karmatrekkerstv

To Consume or Not Consume

We talk a lot in the media about the rise of consumerism in China and how that will affect our planet, but as this Info Graphic shows, we in the West are still the largest consumers and we don't seem to be changing our habits.

VisuaLoop

Making Climate Change Relevant

I love this video. It was put together by a group of Climate Change Scientists to rebuke non-scientist media pundits who deny the existence of climate change, as well as to make the subject relevant. It is fun, very catchy and serves to remind us all that the need to protect our environment is real. We should fall for the BS of the denyers.

 

An update to Brazil's Uncontacted Tribes

Back in June 2008 we brought you a story about the Brazilian government's efforts to preserve uncontacted tribes deep in the Amazon (http://karmatrekkerstv.typepad.com/weblog/2008/06/do-not-touch-th.html). Now we have an update and video. Recently the government officials charged with protecting these peoples allowed a BBC film crew to accompany them on a flyover of the tribe's lands. The video is stunning.

The joy of living green in Costa Rica

Guest writer David Lando Ramírez shares his passion for environmentally-friendly living in paradise.

The beauty of Eco-friendly architecture is that you are tapping into and amplifying the peace and exhilaration of nature.

Since graduating from Santa Clara University with a double major in environmental studies and anthropology I have remodeled and landscaped our family vacation home into a luxury villa which is now available to rent by night, week or month. When I first walked the hill above the Sarapiqui River I could feel how peaceful that area was. The goal of remodeling the villa was to combine luxury in the jungle with a peace beyond imagination.

I designed oversize custom furniture built for comfort, added soft décor, ceiling fans and all amenities including a fully equipped kitchen, entertainment system and Wi-Fi. 38 huge wrap-around windows were installed to minimize the need for artificial lighting and provide a 360° view. I also raised the roof of the foyer to 35 feet to create a natural convection system that draws the cool river breezes through the villa.

A balcony running the length of the back of the house was added to optimize the views of the river island and thousands of acres of rainforest reserve on the far shore. Sipping delicious Costa Rican coffee on the cushioned furniture or resting in a hammock overlooking the rainforest canopy is surreal. You find yourself sharing one continuous moment with the multicolored humming birds, toucans, and flocks of green parrots flying by at eye level.

Eco is fun. There is a 100 foot tall stand of bamboo fifty yards from the villa. The clicking sounds it makes as it sways in the wind are incredible. I decided to maximize the experience of the bamboo and the view of the river by building a 600 sq. ft. outdoor entertainment area complete with BBQ, bathrooms, tables, chairs, hammocks and a dance floor for gatherings and parties.

The landscaping was designed to enhance the eco-architecture. Eco is easy, we like what the wildlife likes.

Want birds?
Planting fruit trees increases the wildlife populations and provides us with the delicious fruits we enjoy. Bananas and papaya are favorites of the humming birds, toucans and parrots, mamón chino (rambutan), shaped like a small green plum with rubbery red spines succulent and sweet, draws in hundreds of golden tailed oropendolas.

Want butterflies?
Plant bougainvillea, hibiscus, bird of paradise and dozens of other varieties of native heliconias with intense colors and shapes you may never have seen before. Blue morphos and a variety of species of butterflies with brilliant orange, red and green flutter throughout the property.

Want longevity?
10 acres on the river bank and island are a rainforest reserve.

Want community?
All of the artisans, landscapers and staff are from our local community. They have become friends who share in the satisfaction of creating the first and only luxury villa in Sarapiqui.

Want motivation?
Helping the habitat helps ourselves
Costa Rica is fast becoming the first country to reach carbon neutrality.

David Lando Ramírez

Owner

www.casadetranquilidad.com

Giants are worth millions

In this third installment of an on-going series, Dylan Brown looks at the economic benefit of Eco Tourism in Costa Rica

On the website of the Tirimbina Research Center, it states that, “The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) defines ecotourism as follows: responsible travel to nature areas in a manner which preserves the environment and improves the welfare of the local population.” This means that those who carry out and participate in ecotourism activities should follow the following principles:
-Minimize impact
-Encourage environmental/cultural knowledge and respect.
-Provide positive experiences for visitors as well as hosts.
-Provide direct financial benefits for conservation
-Provide economic benefits to the local population
-Support international human rights and labor agreements.

