IGIHE

Category: Tourism

  • The World’s Most Ethical Countries: 2014

    The World’s Most Ethical Countries: 2014

    {{What makes the Bahamas a more ethical vacation choice than Costa Rica?

    That’s the crux of a recent survey about ethical travel, a movement that encourages travellers to be mindful about the impact of bringing tourism dollars to one country over another.

    To encourage responsible globetrotting, a California nonprofit Ethical Traveler has been regularly compiling a list of its top 10 ethical destinations since 2006. }}

    The surprise: 2014’s list, which came out in late 2013, has three new contenders: the Bahamas, Chile and Dominica. So what are they doing right that Costa Rica, Ghana and Samoa (which fell off the list from 2013) didn’t do enough of?

    The answer lies in the way Ethical Traveler evaluates countries for its top 10 list.

    In addition to more standard criteria like unspoiled natural beauty and authentic cultural experiences, researchers judged destinations on 35 metrics in four categories: environment protection, social welfare, human rights, and for the first time, animal welfare.

    In other words, judges considered quality of drinking water in the category of environmental protection, women’s rights in the category of human rights, and so on.

    The Bahamas won its way onto the list by making efforts to reduce human trafficking and expand national parks and protected areas, such as the Andros West Side National Park, which grew from 882,000 acres to nearly 1.3 million acres.

    Chile improved its gender equality scores and launched a few ambitious environmental initiatives – including a program to move logging workers into various tourism roles.

    And a plan to become carbon negative – that is, minimize and offset carbon emissions – by 2020 helped Dominica make the cut.

    The complete list for 2014 (in alphabetical order) includes the Bahamas, Barbados, Cape Verde, Chile, Dominica, Latvia, Lithuania, Mauritius, Palau and Uruguay. Ethical Traveler does not rank the countries within the top 10.

    Travellers can “vote with their wings”, said Jeff Greenwald, Ethical Traveler’s founder and executive director. “We feel that we can make a difference in those countries because they really want to try to do the right thing.

    If we can send more travellers there because of their good policies, we think they’ll really stand up and take notice.”

    Three countries that fell off the list from 2013 – Costa Rica, Ghana and Samoa – slid backward on key metrics such as environmental protection and human rights violations, said Michael McColl, Ethical Traveler’s co-founder and director of communications.

    Costa Rica, for example, is a major hub for human trafficking and its government allows persecution of activists working against illegal shark finning and sea turtle trades, McColl said.

    Ghana dropped from last year’s list due to discrimination against same-sex couples (same-sex sexual activity is illegal in Ghana, and there is no legal recognition of same-sex couples.

    Ghanaian law also does not protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation.) And Samoa fell from the top 10 due to unsustainable logging, failure to guarantee LGBT rights and poor women’s rights. Nonetheless, these countries still received high marks overall, and are still among the more ethical countries a traveller can visit.

    “You want to put your money where your beliefs are,” Greenwald says. “Everyone loves the thought of travelling to Thailand or Cambodia or Burma, [but these places] don’t really have great human rights records.

    Why not use your travel dollars to show your support and solidarity for countries that are struggling to have good government and attract travellers? Why not reward them? It could create a groundswell of economic incentive for countries to do the right thing.”

    For ethical properties and tours within a country, the site Green Travel Reviews evaluates environmentally and socially conscious properties like Rosalie Bay, the only Green Globe-certified resort in Dominica which has won accolades for its wind- and solar-powered energy, including more than 200 solar panels; locally- and organically-sourced food; and protected black sand beach where endangered sea turtles nest.

    In Costa Rica, Casa Corcovado Jungle Lodge is one of the few eco-resorts to earn a five-Leaf rating from Costa Rica’s Certification for Sustainable Tourism for its pristine 170-acre nature preserve as well as a number of eco-initiatives including a solar electric system, hydroelectric turbine and a hybrid solar convection system for heating water.

    “I believe that we, as a tourism entity, have a responsibility to the travelling public and the beautiful destination we represent to use natural resources in a way that protects the local environment and improves the well-being of its residents,” said Rosalie Bay owner Beverly Deikel.

    {Nassau, Bahamas}
    {wirestory}

  • Rare Female Crocodile Suffocated During Mating

    Rare Female Crocodile Suffocated During Mating

    {{A very rare and endangered female crocodile has died of suffocation in a Dutch zoo during attempted mating with a “dominant” male partner, the zoo said on Wednesday.}}

    “In the end she couldn’t handle the dominant mating behaviour of the male gavial,” Amsterdam’s Artis zoo said in a statement of the false gavial (Tomistoma schlegelii) crocodile, introduced in October as part of a breeding programme.

