Florida Keys ill-prepared for rising sea

Despite being called 'ground zero' for sea-level rise in the United States, the Florida Keys have lagged behind the rest of South Florida in planning for the potentially massive problem.

All About Sustainable Tourism and Responsible Travel - The "Good Tourism" Wiki

collaborative website

When Money Divides You: The Difference Between Tourist and Local

Locals often assume that travelers are loaded, and most of the time, it's comparatively true. Backpackers tend to carry a lot of cash. Bloggers stash laptops and cameras in their specialized padded backpacks, also not cheap. Even the most frugal will usually have an ipod. Imagine that your third-hand beaten down ipod costs more than a month's even a year's salary to many people across this planet. But just because a traveler has more money than a local, does that mean we should necessarily pay a higher price for the exact same service? On the one hand: What difference does that fifty cents make to you? How much more would it mean to your boat driver and the family he supports?

Map of the Week: Better Life Cycle

This week’s featured map shows an amazing journey of one man’s unsupported bike ride from London to Cape Town, stopping to deliver £100,000 of sponsorship directly to orphanages en route.

Climate Change: Some Winds Decreasing Across United States

... wind speeds across the country have decreased by an average of .5 percent to 1 percent per year since 1973. "The study found that across the country wind speeds were decreasing – more in the East than in the West, and more in the Northeast and the Great Lakes," ...

With Rebels on the Run, Colombia Is for the Birds

Birding tours are proliferating, reserves are sprouting up in former combat zones, and ornithologists are discovering new species and reacquainting themselves with ones not seen in years. Until the past four or five years, only a handful of foreigners who were "un poco locos" -- a little crazy -- dared to go birding in Colombia's war-torn valleys and jungles, ...

Mapping The Tugen Trail: Ecotourism Could Offer Lifeline To Protect Wildlife

“Local people participated in mapping some of these trails with GPS and a video camera. These films and maps are being used on GoogleEarth and YouTube to show the world some of the issues facing the Tugen people and as a possible way forward for encouraging ecotourism development and conservation alike.”

Interest in global voluntourism continues to grow

Two-thirds of high school students and about half of the college students surveyed say they have participated in discussions in the past year related to traveling to other regions to provide volunteer service, whereas less than half of the adult population, and only one-quarter of retirees, say they have done so

Australian Forests Best at Locking Up Carbon

Mountain ash forests in Australia are the best in the world at locking up carbon, a new study has found. And one of the authors said climate change negotiations should give more attention to protecting forests like these.

The Sustainable Tourism Gateway

Pencalenick House

Pencalenick House is an luxury retreat in Cornwall which overlooks the Fowey Estuary. As a private home Pencalenick House treats guests to the ultimate leisure experience by providing a chef and a house manager to cater for their needs. Guests can also make use of a skipped motor yacht.

In respect of the environment they:

• Shop locally to reduce food miles and help to keep ‘spend’ within the local economy
• Are working on developing their own fruit and vegetable patch!

Bordeaux Quay

Bordeaux Quay, a popular food destination, combines a restaurant, deli, bakery and cookery school under ‘one roof’.  Located in the harbour side in Bristol, Bordeaux Quay are minimising their impact on the environment by:

• Working with suppliers to minimise and reuse packaging
• Recycling where possible
• Low energy light bulbs are used
• Solar panels help to heat the water used
• Use of refurbished material in the fit out of the restaurant
• Local and organic suppliers are used where possible

Finisterre

Finisterre is a provider of specialist clothing for surfers.

Importantly, they have a strong environmental ethos which runs throughout the company and the lifecycle of products they produce.  Finisterre are:

• Using recyable fabrics
• Manufacturing garments in Colombia where the facility is run by nuns, as part of a 15 year old social regeneration program and in Portugal with ‘bespoke’ garments being produced in Devon
• Donating a % of their turnover to Surfers Against Sewage and the Marine Conservation Society
• Launched the ‘Offset the PLC’ (Product Life Cycle) initiative aimed at getting people to take more responsibility for their environmental footprint

Visit Finisterre’s website to find out more about the company.

Food miles

ABC Online reports that the average basket of food in Australia has travelled 70,000 kms by the time it has reached the consumer!  The report continues and suggests that in some instances the energy which is used to produce the food can be more significant in terms of CO2 emissions.  Rather than just looking at the CO2 produced from the ‘food miles’ it could be more appropriate to look at the CO2 through the whole life-cycle of the ‘food’ item.

Finisterre

Finisterre is a provider of specialist clothing for surfers.

Importantly, they have a strong environmental ethos which runs throughout the company and the lifecycle of products they produce.  Finisterre are:

• Using recyable fabrics
• Manufacturing garments in Colombia where the facility is run by nuns, as part of a 15 year old social regeneration program and in Portugal with ‘bespoke’ garments being produced in Devon
• Donating a % of their turnover to Surfers Against Sewage and the Marine Conservation Society
• Launched the ‘Offset the PLC’ (Product Life Cycle) initiative aimed at getting people to take more responsibility for their environmental footprint

Visit Finisterre’s website to find out more about the company.

