Dude in the Corner Talks Sustainable Tourism
I’ve been due for a true Dude in the Corner post and although I set out to bring relevant travel news to guys, I was recently working with my client, Country Walkers, on a project that they had created in partnership with the Rainforest Alliance. The project was part of the foundation for the inaugural Rainforest Alliance week from September 19-23 and brought to light the importance of sustainable tourism. Like many, i’ve always talked about covering my carbon footprint and certainly in the travel industry aware of sustainable tourism, but through this simple site I learned I really have no idea.
Country Walkers created a microsite, seen here, which explains a community-based sustainable tourism effort in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Visit the site and read about the facts of how quickly we’re losing the resources of the rainforests; discover tribes that were so isolated, they were only contacted by today’s modern world 55 years ago; and realize that man’s quest for crude oil destroys the very lively hood and life source of not only the native peoples, but, in reality the rest of the world.
Why should you care? Why should we take a moment walking the busy streets of NYC and LA or driving in our gas-guzzling cars through the suburbs to think about this? Because even if we live in a time of globalization, it is a race to who knows where, and the toll on our Earth our only Earth, is becoming more and more relevant. Close your eyes, picture the amazing world we live in: people of different races, amazing species of animals and at times unimaginable landscapes from ragged mountains, icecaps, deserts, beautiful bodies of water and lush green forests and rainforests…and keep thinking about those rainforests for just a few more seconds.
Rainforests and their inhabitants (plants, animals and humans) are being depleted in rapid numbers. Rainforests cover less than 2% of the Earth’s total surface (!), but yet they are home to approximately 50% of the Earth’s plants and animals. The air we breathe? 28% of it is oxygenated by Rainforests (!); Fresh Water? One-fifth of the world’s fresh water is found in the Amazon Basin alone! Nearly one-half of the Earth’s original forest cover has been lost. According to the UN’s State of the World’s Forests report deforestation continues at an alarming rate of about 13 million hectares (32 million acres) a year- this loss equals the size of Greece! (I swear that is the stat, I do not mean to attach Greece to something negative yet again).
I’m not writing to preach absolute change, but hopefully by this quick read you’ll think just a little bit more, like I did, about the world around us.
*Image obtained from Country Walkers