    During mating, the male false gavial holds the female down with his mouth “to show his superiority”, the zoo said, stressing that the female had “accepted this behaviour”.

    “She eventually died of suffocation,” the zoo said, with multiple bites all over her body, in particular around the neck.

    There are only an estimated 2 500 false gavial left in the world. The crocodile is native to Malaysia, southern Myanmar and Indonesia’s Borneo, Java and Sumatra.

    The zoo had for years had a male and female false gavial but they did not mate and so they introduced another female, who died.

    In the wild male false gavials can mate with multiple females.

    Only 10 zoos in Europe have a captive false gavial.

    – AFP

  • Elephants Can Tell Difference Between Human Languages

    Elephants Can Tell Difference Between Human Languages

    {{African elephants can differentiate between human languages and move away from those considered a threat, a skill they have honed to survive in the wild, researchers said Monday}}.

    The study suggests elephants, already known to be intelligent creatures, are even more sophisticated than previously believed when it comes to understanding human dangers.

    African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are the largest land animals on Earth and are considered a vulnerable species due to habitat loss and illegal hunting for their ivory tusks.

    Researchers played recordings of human voices for elephants at Amboseli National Park in Kenya to see how they would respond, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    Some of the voices were from local Maasai men, a group that herds cattle and sometimes comes into conflict with elephants over access to water and grazing space. Occasionally, elephants are killed in clashes with Maasai men, and vice-versa.

    Other recorded voices were from Kamba men, who tend to be farmers or employees of the national park, and who rarely represent a danger to elephants.

    Still other voices tested on the elephants included female Maasai speakers and young boys.

    All were saying the same phrase: “Look, look over there, a group of elephants is coming.”

    The recorded voices were played for hundreds of elephants across 47 family groups during daylight hours.

    When elephants heard the adult male Maasai voices, they tended to gather together, start investigative smelling with their trunks, and move cautiously away.

    But when elephants heard females, boys, or adult male Kamba speakers, they did not show concern.

    “The ability to distinguish between Maasai and Kamba men delivering the same phrase in their own language suggests that elephants can discriminate between different languages,” said co-author Graeme Shannon, a visiting fellow in psychology at the University of Sussex.

    That is not the same as understanding what the words mean, but still shows that elephants can decipher the more sing-songy Maasai language from the Kamba tongue, perhaps based on inflections, use of vowels, and other cues.

    “It is very sophisticated what the elephants are doing,” said Keith Lindsay, a conservation biologist and member of the scientific advisory committee of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project.

    “A lot of animals will take flight at just the general threat posed by people, but a smart animal doesn’t do that,” he told media.

    “Their response to hearing Maasai men talking was to be alert, to move away, but not to run away in total fear,” added Lindsay, who was not involved in the study.

    “It is suggesting that elephants are capable of thinking, (of) recognizing that if Maasai men are talking, they are not likely to be hunting because if they were hunting, they would be quiet.”

    Elephant groups with older matriarchs in their midst did best at assessing the threat from different speakers, further bolstering the presumed role of learning in the animals’ behaviour.

    The elephants also did not act the same way as they did when recordings of lions were played, as was shown in a previous study.

    In those scenarios, they bunched together so that juveniles – those most at risk from a lion attack – were in the centre, and moved toward the sounds as if to scare the lion away.

    When it comes to recognizing people, elephants may not be alone in this ability. Other research has suggested that wild bottlenose dolphins in Brazil have become so familiar with humans that they engage in cooperative hunting with artisanal fisherman.

    Great apes, crows and even prairie dogs have also been shown to differentiate between humans on some level.

    A separate study published last month in the journal PLoS ONE showed elephants even have specific alarm calls for when humans are near, suggesting the relationship between people and elephants has reached a troubling point and that conservation efforts are more important than ever.

    “We have become a formal enemy of the elephants,” said Lori Marino, an expert on animal intelligence at Emory University.

    “They can not only make some distinctions between us, but we are now on their list of species to watch out for.”

