The recent rhino poaching incidents in Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary have prompted officials to discontinue its popular elephant safaris.

In an effort to protect greater one-horned rhino in Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary, elephant safaris - booked months in advance by tourists - have reportedly been halted.

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Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed has told his cabinet members to get ready for an underwater cabinet meeting later this month.

Maldives is a collection of islands and atolls in the Indian Ocean that is less than 2 meters above sea level. Therefore, it is the first country expected to go underwater due to climate change.

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Current laws in Thailand make it easy for live elephants - including infant elephants stolen from their mothers in the wild - to be traded unscrupulously for “entertainment” purposes.

For many people, thoughts of Thailand conjure up romantic notions of being transported to various tourist attractions on the back of an elephant. But tragically, many of the captive elephants used for the Thai tourist trade, and as zoo and circus exports, are the victims of an insidious, illegal market that threatens the survival of endangered Asian elephants, and is responsible for widespread exploitation and abuse of these intelligent and sensitive mammals.

Thankfully, a recent report published by TRAFFIC Southeast Asia exposes the loopholes and reporting inaccuracies that have been providing a smokescreen for Thailand’s illegal trade in endangered, wild-caught Asian elephants (Elephas maximus).

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The Central Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) in India has launched a plan to sterilize over 8 million dogs over the next ten years. The mission: to eradicate rabies from India as quickly as possible. It is estimated that each year over 20,000 people die of rabies in India while at the same time over four billion rupees (close to 80m USD) worth of vaccines against rabies are being imported by the country every year.

The move, which has so far received a good response from society as well as animal welfare organizations is indeed a right step and a better option than the mass-slaughter practice currently used in neighboring China.

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The Magical Fountain amazes visitors with its rapid changes and height.

While Lima is generally trashed by Peru guidebooks as the place everyone must dreadfully pass through on their way to other destinations like Machu Picchu, in the past few years great strides have been made to improve the city’s offerings, such as “The Magic Circuit of Water” in Lima’s Parque de la Reserva.

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Good news from Afghanistan this week: the country declared its first internationally recognized national park today, called Band-e-Amir, which includes a striking series of six deep blue lakes in one of the country’s best-known natural areas.

The area of Band-e-Amir is near the Bamyan Valley, where 1,500-year-old giant Buddha statues once stood before being destroyed by the Taliban.

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Hunting to Conserve in Uganda

Edyau Echodu, the warden of the Uganda Wildlife Authority’s Pian-Upe wildlife reserve, introduced the hunting plan. He said that hunting would help get rid of old animals that attack human settlements, killing and injuring people and damaging crops. He acknowledged that it was also aimed at increasing earnings from tourists.

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The global economic downturn has caused a large paper and pulp mill on Lake Baikal in Russia to halt operation.

Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill started running in 1966.  For 43 years, despite the efforts of environmentalists, it dumped enormous quantities of toxin-laced wastewater into the pristine lake.

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Based in England, Eco Hotels of the World searches the globe for leading examples of hotels that appeal to the eco-adventurer in us all.  Who doesn’t want to bivouac in style on the Dark Continent with elephants passing near by at a safe distance — and where the money paid to the hotel helps conserve the habitat, support the local community, and protect the elephants?  There’s a dizzying range of size, scope and degree of comforts and amenities for hotels included in Eco Hotels of the World, so you’re not just getting a listing of the ultra-swank-eco-hotels that will break your bank (even if some of the funds do, in fact, go to helping preserve the environment or benefits the local community).  It’s all about choice with a conscience, and Eco Hotels of the World is a great place to plan your green getaway.

The 131 hotels now featured in Eco Hotels of the World have been personally selected by the website’s editors to ensure that they meet the standards required to be considered an eco-friendly hotel, including stewardship of the natural environment, ecological sustainability, proven contribution to conservation, provision of environmental training programs, incorporation of cultural considerations and provision of an economic return to the local community.   A departure from most other eco-hotel review processes, hotels cannot pay for inclusion in the listing, nor does Eco Hotels of the World accept commissions on bookings in order to remain independent and objective.

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Another video from the 2009 ASI tradeshow in Dallas. This is the Rand McNally Green edition road atlas.

Most folks don’t know that Rand McNally has a promotional products division that basically allows companies and organizations to brand Rand McNally products with their own contact information and logos. I think this Green edition road atlas is a no-brainer for green travel agencies, B&Bs, tour companies, garages, etc.

Here is John from Rand McNally with more information.

For more videos from ASI Dallas see www.youtube.com/proformagreen.

For more information or pricing on this item email info@proformagreen.com

The Cheonggyecheon stream was an ambitious green restoration project. It turned six kilometers of downtown Seoul from a polluting expressway into a relaxing, tree-lined stream. In restoring the stream, 95% of the expressway’s cement and 100% of the steel was carefully salvaged and recycled.

The stream was opened to the public in 2005. Since then, it’s been a popular destination for Seoulites looking for green areas in Korea’s largest metropolis.

Surprisingly, the Cheonggyecheon is little known to foreign tourists. If you travel to Seoul and you’re looking for a breath of fresh air as well as a glimpse at the archeological sites revealed during the stream’s excavation, be sure not to miss a visit to this successful urban greening project.

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Seeking to respect the natural world surrounding the farm, Cueva labored to create an eco-friendly inn, one that would be as comfortable and charming as earth-friendly. Hacienda San Lucas is now an eight-room, idyllic inn nestled in the bucolic, emerald green hills of the Honduran countryside. In addition to being 80% solar powered, the inn has been involved in reforestation efforts and recycles and composts. At night, candles light the large rooms and pathways—all of which are constructed of locally-obtained, natural materials.