On the website of the Fund for Costa Rica, it states that, “In Costa Rica, the tourism industry is a pillar of the nation’s economy. Tourism generates more foreign exchange for the Costa Rican economy than any other economic activity including coffee, pineapple, and even banana exports. In 2005, tourism generated over $1.5 billion in foreign exchange, and accounted for 8% of Costa Rica’s GDP. Thus, a sustainable way to conserve biodiversity in Costa Rica is for the country’s successful ecotourism industry to help pay for it. The Fund for Costa Rica is working to promote investment by the tourism industry in programs to improve the environment and to conserve biodiversity.”

The article Giants Worth Millions by Alejandro Balaguer demonstrates how profitable ecotourism and conservation can be. Balaguer writes that whale watching businesses exist all over the world these days; about nine million people have gone on whale watching trips, putting more than a billion dollars into the world economy every year. Costa Rica has also taken in millions of dollars from whale watching, proving that conservation can be a good business. Many countries such as Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic have set an example and created “whale sanctuaries,” so now countries can protect a resource and obtain benefits without killing the whales.

Balaguer, in the article, then goes on a whale watching trip with Kim Beddall, who has spent several decades working with whales and is one of the pioneers of the whale watching business. Balaguer states that “As we begin our journey and the boat bobs up and down in the waves, Kim gives us a class in sustainable development.” Kim states that, “Here in Samana, Dominican Republic, no one was observing whales in 1985. Today we might take 45,000 passengers out in a period of 65 days. This has a very significant economic impact on the area. It is a valuable resource because it provides important income for the community in hotels, car rentals, transportation, and food. Clearly, environmentally friendly businesses can bring both direct and indirect benefits. The whales offer a profitable show that could take hundreds of Latin American communities out of poverty.”

Like Beddal, many biologists and operators of tourism businesses believe that one way of keeping other countries from hunting whales is to have regulated and responsible observation in the region. But nature lovers aren’t the only ones who disagree with whale hunting. The Buenos Aires group (made up of thirteen Latin American countries including Costa Rica) sees whale watching tourism as a way of delivering economic development to coastal communities. In their last declaration they urged promotion of this activity throughout the oceans of the region as a way of opposing efforts to bring back commercial whale hunting. “The position of Latin American and Caribbean countries in general has been very positive in terms of conservation and of opposition to whale hunting. The economy is always going to determine what happens, so if you want to protect the whales, the best thing to do is to observe them and give the local communities an economic reason to protect the marine mammal. Whale watching is an economic alternative to whale hunting” Beddall concludes.

The Problem That the NGOs Look to Solve

In this second of an on-going series, Dylan Brown looks at the reality of NGO's & Eco Tourism in Costa Rica

On the website of the Fund for Costa Rica, they have summed up what is the basic problem that these conservation/ecotourism NGOs look to solve. It states that, “The world’s tropical forests are being destroyed at an astounding rate. The basic problem is that a standing, biologically diverse tropical forest creates little to no economic benefits for the private rural landholder. In order to generate income to support a family, it is often necessary to cut the forest to sell the wood or to convert the area to another land use such as cattle ranching or crops.

If the world is to conserve and expand our remaining tropical forests, substantial financial resources are needed in order to protect tropical forests from illegal cutting and to provide income for those rural land owners that protect this important resource. But who should pay to protect the forests? Ultimately, if forests are to be financed sustainably, the “user” of the forest should pay for its protection. In many parts of the world (including Costa Rica), the ecotourism industry is the primary “user” of standing and biologically diverse tropical forests. Without the forests, the sloths, the monkeys, and the toucans, the tourists would probably not be visiting."

So, as we see with these previous statements, the rural landholder must be able to make a livable wage that is sufficient to support a family, while using their land for something that economically benefits them more than cutting the forest and converting it to another land use such as agriculture. Herein lies the challenge for forest conservation in Costa Rica. This is because often the rural landholder can benefit more economically by cutting and converting the land to other uses.

Obviously then, there needs to be a way to finance the rural landholder and his/her family so that he/she can make a decent living wage while leaving the forest on his/her land standing. In Costa Rica, they have figured out that the best way to do this is through ecotourism.

