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eTN becomes a SUNx SDG 17 Partner calling for Climate Sanity in Tourism on Earth Day

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In nature, nothing exists alone is the message for Earth Day 2019. Announcing the public launch of its “SDG17 Partners Program” on Earth Day 2019, Professor Geoffrey Lipman co-founder SUNx, calls and president of the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP) asks the Travel & Tourism sector to join its “Plan For Our Kids” and take the “Climate Sanity” Pledge.

Professor Lipman, former Executive Director at IATA, President of WTTC and Assistant Secretary-General UNWTO, said:

“I’m confident that Travel & Tourism will play a leadership role in the global shift to a New Climate Economy: we just need a pathway for change and that lies in our faith in the next generation”

SUNx a legacy for Planetary Champion Maurice Strong has created a “Plan For Our Kids”, aiming to recruit 100,000 STRONG Climate Champions to advance its vision of a no Carbon 2050 sector totally compliant with the evolving goals of the Paris Accords.

He added “During the past year we have seen a welcome intensification of the pressures for a new commitment to Climate Sanity, which stops discussing whether climate change is existential and just gets on with solutions. That’s the common message from Greta Thunberg’s Friday’s for Futures and AOC’s Green New Deal: it’s the message from Earth Scientists and Nobel Economists: it’s the plea from Sir David Attenborough.

”Lipman concluded “SDG 17 Partners will share our long-term vision on the fact that Climate Change is eXistential and that we have to act NOW, as if this Earth Day is the first day of the rest of our lives. We all have different starting positions, based on our separate realities: but we have a shared goal of meeting the Paris Agenda and together taking a “No Carbon 2050 moonshot”. We can deliver Climate Friendly Travel ~ measured plans: green growth: 2050 no carbon proof “

Juergen Steinmetz president of the eTN Corporation said “We are proud to become a SUNx SDG 17 Partner and provide preferential support for this great cause. As long as I have known Geoffrey Lipman, he has been drumming home the message that Climate Change is eXistential and that if we don’t fix it now, it will fix us. We are in, and will use all our links, like ICTP and the African Tourism Board to support Climate Friendly Travel. going forward”.

For more on SUNx and its SDG 17 Partnership Program please contact: go to www.thesunprogram.com

What is Earth Day?

The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. The passage of the landmark Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and many other groundbreaking environmental laws soon followed. Twenty years later, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in more than 190 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage.

On April 22, 1970, millions of people took to the streets to protest the negative impacts of 150 years of industrial development.

In the U.S. and around the world, smog was becoming deadly and evidence was growing that pollution led to developmental delays in children. Biodiversity was in decline as a result of the heavy use of pesticides and other pollutants.

The global ecological awareness was growing, and the US Congress and President Nixon responded quickly. In July of the same year, they created the Environmental Protection Agency, and robust environmental laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, among many.

One billion people

Earth Day is now a global event each year, and more than 1 billion people in 192 countries now take part in what is the largest civic-focused day of action in the world.

It is a day of political action and civic participation. People march, sign petitions, meet with their elected officials, plant trees, clean up their towns and roads. Corporations and governments use it to make pledges and announce sustainability measures. Faith leaders, including Pope Francis, connect Earth Day with protecting God’s greatest creations, humans, biodiversity and the planet that we all live on.

Earth Day Network, the organization that leads Earth Day worldwide, has chosen as the theme for 2018 to End Plastic Pollution, including creating support for a global effort to eliminate primarily single-use plastics along with global regulation for the disposal of plastics.  EDN is educating millions of people about the health and other risks associated with the use and disposal of plastics, including pollution of our oceans, water, and wildlife, and about the growing body of evidence that plastic waste is creating serious global problems.

From poisoning and injuring marine life to the ubiquitous presence of plastics in our food to disrupting human hormones and causing major life-threatening diseases and early puberty, the exponential growth of plastics is threatening our planet’s survival.

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How Emirates is supporting and preserving biodiversity

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Taking its environmental responsibilities seriously and championing wildlife conservation across different corners of the planet, the Emirates Group is playing its part to support and preserve biodiversity.

The Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve and Emirates One&Only Wolgan Valley in Australia both illustrate the Group’s long-standing focus on protecting fragile ecosystems and support for sustainable tourism in very different parts of the world.  Both conservation reserves protect valuable ecosystems and at the same time provide unique and sustainable experiences for visitors from around the world.

The Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve

The Emirates Group funds the operations of the 225 square kilometre Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve (DDCR), an inland desert habitat that has been protected by government mandate since 2003. This is the largest piece of land that Dubai has dedicated to a single project and aims to preserve Dubai’s unique desert environment for future generations. The DDCR plays an important role in ecological research, actively collaborating with both local and international universities. The findings and results of the research studies help to enhance knowledge of the desert ecosystem, gather scientific data around rare and endangered desert species, monitor its balance and preserve its natural environment.

The reserve is also a focal point for conservation programmes aimed at restoring populations of some of the UAE’s wildlife, such as the Arabian gazelle, sand gazelle and Arabian oryx. Since their reintroduction into the DDCR, the antelope species have thrived, and their populations have significantly increased, triggering the process of looking into relocating some oryx and gazelle species to other protected areas within the region. Over 250 endangered Macqueen’s bustard (houbara) were also released this year with 25 of them fitted with tracking devices to monitor their movement and breeding progress.

In 2018, the DDCR was visited by more than 285,000 tourists, through Arabian Adventures, various Emirates partner tour operators, and the Al Maha Desert Resort. The DDCR offers low-impact desert experiences in addition to desert clean-up activities in coordination with Arabian Adventures. During 2018 the DDCR was accepted as a candidate for the IUCN Green List for Protected and Conserved Areas, a global standard for the world’s most effectively managed Protected Areas.

Emirates One&Only Wolgan Valley

Emirates has been supporting the protection of Australia’s extraordinary wildlife and plant life for over 10 years, through the conservation-based Emirates One&Only Wolgan Valley in New South Wales. The property was the first luxury resort in the world to receive an internationally-recognised carbon neutral certification from New Zealand based CarboNZero, undergoing a comprehensive greenhouse gas emissions assessment. Emirates One&Only Wolgan Valley also conducts regular research to identify opportunities and challenges for endangered species conservation. Efforts have also been underway to help restore vital vegetation and tree planting activities, which have helped to re-establish habitats for vital bird populations, essential for their long term survival.

Emirates and Emirates One&Only Wolgan Valley jointly funded the development of the WomSAT app and website in collaboration the University of Western Sydney to help researchers identify opportunities for wombat conservation. Wombats are threatened by sarcoptic mange, an unpleasant and often fatal skin disease that afflicts Australia’s largest burrow builder. The tool is used to record wombat sightings and track population health to help treat wombats afflicted by sarcoptic mange. Emirates One&Only Wolgan Valley is also spearheading a number of other conservation projects, such as the Wolgan River Restoration Project, an ongoing weed management programme, and supporting research projects with Western Sydney University.

United for Wildlife and The Buenos Aires Declaration

Since 2015, Emirates has continued its strong support for actions to stem the illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products, which is having devastating consequences for endangered animals and the environment in many parts of the world. In 2018, the Emirates Group also signed the Buenos Aires Declaration on Travel and Tourism and Illegal Wildlife Trade, an effort led by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) to reach a billion travellers with messages to fight the illegal wildlife trade and work with communities to develop sustainable tourism that provides livelihoods and protects wildlife. The WTTC and World Wildlife Fund are developing guidelines to eliminate illegal wildlife trafficking from the travel and tourism supply chains.

The Emirates Group has also adopted a zero-tolerance policy to wildlife trafficking and has set up training for its employees to identify and look out for warning signs of smuggled wildlife products during cargo transportation and screening. Emirates will not carry banned species, hunting trophies or any products associated with illegal wildlife activities.

