ecological tourism community & consultancy

Caper: the flower you eat before it blooms! A key ingredient of Mediterannean dishes, the pickled flower buds of the caper bush (Capparis spinosa) are an antioxidant powerhouse, contain essential minerals such as copper and are a good source of vitamin K among other benefits. Before eating them from a jar, you only need to soak them for a few minutes in cold water to remove the excess salt. If...Caper: the flower you eat before it blooms! A key ingredient of Mediterannean dishes, the pickled flower buds of the caper bush (Capparis spinosa) are an antioxidant powerhouse, contain essential minerals such as copper and are a good source of vitamin K among other benefits. Before eating them from a jar, you only need to soak them for a few minutes in cold water to remove the excess salt. If you wonder why a small jar is so expensive, try picking them one by one, while avoiding the thorns! This post is dedicated to the late Nikki Rose, a culinary tourism and agri-ecotourism pioneer and Chef, who passed away a year ago while guiding students on one of her wonderful educational tours in Crete. Nikki used the caper flower as a profile photo... Show more

Free news services are fine -- some are even of higher quality than paid ones. Free news services that keep begging you, the reader, for money, because "they do not charge readers", "they do not have sponsors", "they do not really like money but somehow they need it" or for any other nonsense reason, are to be avoided.

If ultimately successful, I think "Delcyism" could become a concise way to describe saving yourself by sacrificing your colleagues, ideals etc. "Oil Socialism" was never a good idea in the first place... www.bbc.com/news/articles/czx29k97kzlo

Delcy Rodríguez: Will Venezuelan oil earn a permanent place in India's energy mix?

Delcy Rodríguez's India visit highlights Venezuela's growing role in Delhi's oil diversification.

In terms of human and environmental exploitation, tragedy and disaster, few sectors can rival Coal Mining, a productivist icon in both "capitalist" and "communist" systems. Isn't it time to END this totally unneeded sector worldwide? www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpwpeg57777o

China's coal mine disaster is a reminder of its darkest days

China's worst coal mining disaster in 15 years comes amid an ambitious pivot towards green energy.

Despite the global turbulence and sometimes frosty rhetoric between US and Europe, official anniversaries such as America's 250th are a great opportunity to promote roots and heritage tourism, reinforce old connections and remind us that above all tourism is a peace industry. The Irish Government formally partnered with the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission to launch the America250...Despite the global turbulence and sometimes frosty rhetoric between US and Europe, official anniversaries such as America's 250th are a great opportunity to promote roots and heritage tourism, reinforce old connections and remind us that above all tourism is a peace industry. The Irish Government formally partnered with the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission to launch the America250 Commemorative Programme (www.gov.ie/.../america250-commemorative-programme/ ), running extensively across the island. Scotland's Drams, Drums & Diplomacy: Scotland in America 250: explicitly highlights the deep-seated connections between Scotland and the USA, while other programmes focus on the great role of the Scots-Irish (or Ulster-Scots irishamerica250.org/198-2/ ) Italy’s Italea initiative is part of a broader, massive national strategy, but to align with the anniversary it currently focuses on large Italian-American hubs like Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. The German-American Hall of Fame (GAMHOF) has rolled out the America250 Educational Initiative under the banner “German Roots. American Story.” The campaign is explicitly designed to spark curiosity in the millions of Americans of German descent to track their lineage back to German municipalities, heavily focusing on the pre-1776 waves of German settlers who aided the American revolution. gamhof.org/news/america250-educational-initiative/
If you are interested in Roots Tourism check out this Erasmus+ programme we are currently involved in and whose ultimate aim is to create a suitable roots tourism curriculum for vocational schools in Europe. ecoclub.com/projects/roots-tourism Show more

Three years ago Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales transitioned to a purely symbolic Founder role with no more reserve powers. Wales could have been a Whale, a billionaire, had he sold his soul and your data to authoritarians and profiteers. Instead he chose to be just Wales: decent, simple and smiling like the country Wales. He co-built a thriving knowledge community, free to use and free of censorship...Three years ago Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales transitioned to a purely symbolic Founder role with no more reserve powers. Wales could have been a Whale, a billionaire, had he sold his soul and your data to authoritarians and profiteers. Instead he chose to be just Wales: decent, simple and smiling like the country Wales. He co-built a thriving knowledge community, free to use and free of censorship. He did not even get a Nobel while for-profit AI has recently pillaged all this work. Be like Jimmy? I think it's worth it, even though most would say be like Elon. What is certain is that Human Progress involves both Jimmy and Elon. That is perhaps why we never really progress ethically, only technologically - for more information visit your nearest War. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales Show more

Jimmy Wales - Wikipedia

Some dismiss it using labels such as "poverty tourism", "slum tourism", "poverty porn", others beautify it as "pro-poor tourism", but the reality of favela tourism is certainly nuanced, depends on the specific host and guest, the motives, the outcomes, and the ideological model one uses to interpret it. Also read this interesting, factual account:...Some dismiss it using labels such as "poverty tourism", "slum tourism", "poverty porn", others beautify it as "pro-poor tourism", but the reality of favela tourism is certainly nuanced, depends on the specific host and guest, the motives, the outcomes, and the ideological model one uses to interpret it. Also read this interesting, factual account: www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260515-what-to-know-a… Show more

What to know about visiting Rio's favelas

Once notorious no-go areas, Rio's sprawling favelas are now drawing more tourists than some of its most famous monuments. But is visiting safe and ethical?

Thank you for sharing this Aivar, it's always great to see tourism and conservation practitioners engaging with each other at the community and grassroots level, especially when this cooperation produces concrete results.

According to Greenpeace, the plastic crisis in Southeast Asia has reached the level of a regional emergency, most visible in the recent tragic landfill collapses and fires in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. www.greenpeace.org/southeastasia/press/68416/confr…

Confronting the Plastic and Waste Crises in Southeast Asia: Systemic Drivers, Impacts, and Policy Imperatives - Greenpeace Southeast Asia

Civil society groups in Southeast Asia are urging ASEAN leaders to tackle the plastic waste crisis and reduce fossil fuel dependence driving climate change across…

Here in Greece, we are all too aware and weary of desertification, which results from increasingly frequent dust storms from Northern Africa, continuous tree cover loss due to wildfires, and drought conditions across our largely arid Aegean islands. Could tree planting on a massive scale help? A project worth studying is the Great Green Wall of China, which is ongoing for over five decades and,...Here in Greece, we are all too aware and weary of desertification, which results from increasingly frequent dust storms from Northern Africa, continuous tree cover loss due to wildfires, and drought conditions across our largely arid Aegean islands. Could tree planting on a massive scale help? A project worth studying is the Great Green Wall of China, which is ongoing for over five decades and, after initial mistakes, has succeeded in reducing sand storms in Beijing. Overall experts believe it is a qualified success: reduced dust storms, increased vegetation cover, and emerging carbon‑sink effects. Its weakest points are water use, ecological simplification, and mixed performance in truly halting desertification. Africa has its own Great Green Wall initiative, which ambitiously envisioned a continuous 8,000‑km belt of trees stopping the Sahara’s advance but it is far behind, with poor tree survival rates and, unlike its Chinese sibling, a lack of funding and coordination. www.naturalworldfund.org.uk/chinas-billion-tree-ex… Show more

China’s Great Green Wall: Can Trees Stop Desertification?

China’s Great Green Wall has planted over a billion trees to slow desertification. Has it worked — and what lessons does it offer?