Develop technology and light pollution is considered one of the reasons why fireflies disappearing into the swamps, fields and forests around the world. To investigate this accident, the team leader Chung Hwa School East in Kampung Kuala Belait Mentire to study the causes of the disappearance of their princess Rashida Awards for young people to scientific or PRYNSA 13 of the project entitled “Lampyridae:. Conservation and education in Brunei ”

Fireflies considered charismatic insects from National Geographic. Their location choices are hot, humid and stagnant water near the ponds, smoke and rivers or shallow depressions that retain water longer than the surrounding land, but when our rivers look more development and noise pollution, natural habitat of fireflies destroyed. By choosing the field, brought together members of the team information through the Internet and chose Kampung Mentire their destination. The study focused on identifying
the predators of the fireflies to understand and conclude to a reason why the fireflies population are decreasing.
Through this study, students are convinced they will be able to prevent the extinction of the fireflies and also raise awareness and public understanding by emphasizing the importance of observation and preservation of fireflies. Beyond Brunei will also benefit from this study to promote its eco-tourism, creating more jobs and bring more revenue for the country.

To raise awareness of environmental issues, CMS Vatavaran, an organization based in New Delhi nonprofit, organized a one day workshop for teachers of environmental science and teachers of the city on Friday. The day of the workshop presentations, various activities for teachers and exchange of experiences.

Rosa de Lima, senior consultant for CMS and a trainer at the workshop discussed how climate change is a serious problem. “Why India, climate change is seen in all countries. Australia has recently experienced the worst floods in 100 years. Zimbabwe to droughts and rains cause floods in Bangladesh face terrible,” he said.

She said that it will not be any different for the city and Ahmedabad may soon become a desert if its citizens don’t’ bother about water conservation.

“Building water reservoirs and economic utilisation of water will help in having a better future,” Rosalind, a wildlife biologist researcher for the last 11 years, said.

Rosalind said that we are over exploiting natural resources. “We are overusing the earth’s resources. Is this the way we want to continue?” she questioned, leaving around 25 teachers and lecturers, who attended the session pondering over the subject.
Later, speaking to DNA, Rosalind said that such workshops are important to sensitise teachers and make them aware about environmental issues. “If teachers are made aware, they will teach the same to school children, who are the future of India. So, the best way to have a better future is to teach the future of India (children), through teachers,” she said.

“Through this workshop, we are making attempts to clear all the mysteries and complexities about climate change so that teachers understand them in a better way and explain the same to their students,” the trainer said.

She said that climate change has suddenly become a big and we need to realise that it is no more an environmental problem, but an economical one.

“Unseasonal rains, floods, all these affect agriculture, communities and our society at large. Science and technology should be used innovatively to reduce global warming and to create awareness about such issues,” the CMS consultant said.

I’m talking about the water situation in Ahmedabad, Rosalind, said the case for water conservation and water harvesting facilities to help improve the groundwater of the city. During the session, teachers were asked to submit some things in new ways.

Tourism can reach new heights in Oyama. Lake Country Board approved a temporary use of facilities for entertainment of a zip on 75 acres of private land Oyama Lake Road. “They have three years to try and then they may have to be rezoned, “said Mayor James Baker.

The operation may consist of four to six single or dual zip lines. Participants from rocky cliffs, platforms of trees or steel platforms. “Paths of nature will be flying a zipline to the other with signs of natural vegetation and local history,” said Peter Madsen applicant in a written statement.

“Zip lines are in and coming area, which is to go in popularity. At the same time research, we found none of the entire Okanagan Valley this type. “However, before the Council granted a provisional license, some things were handled. “There is a dirt road out there and people are concerned about the zip line would attract more traffic and there would be more dust for the residents,” says Baker, adding that dealing with dust control.

Madsen believes that traffic will be minimal, as pre-reserved only for guests on the spot. “It is already at least two other companies based tourism along the Lake Road Oyama,” he said. The Council discussed the issue of fires. “It is a draft non-smoking, so that it reduces that risk,” Baker said. “They also have a tank to fight fires. “Baker says a zip line could be economic benefits to Lake Country. “We want more things for tourists to do in our community,” he said.

If space tourism ever becomes big business, many wealthy donors hope can be a danger to society is not limited to those who book a trip to the edge of space. A strong sector manned suborbital could soot into the stratosphere enough to cause global climate change, according to a new study.

Although the study will be published in Geophysical Research Letters, no mention of specific companies and manned by name, the authors seem to have Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic and its competitors in mind. The researchers modeled the effects of climate hybrid engines used by Virgin Galactic, the launch several times from southern New Mexico; Virgin Galactic has signed a 20-year lease at Spaceport America, a space station funding commercial public.

