Green Holidays

Fancy a short volunteer vacation that isn’t like everything else?

African Impact have been working in the volunteer sector since 2004 and are based in South Africa.  This year they were among the 2009 World Travel Awards Finalists for their volunteer placements in this vast continent and have plenty to offer the enthusiastic volunteer!

They offer a huge range of exciting projects from teaching to wildlife conservation - but they also offer quite a few programs that stand out from the rest and I will be describing 2 of these below.

What Are African Impact About?
For the past 5 years they have been working tirelessly to make sure that the programs they run across the continent promote and sustain ongoing support and resources for communities and conservation across Africa.

Their ethical guidelines are very strong and they strive to be an ambassador of responsible tourism in their locations.  They work hard to make sure that their volunteers have a positive and long lasting impact on their projects and the physical environment in which they contribute their time and skills.

What Have They Got That Is Different?
If you would rather spend your time out in the field but aren’t too good with catching large carnivores or monitoring underwater reptiles - then why not help monitor the habitats they live in instead.

Project 1:
The following project in St Lucia, South Africa might be just what you are looking for.

Photography & Conservation Education Project:
This project takes place in St Lucia, within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.  This is a beautiful area that was declared as South Africa’s first Natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and which is called by many “Africa’s premier bush-and-beach destination”.

Encompassing almost half a million acres, it is a stunning and ecologically diverse area, where five different eco-systems join  Here is where you will find savannahs, wetlands, swamps, beaches, and a great wealth of wildlife.

And it is within this impressive setting that volunteers are offered the unique opportunity to photograph the phenomenal wildlife in the area, and help to raise awareness in the local community about the importance of conservation.
 
In addition to this; African Impact, in association with Green Vision Foundation, aims to create a photographic database which will be used for educational purposes in order to preserve indigenous plant life and wildlife through community education.

After an exciting 3 day intensive course with a professional wildlife photographer, volunteers will photograph large animals such as elephant, buffalo, rhino and leopard as they go about their daily business!  You will also get to see and photograph smaller creatures such as chameleons, insects and some of the 521 bird species that call this World Heritage Site home. 

And all the best pictures will be included in the database!

The project is a unique opportunity to encounter some of Africa’s most beautiful animals on a daily basis, to improve photography skills, as well as to contribute to conservation efforts.
 
Project 2:
This program is a chance to really make a difference to the people who struggle in these harsh climates.  Human health is the issue here and you will be living with individuals who need your help and support.

Kenya: Medical Project:
Kenya’s population is hugely affected by the struggles of HIV/AIDS, poverty and unemployment and it is known to be one of the poorest countries in Africa.  There are countless possibilities here for you to impact upon the lives of those that are affected by these problems, such as those living in Nairobi’s slums, surrounding orphanages, schools, and hospitals.
 
Both medically qualified and non-qualified volunteers can join this project for maximum effect. The medical background of those that apply will obviously determine their placement at the Hospital or Orphanages.

Suitably qualified volunteers will have the opportunity to gain further medical experience under the supervision of qualified doctors and nurses at Kikuyu General Hospital.  Un-qualified volunteers will still be an essential part of this project, and will join the Kikuyu Hospital on a more observatory basis - or could alternatively be placed at one of the orphanages.
 
All volunteers will be given work in various orphanages in Limuru and will be helping to improve and enhance the actual facilities as well as becoming involved in teaching and caring for the children.  It will also be an opportunity to get a glimpse of life in the slums of Nairobi and have the opportunity to make a difference in a poor and desperate community.

Sound interesting to you?  If so, click here for more information!

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Hello, and thanks for joining us again here at Green Holidays And Adventures Blog Carnival.

We have some very different articles for your this month, including on the road tips for cutting down your impact, to a school competition and on to a delightful eco resort in the south-west of England!

Handy tips:
So, beginning with Myscha Theriault covers some of the ways your choice of toiletries and accessories on the road can really lessen your impact and save you time and money to - so enjoy Going Green on the Road for these tips.

