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Feral cats are a significant pest in all parts of Australia. They have helped kill off dozens of small mammal species, and are getting more vicious and more numerous by the year. But some places are fighting back against the pussycat peril. One of the success stories comes from tiny Bruny Island, off the coast of Tasmania.
Despite being still subject to travel restrictions, some resort operators are looking ahead to returning visitors. One Balinese resort is offering space as well as relaxation.
Tasmania, already a destination known for pure air, rugged mountains and biodiverse national parks, is geared to even become more sustainable. It aims to become carbon neutral by 2025.
Most news about wetlands is negative: lost, drained, polluted or worse. But one Australian initiative is seeing the rebirth of the Nimmie Caira, or the Kakadu of the South, in New South Wales.
The pandemic has caused much disruption to our world, but some of the side-effects have been positive. One flag-waving example is the plan to ban everyday traffic from the Champs Elysee in Paris and turn it into a tree-filled cycle and pedestrian precinct.
Thanks to a pioneering fragmentation approach, coral growth that would usually take up to 100 years to produce is now happening on reefs in as little as two years.
Many eco-resorts have been hit particularly hard by the recent pandemic. Relying heavily on incoming tourists, often situated in remote areas with relatively limited connectivity and supply chains, many have been left out on a limb. One dive resort in West Papua has taken the pandemic as an opportunity to relook its overall approach to sustainability.
Golf courses get plenty of flack for being unsustainable. They use up valuable fertile land, consume huge amounts of water and produce nothing apart from perspiring businessmen. Apart from, that is, Lăng Cô Golf Club in Central Vietnam which has made sustainability one of its key goals.
The result of a unique collaboration by a private company, a regional forest department and the local community, Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary, high in the Indian Himalayas, boasts one of the last natural temperate broadleaved forests in the region as well as a unique range of localised ecotourism activities.
Post-Covid, many countries being hit by a second wave of infection. Tourism seems the last thing on many peoples’ minds. But some destinations depend so heavily on tourists they are looking for ways to tempt visitors back – safely. The Maldives is one.
Despite having to close temporarily due to the coronavirus pandemic, Cairns-based diving outfit Passions of Paradise couldn’t stop thinking about their local reef even though they had no customers. So they did what they do best: helped look after Mother Nature. They teamed up with some reef scientists and got stuck into work on a new coral reef nursery.
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PLANET
A French NGO housing charity in Brittany is creating its own small achievements using homeless builders to build tiny homes on wheels - which they get to live in.
Hungry? Fancy eating something nice? How about a plastic credit card? We all know about plastic pollution in our rivers and seas, but recent information reveals that it is much closer to home than you might think. Inside you, in fact. Like you have eaten a credit card every week.
In previous times the River Thames was the main cargo artery of an empire. But today waterborne deliveries have shrunk to almost nothing. But with green constraints becoming ever more important, the eco-friendly barges are back – delivering goods to riverside Londoners. By Jeremy Torr.
Most supermarkets now carry bent bananas, angular avocados and contorted carrots. Sold as ugly produce, they are a significant change in product. But are they really helping cut down food waste? Or just another profit channel?
Every year, around one million tonnes of cigarette butts are thrown wilfully into gutters, streets, roads and parks - and described as producing the worst form of plastic pollution ever. But in one town, smart Swedish crows are helping to clean butts up
France has implemented a series of laws that will seriously impact any plastic use, and apply transportation and advertising standards that will help reduce fossil-based consumption.
Outdoor enthusiasts often protest about the encroachment of developed society on the wild places. But it seems some of those same enthusiasts are guilty of spoiling the very places they value.
First-world diets may be having a significant impact on the planet, as well as our waistlines. Increasingly, research is indicating that food production and meat consumption in particular has a massive effect on global warming.
Solar farms – huge acreages of thousand-panel solar grids – are seeing a growth explosion. But are they taking over otherwise useful, productive land? Not if we let the insects and wildflowers in, say the experts.
As the climate warms, some regions suffer crippling drought, while others are hit by deadly floods. Often worst hit are urban areas which suffer catastrophic water damage and loss of life when engineered drainage is breached - but one pioneering Chinese architect thinks he has the solution to urban flooding: sponge cities.
According to a recent research project, water sold in plastic bottles could be thousands of times worse for us, and the environment, than water from your humble tap.
A Singapore-based startup is applying new technology to previously wasted agricultural by-products and turning them into biodegrabeable yarn for use in clothing.
PEOPLE
Most recognised conservationists come from a strictly scientific and westernised background. Not so Dr. Sam ʻOhu Gon III. He was born and raised in Nuʻuanu, on the island of Oʻahu, in Hawai’i and even gained his first scientific qualifications using the Hawai‘i language.
Elissa Keenan has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of Ecotourism Australia.
In the majestic mountains of the Himalaya, one man realised his ambition to be an engineer was less strong than his ambition to be a sustainability advocate.
An interview with Tasmania’s Robert Pennicott of Pennicott Wilderness Journeys on conservation activities and his views on regenerative tourism, sustainable tourism and ecotourism.
Many activists use protest banners, campaigns and pressure groups to promote sustainable practices. But one couple in Bali believes that the path to sustainable living starts from the kitchen.