Non-Profit, Non-Governmental Conservation and Ecotourism Organizations In Costa Rica (the NGOs)

Dylan Brown offers some insight into NGO conservation through eco-tourism initiatives. This will be the first of a multi-part series on Costa Rica, a destination near & dear to Karma Trekkers.

I have conducted an  independent study regarding all or most of the non-profit/non-governmental conservation and ecotourism organizations (NGOs (non-governmental organizations)) in the country of Costa Rica.  The reasons for my conducting this independent study is to deepen understanding of how these organizations operate, so that this understanding can be applied  to other parts of the world where these conservation initiatives are much needed.  The reason for choosing the country of Costa Rica for this study is because this country seems to be leading all of the world’s countries in these kinds of NGO conservation through eco-tourism initiatives.

Fifteen of these conservation/ecotourism NGOs in Costa Rica were located.  They are: The Organization For Tropical Studies, Tirimbina Research Center, Tropical Science Center, Monteverde Conservation League, Costa Rica Conservation Foundation, ATEC (The Talamancan Association of Ecotourism and Conservation), Ecopreservation Society, ANAI (Talamanca Environmental Association), The Fund For Costa Rica, Caribbean Conservation Corporation, FUNDECOR (Fundacion para el Desarollo de la Cordillera Volcanica Central), ADELA, The Buenos Aires Group and Cedarena.  Each has its individual purpose and business model, but all are fundamentally the same, non-profit, non-governmental conservation and eco-tourism organizations.  The most transparent of these thirteen organizations is the Organization for Tropical Studies, with a thorough annual report on their website.

The Organization for Tropical Studies owns and operates three different biological field stations in three different regions of Costa Rica: La Selva is located in the Caribbean lowlands of Northern Costa Rica and is comprised of 1,600 hectares of Premontane Wet Forest Habitat; Las Cruces is located along a spur of the Filos Cruces pacific coastal range in Coto Brus county in southern Costa Rica and is comprised of 300 hectares of Premontane Wet Forest Habitat; and Palo Verde is located within the Palo Verde National Park on the Pacific slopes of the Guanacaste province in Northwestern Costa Rica, and is composed of 19,000 hectares of Tropical Dry Forest and wetland Habitat.  Tirimbina Research Center is located in the Sarapaqui canton of the Heredia province in Northern Costa Rica and is comprised of 345 hectares of Premontane Wet Forest habitat.

The Tropical Science Center is located in San Jose, but owns and administers the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve which is located on the Pacific slopes of Northwestern Costa Rica and is comprised of 10,500 hectares of Tropical Cloud Forest habitat.   The Monteverde Conservation League is located in the same region as the previous, but administers to the adjacent land that is called The Children’s Eternal Rainforest which is comprised of 554 hectares of Tropical Cloud Forest Habitat.  The Costa Rica Conservation Foundation is also located in the Monteverde region, but is located in the lowland area of the region that is considered Tropical Rain Shadow Forest habitat. ATEC has offices in Puerto Viejo but most of its work is located in the city of Limon in the Talamanca canton of Costa Rica.  ANAI is also located and does its work in the Talamanca canton and is mostly concerned with “biomonitoring” and education of the region.

The Ecopreservation Society is a younger organization with offices in the cities of San Jose and Quepos, and looks to do most of its initial work in the Manuel Antonio National Park region in the central west coast of Costa Rica.  The Fund for Costa Rica is located and also works within the Manuel Antonio National Park on the central west coast of Costa Rica. The Caribbean Conservation Corporation is an international organization that has its headquarters in Gainesville, FL US and is involved with the protection and conservation of sea turtles and their habitat worldwide, but does most of their work in Costa Rica in the small village of Tortuguero, near the Port of Limon on the Caribbean coast.  ADELA is located in the city of Limon on the Caribbean coast and works to inform and educate the Caribbean community about the risks that the oil industry poses to the Caribbean and Costa Rica. FUNDECOR is located in the Central Volcanic Mountain Range and is composed of approximately 40,000 hectares in this region.  The Buenos Aires Group is a consortium of conservation and ecotourism NGOs throughout Latin America including Costa Rica, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and mostly concerning the conservation and ecotourism of marine mammals. Cedarena has offices in San Jose, but was the organization with the least public information to research, therefore I am lacking in information on this organization.