Hybrid engines that use synthetic fuels, solid hydrocarbons and nitrous oxide as an oxidant to be injected black carbon soot into the sky, says the study’s authors, Martin Ross wins Aerospace Corporation, Michael Mills is the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and Darin Toohey of the University of Colorado at Boulder. If the space-tourism industry mature to the point that the 1000 hybrid powered suborbital flights leave every year, these trips had been dumped about 600 tons of soot annually heaven. More than a decade to launch these emissions is continuous and asymmetric shadow of the northern hemisphere, which may affect the regional atmospheric circulation and temperatures are much higher than the greenhouse gases released into the stratosphere for the same flights.

In a 40-year climate model includes soot rockets fell ozone concentrations in the tropics and increased in high latitudes. In the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, where the cloud of carbon will effectively act as a sunshade, the temperature dropped about 0.4 degrees Celsius. This may seem a welcome offset the effects of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions, which should increase the average global temperature over the next few decades if it was not the fact that soot rockets also had the effect of heat the poles of the model climate researchers, promoting temperatures of nearly a full degree Celsius in winter local.

The results based on specific climate modeling complex and a number of assumptions that must be refined, especially as regards the amount of carbon in hybrid exhaust and the interaction between climate change caused by the stratospheric soot and those caused by future increases in greenhouse gas emissions is independent of tourism launches. However, researchers warn, “rocket emissions on this scale clearly crossed a threshold to be considered an anthropogenic climate change impact of global importance.”

Internationally renowned naturalist, Professor David Bellamy, said Disneyland as an excellent example of ecotourism in the 18th Global Conference on Asia-Pacific Eco Tourism Queensland.

The self-described wandering botanist Pommy told delegates at the conference in Noosa Disney’s Monday led the way back in the 50s, “when the `blessing’ of international travel packages appeared on the horizon”.

Prof Bellamy said Walt and Roy Disney carved their fantasy land out of Florida swamps surrounded by run-down cattle ranches, and citrus orchards drenched with chemicals.

“The lake in the middle was so polluted it had to be drained and detoxed before Tinkerbell, in the guise of Mother Nature, came to the rescue,” he said.

“The result was the mother honey pot of mass tourism, creating thousands of worthwhile jobs across the full spectrum of the nascent hospitality industry, while attracting talent from around the world to put WOW! Into the experience,” he bellowed.

Prof Bellamy said Disneyland’s landscape architects drew on the biodiversity of the world’s flora to stabilise and beautify the park, and restored a great chunk of the everglades back into more natural biodiverse, and more sustainable order.

“It became a nature reserve for all our children’s futures and a safe haven for many endangered plants and animals as it refilled with clean spring water.”If only the bayous around New Orleans had been given the same loving care, perhaps the terrible floods of 2005 might not have wreaked such havoc.”

Prof Bellamy said there are now 911 sites listed as World Heritage tourist destinations, all of which need the support of the eco holiday tourist business.”The tide of commonsense is turning, especially in the world of eco tourism and farming.

Ecotourism is surrounded by insurmountable opportunities and when the first hotel gave their customers the ability to use their towels for a few days, they never looked back or stopped coming with new ideas for Eco Tourism.

A caravan and tourist park which accommodates more than 150,000 a year has been named a finalist at the prestigious NSW Tourism Awards. Lane Cove River Tourist Park in Plessey Rd, Macquarie Park, was designated in three categories: ecotourism; tourism and caravan parks; and Qantas award for brilliance in sustainable tourism.

The park, which is a business unit within the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change National Parks and Wildlife Division, has more than 300 caravan, campervan and tent sites. There are also 28 self-contained guest cabins.

Lane Cove Tourist Park manager Andrew Daff said the park hosted about 152,000 visitors a year. “You can stay in the bush, 10km from the city and at an affordable price: to have this sort of asset in the Northern District is fantastic,’’ Mr Daff said.

“For a family of four of two adults and two children that brings their own tent it costs $37, including use of all the facilities.

“I don’t think you can take your family to the movies for that sort of money.’‘ Mr Daff said the staff at the park took the decision to instigate the best sustainability practices to its business in 2005.

“The decision to go the whole way has to be a team one and the concept needs to be embraced by everyone in order to develop a full sustainability culture.

“We thought it was important for two reasons. We forecast rises in water and electricity prices and we also worked out that one of our biggest selling points was our natural environment.