Then a rather analytical Brian Maxwell covers some great points for all you people out there who don’t know where to get started with the whole ‘eco friendly’ lifestyle.  Take a moment to read his pensive article on The Green Movement’s impact on Environmental Problems and go from there.

Local Trips:
Joshua offers up a selection of ideas on how to keep to kids entertained and close to nature at the same time - and all close to home!  Read his Tips for Learning during Summertime to get started.

And if you already have some great ideas for getting those kids out and about and enjoying themselves, then take a look at 00FF00’s article - which is a competition. Basically, you enter your ideas on how to Get Kids Outdoors and you could win a part of the £500 of prizes and an eco friendly computer for your chosen UK school.

Other Hols:
Cherie Ve Ard offers up a perfect example of how people can live on less and offer reason why a lot of people don’t!  Check out Excuses #5: Environmental Impact for a peek at how they do it.

Erika however, just offers a great idea on really getting into the heart of the earth on a low impact green holiday beneath the ground!  Here’s Going Caving in Mexico.

And finally Tamara gives us a short interview with the owners of an eco resort in the UK’s West Country - a very picturesque region where I often take vacations myself.  So read Eco-speak with Trevenna’s Jonathan Rowe to learn more about it.

Thanks again for your time and thanks to all those who offered their articles.

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What is Ecotourism, and what does it mean today?
There are many interpretations of the word ‘ecotourism’ - even the spelling changes to eco-tourism or eco tourism! However, many consumers have a different impression of the word to the companies that are selling it.

For example, many companies seem to think that any holiday outdoors that may involve animals or wild areas is ecotourism.

Whereas consumers are hoping for something a bit more impactful and meaningful. And this includes real ethics, focus on the local communities and ‘treading lightly’ on the earth.

Below are a selection of areas that ecotourism should be focussed on and be able to prove!

Adding Value:
Ecotourism should be an efficient way to add economic value to threatened natural areas, endangered habitats and cultural sites.

As I have mentioned in previous articles - if you want something to be saved - you have to support it. By visiting areas that contain the animals or plants or people that you ‘love’ you are adding to their perceived value by that country and the community.

If you sit at home and talk about how ‘bad it is’ that Orangutans are being made homeless, dolphins in Mekong being poisoned or migrating birds being shot - you aren’t doing anything to save them!

Change your shopping habits to avoid illegally produced or badly managed palm oil and soya; join the WWF to support international projects; or travel to the Mediterranean and help volunteer projects to protect the birds yourself.

Offering Alternatives:
It should be seen as a way to provide simple job opportunities as well as alternative financial benefits for the local people. This way they don’t need to destroy their own natural environment to make a living!

For example offering alternative forms or agriculture - such as bee-keeping, or offering more fuel efficient stoves so families need to cut less wood to cook their food. It could also lead to more successful local businesses that helps make for a more stable lifestyle for all involved

Alternative Tourism:
Ecotourism allows for travel and holidays to take a different turn. It inspires a new kind of tourism that actually helps to improve natural conservation and cultural preservation with a much lower impact on the environment than ‘normal’ tourism.

This of course can make it more enjoyable for all those involved as it is more down-to-earth. The traveller gets to see the natural world as it should be, the tour operators get to make sure that the places we go to see are still there in 5 years time, the local inhabitants get to feel involved in their own future and communities, and of course the wildlife gets to carry on being wild!

Fasted Growing Travel Sector?
Ecotourism really is one of the fastest growing areas of tourism at the moment.

People want these types of holidays now - they want to support these environments, these people and these animals. They want to stop destroying every place they go, and they want to see travel companies doing their bit to change the face of world travel too.

Have you played your part? Got your friends and families to do the same?

Set in the vast forests outside of Stockholm, near the Malingsbo-klotens Nature Reserve, is the amazing Kolarbyn natural eco resort.  This eco resort will truly take you back to nature - but you may actually pass it by!

