Category: Tourism

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ni-Vanuatu get traditional

I don’t know how I missed it. Having just finished a longish stint in the South Pacific, I still try to keep up with what’s going on down there, but the fact that 2007 is the “Year of the Traditional Economy” in Vanuatu totally slipped through my net. ni-Vanuatu are wonderful, friendly people and this sounds like it’s going to be fun. I’m sorry I’m not there (or nearby at any rate) any more, I would probably have tried to link up with some of the planned activities, as agricultural biodiversity seems to be very much on the agenda. Here’s one of the things that people are being encouraged to do, for example:

Each family and community to feed more pigs and chickens, plant more and/or larger gardens, plant more yams and taro, plant more fruit and nut bearing trees, plant more trees for making canoes and tamtams, plant more pandanas trees and plant more of other traditional foods and resources not listed here.

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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.)

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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.