published Reader
Responses (also a PDF, login required) and a more reader-friendly
html page of even More
Reader Responses to 'A Challenge for Conservationists'
For continued discussion of this issue, read ODI's transcript
of a presentation on Rights
and natural resources.
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CERTIFICATION UPDATE
Last summer Indigenous Tourism Rights International conducted
an online
conference among indigenous peoples about the issue of tourism
certification and in particular a recent IDB grant in the Americas.
The summary report can be downloaded online |
US$9 MILLION GRANT TO WORK WITH CENTRAL AMERICAN INDIGENOUS
COMMUNITIES
From the IDB news room comes this gem
released last December 17th.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) , the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank (WB) announced today
a five-year joint program to promote sustainable development
in indigenous communities in Central America. The program will
be financed with a US$9 million grant from the GEF, US$4 million
of which will be administered by the World Bank and US$5 million
by the IDB.
The GEF grant will be disbursed between 2005 and 2009. Local
indigenous communities and CCAD will contribute US$2.5 million
in counterpart funds to the project, which will enable participating
groups to access additional resources from other development
projects financed by the IDB and the World Bank in Central America.
The project will prevent land degradation that threatens environmental
services, livelihoods, and the economic well-being of approximately
558 indigenous communities while conserving the region's
high, but increasingly threatened, biodiversity resources.
Full
press release
More details online the World Bank website via the Updated
Project Information Document on the Central
America: Indigenous Integrated Ecosystem Management
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NEW PUBLICATIONS: ECOLODGES
Ecolodges:
Exploring Opportunities for Sustainable Business - IFC summarizes
the results of research on the triple bottom line from the two
studies below, emphasizing environmental, social and economic
sustainability in the ecolodge sector. Key factors are highlighted
regarding what makes an ecolodge environmentally, socially and
financially successful.
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QUOTABLE
Sami Grover: Studies have shown up to 97%
of a tourist's energy footprint being a result of airtravel,
it would seem that any improvements in destination based energy
use, however welcome, are limited in reducing the overall impact
of tourism (the 97% figure is cited in our new Tourism,
Recreation and Climate Change book, but comes from:
Gössling et al (2002), "Ecological Footprint Analysis
as a Tool to Assess Tourism Sustainability" Ecological
Economics 43 (2-3), 199-211).
Any contribution which tourism makes to preventing deforestation
and/or funding reforestation should also be taken into account,
but the debate about the security of forests as carbon sinks
rumbles on and is far from settled. I'm not saying that tourism
shouldn't be considered as a funding source for such programmes,
but the whole energy lifecycle of a tourism trip must be taken
into account before it can be seen as any kind of solution to
climate change.
For more information about the environmental impact of
transportation, please consult the Transportation
Forum. |
NEWSGOOGLED
The nomination of US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz
to head the World Bank surprised many. Here are views from around
the world courtesy of Google
News
Bush courts controversy with Wolfowitz for World Bank
Wolfowitz seeks to calm critics
Wolfowitz says he was inspired by tsunami
World Worries Over Wolfowitz
Europeans resigned to Wolfowitz appointment |
ABOUT THE SUSTAINABLE TOURISM BANK WATCH
Sustainable Tourism Bank Watch brings together multiple
stakeholders
-- including donors, communities, operators and media -- in
a review
of current financing of sustainable travel and ecotourism offered
by International Financial Institutions (IFIs) including the
World
Bank, the Inter-american
Development Bank, USAID
and others.
REMINDER -- You'll find more sustainable tourism bank
watch news and discussion in the Bank
Watch topic in the Planeta Forum
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UPCOMING EVENT: ECOTOURISM
EMERGING INDUSTRY FORUM
Planeta.com is co-developing the Ecotourism
Emerging Industry Forum with EplerWood International.
This forum is designed to provide professionally moderated,
up-to-date results on small and medium enterprise (SME) priorities
for funding and investment decisions for sustainable tourism
in developing countries. Details
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SEMINARS
Learning never ends. See if one of our seminars
is right for you. |
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