Evenings are as charm-filled as mornings are mellow. Dinners at the inn are magical (think candlelight, a cricket serenade and twinkling stars). Set on a patio and illuminated by the warm glow of candles, the Mayan-inspired, multi-course meals offer a chance to chat up other guests or to simply savor the balmy night air.

The antithesis of bland chain hotels, San Lucas seems to have popped off the pages of a book by Isabell Allende or Graham Greene. With its wide verandas slung with hammocks, rock-hewn walls and tranquil, otherworldly air, the inn is an ideal spot to get off the grid—literally and figuratively.

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While there are some who say we will (or should) travel less in the coming years — and perhaps some of us will — let’s not forget that the travel industry is the second largest industry on this planet after the industrial-military complex. It’s vitally important to many communities, businesses and organizations, ours included. We operate Inn Serendipity Bed & Breakfast, completely powered by the wind and sun.

My first post on ecotourism presented an approach to travel that sustains, enhances or restores diverse ecological systems, preserves the economic and social well-being of the local and global community, and fosters a greater understanding on the part of the traveler of nature, culture or the community visited. It’s the “triple bottom line of profits, planet and people” I write about in ECOpreneuring, applied to the travel industry.

This type of travel usually provides the ecotravelers with authentic experiences (read: not merely heads on beds) and the travelers themselves participate in the renewal, restoration or revitalization process underway by the community, business or organization. Ecotourism is a departure from the consumption and luxury focus of the mainstream tourism industry that touts all-inclusive resorts and 4-star amenities with little or no thought given to paying livable wages to employees or producing some of their own energy on site.

Since piloting a green travel program in 2007, the State of Wisconsin’s Department of Tourism, through their Travel Green Wisconsin program, has provided a framework by which already green tourism related businesses can be more easily found while those enterprises that recognize that there’s more green in going green can follow detailed certification requirements to embark on their journey to evolve, as all organizations will need to do sooner, or later, as a restorative enterprise that follows not just the laws of supply and demand, but also the laws of nature.

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Swiss company BKW has revealed that it plans to launch a 20-30 meter long solar-powered submarine. The vessel, to be used as a tourist attraction, will feature a huge ‘living-room’ style passenger area, as well as 60-70cm viewing portholes.

Under the plan, called Project Goldfish, a team of engineers will build a submarine, capable of carrying 20-30 passengers and two crew, at a depth of up to 300 meters across Lake Thun. Since it operates underwater, the team has figured that it’s pointless to attach solar panels on the sub itself. Instead, the vessel will fully recharge at a floating solar platform on the surface of the lake, decked out with 300m2 of solar collectors capable of supplying up to 30kW of renewable energy.

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A new report says that global warming could cost the Californian economy billions of dollars each year, through a combination of rising sea levels, and the increased frequency of wild fires and extreme weather events.

The comprehensive study (PDF), published by researcher’s at UC Berkeley, also claims that $2.5 trillion of Californian real estate assets are at risk. The clear message, says co-author Prof. David Roland-Holst, is the strong economic case for timely action to slash carbon emissions and adapt to the already unavoidable effects of climate change.

“Our report makes clear the most expensive thing we can do about climate change is nothing,” he said. “As we learned in New Orleans, turning your back on the threat of natural disaster doesn’t make it go away.”

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In what could be my biggest personal revelation since diving into the world of alternative energy, it dawned on me last week that the “western” biofuel players are certainly the loudest kids on the block, but not really the most important.

I spent a large part of my time at the conference just trying to sort out which of the dozens of excellent forums on biofuels, energy, and environmental quality I should attend. The rest of my time was taken up with trying to keep my head together enough to make sense of it all so I could convey it in a way that’s meaningful to you, my readers.

But, while running around like a kid in a candy store, I became aware that my understanding of biofuels was decidedly myopic. Up until last week, I was squarely focused on U.S., E.U., and, to a smaller extent, Brazilian policies — quite naturally and unapologetically, I might add. After all, I am a U.S. citizen and I have a profound connection to my country and it’s cultural peers.

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Tourism has been part of the life of Venice for centuries; however, in the last years, the city has faced grave problems due to the tremendous volume of tourists each year. Residents say that whereas the centre of Venice was once full of shops selling ‘real things’ but now most shops sell souvenirs such as Merano glass and carnival masks.

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Expo 2008, the international exposition on water and sustainable development, opened its doors to the world on Saturday in the Spanish city of Zaragoza.

Situated along Spain’s largest River, the Ebro, the 62-acre expo aims to inform people on global water issues and serve as a discussion forum for advocates and international policy makers. A goal of the expo is to produce a “Zaragoza Charter” which will detail recommendations to address such issues as access to clean water, water scarcity, water wars, and water conservation.

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Early night, the tide rises out of the sea like an elongated tongue and lashes a part of the shores of Kho Phi Phi island, located in Southern Thailand, throwing up an assortment of garbage, including plastic, wood, cigarette boxes, water bottles, metal, glass, paper, rope, cardboard, etc.

A stone throw away from a part of the shore, hordes of tourists from different parts of the world lounge on a sandy beach under a starry night, guzzling away to an antics-filled fire show, unconcerned about the sea’s spew.

Even though there are signs posted throughout the island encouraging visitors not to dump garbage, the sea’s vomit, so to speak, is evidence enough that only a few take heed of the message.

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