Jennifer Toole has been a transportation engineer and designer for over 30 years. She is a big fan of multimodal transportation systems – but most of all loves to promote cycling.
There are many Filipinos who love birds but not many who think of them as a tourist attraction. Julius R. Paner, who lives in Davao, wants to change all that to ensure ecotourism includes birdwatching.
A would-be market gardener planted a paddock with palms to sell to locals. Then she found out that men in some Arab countries thought the pollen would help them stay virile. So she started keeping bees to turn the pollen into honey, and became a successful exporter. But all along, she just wanted to keep the plants and bees happy. A story on sustainable beekeeping.
Two new arrivals in Laos loved the country, but missed eating cheese. In Laos milk simply isn’t part of the diet – local buffalo are only used for ploughing, even though they can be milked. So the two women built their own dairy, the first of its kind in Laos, and made their own cheese.
Ex-Silicon Valley CEO Yishan Wong says that using technology to combat climate change is not a realistic solution. He is convinced that trees are the simplest, most obvious and logically proven answer to CO2 pollution. One that needs a worldwide approach to be viable – and he has the answer to that too.
Conservationists in north east India are working hard to save a big, ugly, smelly scavenger that has fallen foul of expanding villages in the Assam region of India. Purnima Devi Barman is the woman championing this unlikely animal.
In India, only a handful of students get to attend their dream universities, and unsuccessful applicants are often branded as failures. Worse, many so-called failures can often find no place at all in the conventional education system. But high up in the Himalayas there is an educational institute where failure is the sole criteria for admission. Sonam Wangchuk is its creator
Festivals
Over nine days from 8–17 October 2021, the long-awaited Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (UWRF) comes back to life with a theme of Mulat Sarira, or Self-Reflection
Tasmania’s BOFA (Breath of Fresh Air) Film Festival was almost cancelled due to coronavirus restrictions. But it is going ahead - online.
The Cygnet Folk Festival will be held over the long weekend of 10-12 January in the historic country town of Cygnet on the banks of the Huon estuary, Tasmania. Billed as Tasmania's leading celebration of folk and world music, dance, poetry, performance art, food and culture the weekend will offer entertainment for all.
If you want the best sustainable ethics, a fantastic long weekend of experiences and music, and the best website design ever, then the Wonderfruit Festival in Pattaya, Thailand is a must-go.
The Singapore Writers Festival (SWF) promises a literary extravaganza with a host of talks, workshops and cultural events with participating authors from this region and beyond.
The 2019 edition of Asian Festival of Children’s Content will place importance on difficult and sensitive topics related to ethnic and cultural diversity, among others. Mallika Naguran presents a peak at what is in store at the regional literary event staged in Singapore this September.
EVENTS
From accommodation, destinations to NGOs, the search is on for ecotourism champions around the world to participate in the Asian Ecotourism Network International Ecotourism Awards—an inaugural award presentation by the regional Asian Ecotourism Network.
This November will see the annual Gigs in Space music festival held at Spring Bay Mill (SBM) site in Triabunna, Tasmania on Saturday 6 November 2021, 12pm.
This year will see a revamped Bali cultural festival, melding the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (UWRF) and Ubud Food Festival (UFF) into a new, digital celebration of Balinese culture. Called KEMBALI 2020, it will run from 29 October to 8 November 2020
Global Eco Asia Pacific Tourism Conference this year will take place at Margaret River with both online and live attendance options from 1 to 3 December 2020. Topics will range from surviving the impact of natural disasters and pandemics to ecotourism futures and revolutionary ideas.
A new 5-day online event for professionals working in the eco resort and ecotourism sector from 27-31 July 2020 in association with Eco Resort Network, World of Glamping and No Footprint Consulting – called Eco Hotel Summit.
The annual Zayed Sustainability Prize has recognised and rewarded sustainable innovations in Health, Food, Energy, Water and Global Education since 2009. Projects with positive social impacts and environmental solutions could receive funding of USD600,000 each.
The Asian Ecotourism Network (AEN) webinar series aims to get the ecotourism industry together through discussions and expert sharing of challenges and opportunities for improvement, particularly in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.
Ecotourism Australia’s 28th annual Global Eco Asia-Pacific Tourism Conference will be held in Margaret River, Western Australia from 1 - 3 December 2020. Live streaming of certain sessions will be available.
Highlight events are Clean Environment Leaders’ Summit, the Clean Environment Convention and the inaugural Youth Environment Leaders Forum at CleanEnviro Summit in Singapore from 5-9 July 2020. Update on 24 March 2020: This event has been postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
The Baleh-Kapit Raft Safari is an adventurous event from 3-5 April 2020 that brings people closer to the water networks of Sarawak while reminding them of its importance in transporting people around, especially in rural areas.
This year’s Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM) is ramping up efforts to reduce the impact and accumulated waste on the environment and at the same time offering a great experience to runners and spectators.
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Travel responsibly - Read Gaia Guide 2011/2012 (download the ecotravel Gaia Guide here and view Gaia Guide on SlideShare here).
Climate change is impacting Pacific island nations harder than most – and sooner than most, too. Surprisingly, archaeologists have discovered that some islanders have been coping with climate change issues for hundreds of years.