Stay tuned for the next part of my series.

The story of water

Recently the same team that produces Karma Trekkers spent a month traveling across Africa filming a new series called WHAT THE FUTURE or WTF!  The trek took the team through Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa. In many of the urban and rural settings we visited, the concept of water security emerged as a dominate theme. In wide swaths of Africa there simply isn't enough fresh water available. And yet it doesn't have to be this way.

And so we thought we'd bring you Annie Leonard's excellent video on how businesses manufacture the need for bottled water and why it is frankly a con. Having recently been in a part of the world where there isn't tap water I can tell you, clean water from a tap is a gift not to be squandered.

The Story of Cap & Trade

With so much talk about climate change in the wake of Copenhagen, we thought it would be an interesting subject to explore from a Karma Trekkers' point of view. This video by Annie Leonard does a really good job of explaining the concept  and misconceptions around Cap & Trade, a much touted but perhaps misguided solution.  Let us know what you think.

Better the Devil You Know: The Tasmanian Devil

Tasmania is the island state of Australia. It is roughly the size of West Virginia and Tasmania is by Australian standards small. It’s a mere one fifth of the size of the Great Barrier Reef.

Yet Tasmania’s landscape is extraordinarily diverse which makes the state quite the contrast to the rest of Australia. In some parts of the Outback residents drive for eight hours across an unchanging landscape to buy fruit at the supermarket yet in Tassie the rainforests, white sand beaches, ancient alpine landscapes, farm gates offering berries, seafoods and cheeses as well as the state’s prolific wildlife can be easily encountered during a day of cruising on uncrowded roads.

If you know little of Tasmania a peek at the extraordinary Tasmanian devil, the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial, can offer a few clues to the island state.

If you know little of Tasmania a peek at the extraordinary Tasmanian devil, the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial, can offer a few clues to the island state.

Though only small, devils weigh on average about 17-22 pounds, a devil is the largest living carnivorous marsupial. It has refined its profession of scavenger – devils mostly eat carrion – to such an extent that it can eat an entire wallaby carcass. That’s fur, bones, the lot.

Fearsomely powerful jaws and suitably razored teeth mean that a devil arrives ruthlessly equipped at the dinner table and ready to eat up to 40 per cent of its body weight in one night of feeding. Yet, despite the name, appearance and reputation, the Tasmanian devil is actually keenly shy and wary. As for the fearsome bad tempered reputation, that, mostly, is bluff. Surprising?
 
Well so is Tasmania.

The Tasmanian Devil is the world’s largest surviving marsupial carnivore and is only found in the wild in Australia’s unique island state of Tasmania. Tasmanian Devils were regarded as common a little over a decade ago. But there is nothing common about this amazing animal. Despite its fearsome reputation, the devil is a timid creature that poses no danger to humans.

People who work with devils invariably grow to love their personality – they’re feisty, raucous and bursting with curiosity.

A concerted multi-million dollar fight is being waged to save Tasmanian devils from a fatal cancer that is decimating wild populations. This battle though is ultimately about far more than saving a Tasmanian icon.

The species has suffered a major decline over the last ten years and is now listed as endangered. This decline in population is due to an infectious cancer known as Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD). The first signs of DFTD were recorded in 1996. It is a new and fatal condition that is only recorded in Tasmanian Devils and is characterized by cancers around the mouth and head. The Save the Tasmanian Devil Program (STTD) was established in 2003 as the official response to the terrible threat posed by DFTD. It is now led by Andrew Sharman.

The Save the Tasmanian Devil Program is operating on a number of fronts. It includes advancing insurance populations/captive management/disease suppression techniques. It also includes oncology: finding a cure for the devil could have wider implications for human cancers.

For more information how you can save the Tasmania Devil, visit www.tassiedevil.com.au.

To learn more about Tasmania and find travel deals to Australia’s Natural State, visit www.discovertasmania.com .

About the Author:

Australian writer Greg Clarke is a regular contributor to magazines in Australia and Asia. He once lived in London's East End which proved handy while he was at The Sunday Times. When he's not travelling or writing his daughters take him and his wife on wanderings in search of the fairies that live in the forest around their home.