    AFP

  • Welcome Note to Launch of East Africa Tourist Visa

    Welcome Note to Launch of East Africa Tourist Visa

    {{Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda have announced the operationalisation of the East Africa Tourist Visa, which is operational since 1st January 2014 and officially launched by the Heads of States of Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda on the 20th February 2014 in Kampala.}}

    Up to 31st December 2013, tourists travelling between the neighbouring East African countries must obtained a separate visa for each nation, therefore Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda have partnered in order to simplify travel arrangements for holidaymakers, as well as creating a new brand for the whole region in turn opening up opportunities for joint marketing campaigns.

    Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda are three countries famed for their wildlife, which is, through the introduction of a joint visa, boost regional travel, adding value to the tourism product offerings of these countries and highlighting the diversity of East Africa.

    Our three Presidents are strong believers in Regional integration, including in the management of our tourism assets. The introduction of the single tourist visa is a result of a joint initiative and decision made by the Heads of State of the respective countries.

    Tourism in East Africa region is a cornerstone of our economy. The political will has allowed us today to launch the implementation of a single visa and subsequently one destination in a record time of the previous six months.

    As a Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda we believe that we will benefit from increase travellers to the region as well as intra regional movement.

    The Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda joint visa costs ONLY USD $100 (approximately £60.00). The previous cost of a single entry visa for Kenya was USD $50 (approximately £30), for Uganda was USD $50 (approximately £30) and Rwanda was USD $30 (approximately £18).

    The cross-border visa will support intra-regional travel between the participating countries through new joint marketing and trade opportunities.’

    We are proud to invite our future tourists to experience a more accessible eastern Africa region.

    Since January 1st 2014, Visitors to our region are benefiting from the new, more convenient multi-nation visa and seeing the improvements in security, immigration systems, infrastructure and capacity building that this system brings.’

    With the introduction of our cross-border visa we unite to promote the dramatic and varied landscapes, species and experiences that our nations offer.

    Through this new partnership our USPs will be highlighted from Kenya’s lions and Rwanda’s Gorillas to Uganda’s waterfalls while we work as one to add value to the regional tourism product overall.’

    Today, we celebrate another milestone in East African Tourism, the impending transformation of our three markets into one seamless tourist offering through the issuance of a single tourist visa for Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda – Single visa, one destination.

    We believe the introduction of a single visa strengthens our value proposition as a region, allowing us to eventually promote our dramatic and varied, flora and fauna, our varied landscapes and cultural experience.

    On a single visa, a tourist can enjoy Kenya’s sandy beaches and majestic lions, Uganda’s waterfalls and magic music, or Rwanda’s rolling hills and rare mountain Gorilla’s. Under this initiative the Tourist is the winner.

    We seek to provide a smoother and cheaper process that gives you pass to a better banquet of touristic experiences.

    At this ITB we are calling upon our ongoing partners and invite for the new ones to make use of this East Africa Tourist Visa which is coming as additional USP in the promotion of Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda as must see destination. We are ready to welcoming and taking care of you.

  • 35-year-old Gorilla Dies in Uganda’s Bwindi Forest

    35-year-old Gorilla Dies in Uganda’s Bwindi Forest

    {{Mwirima, one of the oldest silverback mountain gorillas has died.
    Aged more than 35, Mwirima was the leader of the Rushegura group of 14 gorillas}}.

    Mwirima was found lying lifeless on Monday near Bwindi-Mgahinga Conservation Area head offices at Buhoma in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

    Mr John Justice Tibesigwa, the senior warden in charge of the southern sector of Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga National Parks, yesterday said Mwirima is suspected to have died of old age and other illnesses.

    However, it should be noted gorillas have a life expectancy of 50 to 60 years.

  • Uganda & Ethiopia Overtake Kenya on Hospitality Investiment

    Uganda & Ethiopia Overtake Kenya on Hospitality Investiment

    {{Uganda and Ethiopia have overtaken Kenya as key investment destinations for global hotel chains scouting for opportunities in the region. }}

    The two nations feature on the top five list, whose hotel sectors are expected to receive huge investments in sub-Saharan Africa, alongside Nigeria, Angola and Ghana, the Kenyan Standard has reported.

    A new report ranking countries according to the number of jobs that new investments in the hotel sector will create this year puts Nigeria as the hottest spot for investors in the hotel industry.

    The survey by W Hospitality Group is based on the number of signed contracts by international and regional brands as well as smaller non-branded hoteliers.

    “Nigeria leads the way in sub-Saharan Africa with the creation of 53,000 jobs. It is followed by Ghana with 11,000 and Angola (9,000), Ethiopia (8,800) and Uganda with 8,500,” said W Hospitality Group Managing Director Trevor Ward.