What Makes It ‘Eco’?
It is so low impact it is virtually part of the forest!  All natural and local materials are used and accommodation was made by and run by local people.

All the food is produced by local farmers, and the huts belong to the entire community.  All the tours help to preserve the native wildlife and cultural traditions are preserved as a result.

They reduce, reuse and recycle almost everything at the location - and probably give more to the environment than take things away!

What Can You Do There?
The wildlife is the main draw here, and there is plenty of it.  Set in the heart of a woodland you will no doubt see a variety of birds and mammals here.  So take your best camera!

Many of the staff are avid wildlife watchers and will no doubt be able to answer all your questions about the creatures and the natural environment too.

Tours include horseback wolf-watching, beaver trails, moose safaris and much, much more.  There are even night-time wolf howling tours and ‘midnight sun’ evening safaris!

The Accommodation:
The resort is made up of 12 huts - most of which don’t even look like accommodation! They are covered in vegetation and surrounded by trees!  All you can see is the chimney and the doorway.

There are no perks in the rooms or mod cons - it is all very much back to basics - so don’t expect to plug in your hair dryer in your room!  However do expect a cosy sheep-skin rugs and blankets and a baking hot log-fire in your room - as well as nature on your doorstep and the sound of moose outside!

You fetch your own fresh water from the local spring, chop your own wood for your fire and cook fresh caught fish in the basic outdoor kitchen.

Anything Else?
Well, the wildlife!  You can walk through the woods here and see moose, wolves, lynx and even brown bears!  A nature-watchers dream.

You can volunteer to work here too.  Imagine all this beauty for free - well to help out here in this pristine environment and helping others to enjoy it too!

It also works in association with Naturens Basta (Nature’s Best) - a selection of Sweden’s best nature tours - AND the WWF of all people.  They are actively passing on a contribution from your fees and tours to the Skandulv Wolf conservation project working close by. 

Amazing.

Trees are being chopped down just to get you ready to take a vacation!

By this I mean all the bureaucracy and paperwork required to get you going in the first place - and most of it can be avoided completely or significantly reduced if you plan ahead and think about your requirements.

Don’t Forget You Passport:
Obviously this is an important document anyway, but it’s amazing how many people lose them or allow them to get stolen when travelling. What a complete waste of resources and time - let alone a complete risk to your identity.

To replace your passport involves a large form to be completed and posted off. Someone has to process this for you, usually involving more paperwork and lots of security checks that probably use energy on ’super computers’.

The passport needs to be created and glued, laminated and security marked (rendering it un-recyclable), then it needs to be posted out to you with all sorts of information sheets and nonsense.

Other Personal Documents:
This is the same as above really. If you are careless enough to lose that 30 pages travel insurance booklet - you need to get another one from your insurers - and these cost money and use resources.

Add to this your driving license, vaccination records, medical notes, hotel reservation documents and a whole load of other important pieces of paperwork that will need replacing if you mislay them.  Of course many of these will be ‘free’ to you so we don’t think twice about doing them - even relying on them as a back-up if we are ‘too busy’.  But they cost elsewhere.

I bet you wouldn’t be so careless if these bits of paper were all US dollars! But in effect they are - as the more documents and information packs that companies need to keep giving out - the more they will eventually charge for their replacements. Your money.

Planning The Trip Itself:
Imagine how much paper is involved in you deciding on your vacation in the first place. Some people go into the agents and pick up 3 or 4 thick travel brochures to take home. Do you return them after you have browsed for your resort? No, I bet you don’t.

Most travel companies are there to make money not save the environment. If they need to make more brochures to get your money - then that’s what they will do (but they might add a bit on to the price of their vacations to pay for them).

You can’t leave the agencies to do this for you. Can you imagine if a travel agent for company A said you could only browse their brochures but you couldn’t take them home - whereas company B gave you loads of bright shiny pictures to take away. Who are you more likely to do business with?

Same goes for the tickets - you can get them online now, so you just print of one sheet of paper and you are ready. No little folder with glued or stapled documents to faff around with.