“So it made sense to put in place an environmental sustainability strategy. “It has helped us negate our electricity costs. “Our electricity bill in 2010 was the same as it was in 2005 because of solar power.

“We have 26kW of solar power at the park, which is about 20 per cent of our annual energy consumption.’‘ The awards will be announced at a ceremony in the Grand Pavilion, Rose hill Gardens Racecourse on Friday, 19 November 2010.

Everyone depend on farm as well as forest. Ecotourism is more profitable than other ventures like cattle ranching, timber logging and farming; researchers have shown for the first time for a region of Peru. The findings are likely to give local people the financial incentive to keep neighboring virgin rainforest pristine, helping to lock away carbon.

‘This justifies the maintenance of intact rainforest over all alternative uses,’ says co-author of the study, Chris Kirkby from the University of East Anglia, who’s now based in Peru. The researchers also found that setting aside vast tracts of rainforest for ecotourism hugely outweighs the carbon emissions from air, boat and bus travel by ecotourists within Peru.

‘Undeveloped rainforest on land owned by lodges locks away an amount of carbon equivalent to up to 5000 years of carbon emissions from travel by tourists going to ecolodges in Peru,’ Kirkby explains.

Ever since the word ecotourism was coined in the 1980s, it’s been touted as the best way for tourists to see fragile, pristine or protected places with minimal environmental impact.

Around US$210 billion is brought into developing countries every year for ecotourism and the numbers of visitors to protected areas in developing countries is growing. There’s little doubt this money helps to promote conservation and sustainable development. But, until now, there has been almost no research into whether or not ecotourism benefits local people – especially financially.

‘The difficulty researchers have faced is getting hold of financial data from ecotourism companies,’ says Kirkby.

So Kirkby and his co-authors from UEA, China and Peru set about sourcing commercially sensitive financial data from lodge owners in the Tambopata region of Peru. They specifically wanted to know if ecotourism is the most valuable use of land compared with schemes that destroy rainforest, like logging, ranching and Brazil nut extraction.

Another concern among conservationists is a huge trans-Amazon highway which is scheduled for completion in 2011. The road will cut through a remote part of the Peruvian Amazon, making it instantly accessible and economically viable to cut down the rainforest.

Kirkby and his co-authors were keen to arm themselves with accurate information so that they would be in a position to influence Peruvian policy-makers and minimise unnecessary degradation of the Peruvian rainforest.

They calculated the 2005 profits from 12 ecotourism lodges in Tambopata and compared them with the likely profits from agriculture, cattle ranching, timber extraction, or Brazil nut harvesting. They looked at a number of possible scenarios, such as timber logging, followed by agriculture or cattle ranching, and combining ecotourism with some of these schemes.

The researchers also calculated the carbon emissions from travel within Peru and compared this with the amount of carbon being locked away by not cutting down rainforest.

‘What we found is that ecotourism holds its own compared with ranching, timber and agriculture,’ says Kirkby. ‘And a third of the revenue from lodges is spent in the local economy.’

While timber logging can make more money, it can only do so in the first five years. After that, profits drop sharply, mainly because the industry is unsustainable. In contrast, ecotourism is profitable over the long term.

‘The good news is that ecotourism lodges make money, which locals use to buy up more land to build their businesses, thereby further protecting pristine rainforest,’ says Kirkby.

Another of the paper’s co-authors, Douglas Wu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, points out, ‘This tourism is only profitable because it is high volume. Small scale community based ecotourism is not nearly as profitable and couldn’t compete.’

But the authors warn that as prices of timber, gold and agricultural products rise, the situation could change.

Although they add, ‘There are other more difficult-to-quantify reasons to protect forest and farm including their value as a store of carbon and biodiversity.’

I don’t know about you, but every once in a while, I find myself imagining what I might do or be if I could reinvent myself — or if my friends could, or my neighbor, or my sister. What interesting, totally different opportunities exist out there that might capture the imagination?

Well, I think I’ve found a good candidate.

LEARN MORE

For more information on The International Ecotourism Society, e-mail David Jones at dbjones@usm.maine.edu or call (207) 780-4587.

In my last column, I talked about a new sustainability program being offered by the University of New Hampshire. In my continuing effort to shine a light on Portsmouth’s neighbors across the Piscataqua, today I focus on a new program at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. It’s in the field of sustainable tourism.

USM has joined a prestigious group of universities that are members of an educational consortium created by The International Ecotourism Society, at 21 years old considered one of the oldest ecotourism nonprofits in the country.

According to its Web site, TIES unites “conservation, communities and sustainable travel, promoting responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.”