Under the Thatch

Under the Thatch provide self catering breaks in a range of unique properties in Wales including Ty Mawr in Laugharne, their first top end luxury property:

Parducci Winery

One of the central beliefs of the Parducci Winery in California is their wish to preserve the environment in which they grow their grapes and produce their wine.  In the spring of 2007 the Parducci Winery because the first winery in the USA to gain carbon neutral status.

To achieve this Parducci Winery installed a solar powered system (with just under 10,000 square ft of solar panels), upgraded to energy efficient technologies (which reduced 9% of their 2006 annual energy use in 2007), converted farm equipment to run on bio-diesel (which produces less than half the CO2 emissions of diesel and no sulfur or aromatics), used earth-friendly packaging and promoted a variety of reduce-reuse programs that includes on-site vineyard composting, water conservation and recycling projects.  Parducci also purchased carbon credits, thus offsetting emissions through financial investment in carbon-reducing projects such as wind power, methane capture and forest conservation.
To find out more about the Parducci Winery please visit their website.
Please note all photos and images are copyright Parducci Winery.

Gardeners Rest B&B

A note from Gardeners Rest B&B:

Affordable Luxury on the Kent Coast Gardeners Rest B&B is an Award Winning 5 Star Gold Accommodation in an AONB which was voted one of the 50 Best British B&Bs in 2007.

The house was designed and built by the owners Sandra & Ken Upton and is set in 1 acre of colourful garden designed & planted by them.

Lifelong Disciples of recycling and protection of the environment, Sandra & Ken have attempted to balance nature and reduce or offset the carbon foot print of themselves and their guests, by incorporating numerous ecological features into the house and garden.

Food miles are practically nil as almost everything is either home grown or locally sourced, including homemade bread & scones, jams & potato hash browns, free range eggs, Kentish bacon and sausages made by the local butcher. The smoked salmon & kippers travels a little further but is caught and packed in UK!

Ideal for those who like to balance their work life with walking, cycling, sailing, golfing, riding or fishing or just relaxing in the country and taking in the peace & quiet, stunning views and fresh sea air.

There’s lots to do in the local area including visiting National Trust and English Heritage properties.

You can book both rooms for a truly exceptional break with friends or family. Minimum stay 2 nights please. No children under 9. For more details visit www.HolidaysDeal.co.uk

AONB

Who knows what an AONB is? Perhaps not the best known abbreviation and when said in full – Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – it can sound as if the speaker is simply waxing lyrical.

But an AONB is in fact a nationally designated landscape – “a precious landscape whose distinctive character and natural beauty are so outstanding that it is in the nation’s interest to safeguard them” (NAAONB).

The primary purpose of AONB designation is to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the landscape. Twosecondary aims complement this:

• To meet the need for quiet enjoyment of the countryside
• To have regard for the interests of those who live and work there.

In England, AONBs are on a legal par with National Parks – equivalent in terms of their landscape quality and planning status. The main differences between the two are:

• AONBs are managed by local authority advisory committees, whilst National Parks require a special authority of their own
• The statutory planning process is the responsibility of the National Parks Authority, whilst within AONBs, it is the responsibility of the individual local planning authorities the area falls within
• National Parks tend to be located in upland areas whilst AONBs are mostly lowland landscapes
• National Parks are legally obliged to provide for public recreational opportunities, whereas AONBs are not.

There are 39 AONBs in England and Wales and a further nine in Northern Ireland. Some of the best known ones perhaps are the Cotswolds, Chilterns and South Downs – for a full list go to www.aonb.org.uk – discover the Lincolnshire Wolds, Northumberland Coast, the Forest of Bowland and many more.

The Kent Downs AONB is the eastern half of the North Downs. This ridge of chalk stretches from Farnham in Surrey, where it is designated the Surrey Hills AONB, through to Kent and across to the iconic White Cliffs at Dover. This same ridge of chalk reappears on the French side of the Channel where it is designated le Parc Naturel Regional des Caps et Marais d’Opale.

One of the most renowned features of the Kent Downs is its chalk grassland. This habitat is of international importance because it has become so rare and supports so many species of flora and fauna.  A walk across an area of chalk grassland in May and June can be a feast for the senses – tantalising smells of wild herbs, a colourful array of orchids and other wild flowers and the sound of insects that rely on the plants for their survival.

The Kent Downs is famed walking country – you can tread the paths of Pilgrims along the North Downs Way National Trail and the mythical Pilgrims Way, or breathe in the sea air along the Saxon Shore Way. Explore the secluded dry valleys, ancient woodlands and downland villages. Easy to reach by train, many places are accessible in approx one hour from London. www.kentdowns.org.uk

Sarah Loftus
Sustainable Tourism Officer
Kent Downs AONB Unit

Design for Sustainability

Steve Bishop global lead of Design for Sustainability at IDEO a design and innovation consultancy suggests in terms of green marketing that “Instead of focusing on a green niche, focus on green behaviors that everyone can aspire to”. Read the article in the online version of the Harvard Business Review, here.