And checking in by machine or in advance is perfect. The less staff that the airlines or ferry companies need to check your paperwork - the less pollution they have created getting to the airport or ferry terminal in the first place. The roads are then clearer around the departure terminal and your taxi can drop you at the door without you sitting in traffic!

We are all so used to things being done a certain way - and so quickly - that we sometimes need to take a second look and see what the downsides of our ‘I want it now’ lives.

Planning is the key to green travel.

Did you know you could invest in a castle, a meadow or a farm?

It may not be common knowledge, but locations both home and abroad are actually run like companies.

One example is with a recent case of ‘disgruntled’ Bournemouth in the UK. The UK Weather Agency decided that the delightful seaside town on the English Channel was going to have terrible weather over the Bank Holiday weekend - however it didn’t!

Now, Bournemouth Council are trying to sue the weather agency for losing them £1 million in ‘tourist bucks’! Tourism bosses said that over 25,000 visitors stayed away for fear of rain!

I know you might not think it, but if you don’t visit or support stores and companies from the regions you love - then who is to say that they will remain? I don’t mean that the towns or countryside will become people-free - I mean that locations will change to more profitable options.

Open fields filled with wildlife may be churned up for crops or sold for housing. Cute cobbled streets filled with cafes and gift shops won’t stay open if they don’t make money - fast food outlets may well replace them!

Supporting Shopping!
You need to actually visit these locations and spend your money locally. Stay in locally-run hotels and bed-and-breakfasts, eating in local cafes and buying locally made souvenirs.

If you travel to your favourite hide-away but stay in a hotel chain, eat McDonalds and buy souvenirs ‘made in China’ - how can you expect the local population to make a living and keep their businesses up and running?

Support Your Heritage!
If there is a castle that you like the look of or a large stately home - make sure you pay to go inside.

Just looking at it from the outside is all fair and good and it may be amazing! But unless you actually spend money at the site - you are not helping it to stay alive!

Yeah, you might mention it to a friend and they go there for a look too, but unless there is money going into that area - it might not be worth keeping the castle open for tourists. It’s a business, it has to employ staff, clean and maintain the building, trim and plant the gardens and advertise it’s good bits.

How can it do that if you just peek at it across a wall or over a hedge? Without customers like any good store of restaurant - it will have to close.

Joining a Heritage charity or society can help to fund renovations of such buildings allowing them to remain for future generations to enjoy and you can be a part of that.

Supporting Habitats:
But how can you support a field or river? They are free to visit and they are just there.

Well, by becoming a member of a nature or wildlife related charity or business that has projects in that area will make sure that they have the funds where necessary to purchase or develop open spaces for the benefit of the existing wildlife. It may also allow funds to re-introduce native species that have been lost.

By telling your hosts that the reason you came here was for the river/beach/woods/wildlife/etc will make sure that they know what is making them successful. If they know they get most of their guests to see the rare so-and-so - they will all make sure that it stays right where it is! And your money can really become a powerful tool.

Supporting local organic farms can also keep nature in your neighborhood by leaving fields fallow or leave woodlands and hedgerows standing rather than having to sow crops instead.

Paying more for your food also makes a difference. If you are always buying the cheapest products - especially animal products - the farmers are having to make money from elsewhere - and that could include destroying that patch of riverside meadow or expanding smaller fields into super fields to make ends meet.

The Circle Of Life.
Just like a business - a farmer, landowner, town, or country all need to get support or financial rewards for their actions to keep doing them.

If growing apples makes double the amount that growing cucumbers does - then they grow apples. If selling burgers makes more money than locally made ice cream - then burgers it is! If more people want huge hotels rather than cosy holiday cottages then guess what?

Your everyday choices can make or break a holiday destination, can affect the shape of the high street and can destroy or encourage wildlife and open spaces.

So next time you think of your favourite place - make sure you make the most of your time there - supporting the destination and making sure it’s stays just how you like it!