    “In Sub Saharan Africa, growth is forecast to be a much faster 23 per cent.” “Where there are fewer people with hospitality industry experience, HPA anticipates three major trends; an influx of top management from abroad, a war for talented middle management and substantial investment in training programmes,” he said.

  • EA Countries Told to fight Ivory Smuggling

    EA Countries Told to fight Ivory Smuggling

    {{As Tanzania gears up for the second phase of the anti-poaching campaign Operesheni Tokomeza Ujangili, it has been urged to create National Environment Security Task Forces (NESTs) inclusive of NGOs.}}

    Interpol makes the recommendation to all East African countries in the recently released report titled Elephant Poaching and Ivory Trafficking in East Africa: Assessment for an Effective Law Enforcement Response.

    According to the report, NESTs should rope in police, prosecutors, customs, environmental agencies, other specialised agencies and–where appropriate–non-governmental organisations and inter-governmental partners.

    The big question has been how it is that the authorities have failed to track the contraband until it makes its way to the international markets. In November 2012, Hong Kong authorities seized $1.4 million worth of smuggled ivory in a container from Tanzania. The 569 tusks were found buried under hundreds of bags of sunflower seeds.

    Blame was directed then at customs officials at the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), police and inspectors from the ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) for being unable to tackle the rampant ivory smuggling at the port of Dar es Salaam.

    Some of the smuggled ivory is reportedly stolen from stocks held by the ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism in Dar es Salaam. Interpol also extended the olive branch by inviting investigative requests from East African countries.

    “East African elephant range countries should request Interpol’s investigative support teams to assist with evidence collection and analysis pertaining to elephant poaching and ivory seizures,” the report reads in part.

    Mr David Higgins, the head of Interpol’s Environmental Security unit that produced the report, said during the launch of the document on Tuesday in Nairobi that Interpol’s global databases and network provide a unique platform to support these activities and coordinate a multinational response from law enforcement worldwide.

    “If we are to target those individuals behind the killing of thousands of elephants every year, who are making millions at the cost of our wildlife with comparatively little risk,” he said, “we must address each and every stage of this criminal activity in a cohesive manner.”

    According to the report, 18 large-scale seizures (over 500 kilograms) accounted for 41.6 tonnes of illicit ivory in 2013. Like other reports before it, it also indicates that a significant portion of ivory reaching international markets, especially in Asia, is derived from elephant populations in Tanzania.

    The report reads in part: “The majority of large-scale ivory seizures have occurred in maritime ports.

    The ivory is hidden in shipping containers, and it is usually concealed by other lawful goods. By these methods, East African ivory originating primarily from Tanzania has been transported directly to Asian maritime transit hub.”

    According to a report released last September by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (Unodc), 37 per cent of the illicit ivory consignments seized globally between 2009 and 2011 originated from Tanzania.

    {ivory}

  • Kenya’s Elephant Population Stabilises

    Kenya’s Elephant Population Stabilises

    {{Sometime last month, Kenyan security agents assisted by their US and Chinese counterparts made a significant breakthrough when they pounced on a crime lord of Chinese origin, believed to be behind the current wave of illegal trafficking in ivory and rhino horns.}}

    The arrest of Li Xue brought with it the realisation that the new Conservation and Wildlife Management Act 2013 was beginning to bite, at last.

    The arrest and repatriation of Xue was a significant turning point in the war against poaching, which in the past three years has been on a climb, not just in Kenya, but also in Tanzania and Uganda, where it is rampant, thanks to laxities in park security.

    Around the same time, two Chinese traffickers faced hefty court fines and long prison terms for dealing in illicit ivory. Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) acknowledges the threats posed by illegal trophy hunters but says the drop does not necessarily mean poaching has been on the ascent.

    KWS spokesperson Paul Mbugua said the decline was a function of multiple factors, including natural attrition and migration.

    “The numbers of elephants have dropped in Tsavo. They, however, are within a range that is considered healthy for the ecosystem. There are factors that can lead to a reduced population. These include poaching, natural attrition, migration to other ecosystems and also predation of the young. The next census will be critical in ascertaining the exact trend of this population.”

    While Kenya has recorded success in clamping down on poaching, a new report by Internal Environmental Security Sub-Directorate identifies Tanzania as the new hub for poachers.

    The report estimates that 30 elephants are butchered in Tanzania daily, translating to10,000 annually. By comparison, poachers killed about 800 in Kenya last year.

