A blog post on eco-tourism that apparently ignores agriculture.
Potholes on the Tequila Trail
Tequila vs maize in the homeland of both.
Ecotourism investigated
From id21, a report that questions some of the assumptions about ecotourism, and asks whether it really is an innovative conservation and development strategy or merely a celebration, by those who can afford it, of poverty?
Ecotourism projects tell communities they can generate revenue by protecting biodiversity, but also that they should never hope to achieve much beyond this role. This ties the development prospects of rural communities to local, natural limits in a way that is completely alien to economic development in richer societies.
Given that the author, Jim Butcher, takes a pretty dim view of the whole scene, I suppose I should be glad that he does not seem to recognize agricultural ecotourism at all. But there are strong suggestions that this can help communities not only to gain an income but also to preserve their traditional knowledge at the same time as making the modern development steps needed to connect to the wider world. (There is a method for commenting on the id21 site, but it seems awfully cumbersome, and I can’t actually see whether anyone has commented on Butcher’s piece.)
Equator prize winners bank on biodiversity
The five winners of the United Nations Development Programme Equator Prize shared US$1.5 million and something else: biodiversity. Of the five, three depend squarely on biodiversity, one is managing a natural resource more effectively, and one educates people about biodiversity.
The village of Andavadoaka in Madagascar was among the winners, honoured for demonstrating how it managed an octopus fishery so that it can provide sustainable long-term benefits.
In Kenya, the Shompole Community Trust won for conserving the country’s vast and scenic grasslands and savannah as part of a profit-making ecotourism venture for the local Masai people.
In Guatemala, the women of Alimentos Nutri-Naturales won the prize for reinstating the Maya nut as a staple source of nutrition and this conserving the nut forests in the buffer zone next to a biosphere reserve.
The women of Isabela Island’s “Blue Fish” Association, who work within the World Heritage-listed Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, were rewarded for marketing a local delicacy – tuna smoked with guava wood – as a way to promote the alternative use of marine resources and control invasive plant species.
The other winner, Shidulai Swarnivar Sangstha, uses riverboat-based educational resource centres throughout the Ganges River delta in Bangladesh to deliver information to locals about sustainable agricultural practices and market prices.
Not surprising, really. But it would be nice to know more, and that information is proving hard to find. If any of the winners or their colleagues happen to read this, point us to a source for your story, please.
Ancient genebank dug up?
Is it possible to trace an intellectual connection from Roman horti to the medieval and renaissance physic garden to colonial botanic gardens such as Kew to the modern genebank? Possibly. If so, news of an archaeological discovery not far from where I’m sitting will be of importance to all who take an interest in agricultural biodiversity.