Other consortium members are the University of Utah, West Virginia University, the University of Minnesota, North Carolina State University and California Polytechnic University.

“These are division one research institutions. It’s great for us because it’s moving us into a whole new area,” said David Jones, USM professor of recreation and leisure studies.

Jones said what’s great about the consortium and the certificate program being offered by USM is that it’s across all majors.

Jones has been teaching Introduction to Nature-Based Tourism for three years, and he said his students run the gamut from business to environmental science to anthropology to history, as well as his department of recreation and leisure.

“A lot of students are interested in working in this area,” he said, “taking tourists to the outdoors in a way that doesn’t deplete the environment and that gives back to the local community.

“It’s very different from mass tourism. They educate tourists about the area, looking at the local economy and how tourism benefits local indigenous people.”

Ecotourists do not stay at hotels run by multinational corporations. Instead, they stay at bed and breakfast inns owned by local people. They tread lightly on the land, too, perhaps birding, taking photographs, biking or hiking.

Jones said many airlines also offer carbon offset programs, whereby you pay a little more up front based on your itinerary. An organization uses the money to plant trees or otherwise offset carbon emissions.

Students in the USM program take Jones’ nature-based tourism course, plus two courses on sustainability that can be in any department. They also participate in a study-away component and a 400-hour internship program.

He said he’s found a great deal of interest in Maine and New England-based organizations and businesses that want to offer internships, including Maine Huts and Trails, the Appalachian Mountain Club, LL Bean and the Audubon Society. Some 15 in all are signed up to take interns.

“They’re very much in favor of this. They see this as the future, really,” he said.

Interest among students has been great, he said, and its cross-discipline approach was the selling point at USM.

But not only enrolled students can earn a certificate in sustainable tourism. Anyone interested in adding to their resume can apply to enter the program, and Jones said it’s a perfect complement to a lot of professions. He said the program lasts about a year, if you’re taking it on your own.

Langalbandh, a holy place in Narayanganj for the country’s Hindu community, will be developed as a tourist spot. The decision came from an inter-ministerial meeting with Religious Affairs Adviser Maj Gen (Retd.) Dr ASM Matiur Rahman in the chair.

The Deputy Commissioner of the district has been asked to submit a project plan on land requisition mentioning the quantity of khas and vested property to the ministry concerned within the next 15 days.

The meeting also decided that an 8-km area along the Brahmaputra River would be re-excavated and 14 ghats would be reconstructed by Water Ministry under the supervision of Religious Affairs Ministry as part of the proposed project.

Besides, the Architecture Department would formulate a master plan following which the ministries concerned would reconstruct the mandirs, set up shades, guide-walls, roads and other necessary infrastructures.

The Ministry of Forest and Environment would set up a tree-shadow, a tourist corporation and a restaurant as a part of the project. A police station would also be set up to ensure public security in the area.

Religious Affairs secretary Ataur Rahman, Water Resources secretary Syed Mohammad Jobayer, joint secretary of Agriculture Ministry Latfur Rahman, Land Ministry joint secretary Murtaza Ahmed were, among others, present in the meeting.

Hakaluki Haor located in greater Sylhet, the haor offers a very different type of ecosystem as well as a new set of management issues. The haor basin is an extensive alluvial plain supporting a variety of wetland habitats. It contains about 47 major haors and more than 6,000 beels, or freshwater lakes, nearly half of which are seasonal. Hakaluki Haor itself is a complex of more than 80 inter-connecting beels located in the Maulvi Bazar district.

During the dry season, the beels cover an area of approximately 4,400 ha. However, during the rainy season, the entire area gets flooded, and the beels are united as one large lake, or haor, with an area of approximately 18,000 ha. This makes it the largest haor in Bangladesh. Some 190,000 people live surrounding Hakaluki haor area. Hakaluki haor is a highly significant site for a wide variety of waterfowl.

It is important for wintering migratory birds. Its overall significance is perhaps best expressed with reference to the various criteria for inclusion as a Ramsar site. “It is a particularly good representative example of a wetland which plays a substantial hydrological, biological or ecological role in the natural functioning of a major river basin85; “It supports an appreciable assemblage of rare, vulnerable or endangered species of plant or animal, or an appreciable number of individuals of any one or more of these species.

“It is of special value for maintaining the genetic and ecological diversity of a region because of the peculiarities of its flora and fauna. “It regularly supports about 20,000 waterfowl. “It regularly supports substantial numbers of individuals from particular groups of waterfowl, indicative of wetland values, productivity or diversity.