    To illustrate the seriousness of poaching in Tanzania, which affects Kenya’s herds, the country has seen a decline in stocks in Selous Game Reserve from 70,000 in 2006 to about 13,084 at present.

    KWS says over the same period, Kenya’s stocks had stabilised to sustainable levels.

    A perusal of recent reports on underworld activities of the crime rings involved in poaching suggests the 1,573 that died in Tsavo National Park alone since the last count in 2011 may have been enough to finance terror activities in Kenya and Somalia.

  • How Tourists Will Travel in EAC

    How Tourists Will Travel in EAC

    {{Kenyan tour operators’ vehicles will not take tourists directly to national parks and other attraction sites in Tanzania even after last week’s deal reached by the two countries to enhance cooperation in the tourism sector.}}

    Instead, the vehicles from the neighbouring country will be allowed to drop visitors at specific towns in Tanzania before they are taken to the sites by locally registered vehicles, stakeholders in the industry affirmed yesterday.

    The executive secretary of the Tourism Confederation of Tanzania (TCT), Mr Richard Rugimbana, said a meeting held in Arusha under the auspices of the East African Community (EAC) agreed that tourists coming into the country would only be dropped at their destination sites.

    “I am not a spokesman of the government, but the two countries agreed to enhance the 1985 Protocol on Tourism Cooperation, this time on the issue of tour operations,” he told The Citizen over the phone from Dar es Salaam.

    He declined to give more details on the outcome of the ministerial conference of EAC on tourism and wildlife, which was dominated by the contentious issues of tourist/driver guides operations at the border crossings and insecurity.

    Tanzania and Kenya, the leading tourists destinations in the bloc, agreed on a draft protocol regarding tourism in 1985, shortly after the re-opening of the border between the two countries.

    During the six-year closure from 1977, no tourists were allowed to cross overland into Tanzania as was the case before.

    When contacted over the issue, an executive officer with the Tanzania Association of Tour Operations (Tato) Sirili Akko said tourists crossing from Kenya through Namanga would now be dropped in Arusha instead of the border town.

    “For the visitors coming in through Uganda, they will be dropped at Bukoba instead of Mutukula,” he said, noting that the measure has been taken because most of the border posts lacked the necessary facilities for the visitors.

    It is estimated that about 40 per cent of tourists from overseas coming to Tanzania enter the country through Kenya.

    A Kenyan leading weekly Sunday Nation reported at the weekend that the decision followed a pressure from the Kenyan tour operators who have been against the rule that required them to drop tourists at the border with Tanzania for them to be picked up by their Tanzanian counterparts.

    However, it emerged from the Arusha talks that Kenyan authorities have been allowing Tanzanian tour operators to take tourists to even to the national parks and airports.

    The Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for EAC Affairs, Ms Phyllis Kandie, who led her country’s delegation to the meeting, said the new arrangement would also help in marketing the regional as a single tourist destination, adding that the newly found relationship with Tanzania will get the support of key stakeholders.

    According to the minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr Lazaro Nyalandu, Tanzania and Kenya have been given six months to meet bilaterally and review their existing cooperation in the latest moratorium in Arusha.

    “By resolving these challenges we will promote the tourism sector with a focus on regional integration”, he said.

    {thecitizen}

  • Tanzania Defends Serengeti National Park Highway

    Tanzania Defends Serengeti National Park Highway

    {{Tanzanian government has defended the proposed highway across the Serengeti National Park, saying constructing it will neither violate the East African Community (EAC) Treaty nor harm the ecosystem.}}

    Government Counsel Gabriel Malata told the East African Court of Justice that the highway would ease the movement of tourists to and from the area.

    When the case was filed in December 2010, he explained, the government had not decided on whether to build a tarmac or gravel road. After a feasibility study, Mr Malata said, the gravel road came out on top–essentially because it would have no effect on the Serengeti eco-system.

    Mr Malata, the principal state attorney, asked the court to dismiss the case filed by the Nairobi-based Africa Network of Animal Welfare (ANAW) with costs. He argued that supporting ANAW would frustrate the tourism sector in the entire region “because the road is there to facilitate the movement of tourists”.

    The EAC partner states were yet to ratify the Protocol on Environment and Natural Resources, he added, making the case premature.

    ANAW argues that construction of the road will be hazardous to the environment and animals in particular. The group’s lawyer, Saitabao Kanchory Mbalelo told the court that construction of the road across the national park infringes Articles 5 and 3 of the EAC Treaty.

    NMG