Using its brand power to raise awareness around the illegal trafficking of endangered wildlife, Emirates emblazoned four of its A380s with special wildlife decals. Since then the aircraft have flown millions of kilometres across 48 cities in 29 countries on close to 6,000 flights taking this important message around the world and spurring conversation around wildlife preservation.

dnata Wildlife Conservation and Nature

dnata recently signed an MOU with the University of Pretoria in South Africa to support their research and rehabilitation projects. Under dnata4good, the partnership aims to safeguard wildlife and the environment by strengthening and enhancing research, veterinary training and awareness, increasing involvement through volunteer opportunities and ensuring needed measures are taken to care for injured animals and rehabilitate them to go back into the wild. The initiative will be partially driven by employee participation to protect fragile biodiversity in South Africa and to maintain balanced ecosystems.

Give a Ghaf

Emirates Group employees living in Meydan Heights (UAE) will be taking part in a Ghaf Tree planting event on 27 April in partnership with Goumbook. The event aims to raise awareness about the importance of conserving the living desert, with a specific focus on the Ghaf tree. The Ghaf is a drought tolerant, evergreen tree which can withstand harsh desert environments, and can be used for greening purposes whilst saving water.

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Qatar Airways: Investment in Air Italy fully compliant with US-Qatar Open Skies Agreement

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Following recent false accusations relating to Qatar Airways’ shareholding in Air Italy, such baseless statements and consistent inaccuracies need addressing as a matter of urgency.

Qatar Airways holds a 49 percent stake in Air Italy’s parent company, AQA. This minority investment is at the same level that Delta holds in both Virgin Atlantic and Aeromexico, and that Etihad held in Alitalia.

Qatar Airways’ investment in Air Italy, and operations to the United States, are fully compliant with the U.S.-Qatar Open Skies Agreement, the January 2018 U.S.-Qatar Understandings, and a side letter that accompanied the discussions.

Unfounded claims that Qatar Airways’ investment in Air Italy violates the Understandings are entirely false.

As a factual matter, the investment preceded the January 2018 U.S.-Qatar Understandings.

· The investment was announced in a July 2016 press release and was approved in writing by the European Commission (DG Competition) in March 2017.

· The transaction was closed in September 2017.

· The discussions surrounding the Understandings took place in December 2017 and January 2018.

Qatar Airways’ investment in Air Italy was a matter of public knowledge (as were Qatar Airways’ investments in other airlines) at the time of the U.S.-Qatar discussions; airline investments were not raised as a point of concern during those talks. The Understandings do not mention or prohibit cross-border investments of any type.

Furthermore, Qatar Airways does not codeshare on any of Air Italy’s flights to the United States, and has no plans to do so. Qatar Airways is not operating any Fifth Freedom scheduled air services to the U.S.

The “Big 3” U.S. carriers have consistently demonstrated their hostility to new entrants into the U.S.-Europe market, and their attacks on Air Italy based on the identity of its minority shareholder are just another manifestation of this hostility. Air Italy, the carrier the “Big 3” cite as a major “threat” to their survival, has a fleet of just 15 aircraft and only serves one U.S. city – New York – with a daily service while other routes, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco are operated at a lower frequency.

The U.S.-Qatar Open Skies Agreement has brought enormous benefits to U.S. and Qatari consumers, businesses and communities. Qatar Airways’ services to the United States contribute to U.S. tourism and business. Qatar Airways is a long-term and loyal customer of Boeing, Gulfstream and General Electric, helping to secure tens of thousands of U.S. jobs through our continued investment in their products and is a valued partner to many other U.S. businesses.

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African Game Rangers: Key conservation tourism partners in stress

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Wildlife is the leading tourist attraction and source of tourist revenue in Africa other than rich historical and cultural heritage the continent has been endowed with.

Wildlife photographic safaris attract millions of tourists from Europe, America and Asia to visit this continent to spend their holidays in wildlife protected areas.

Despite its rich wildlife resources, Africa is still facing poaching problems which had so far, frustrated conservation of wildlife despite the efforts on place to arrest the situation. African governments in collaboration with global wildlife and nature conservation organizations are now working together to save the African wildlife from extinction, mostly the endangered species.

Wildlife rangers in Africa are the number one conservation partners who had committed their lives to protect the wild creatures from human miseries, but working at risk from humans and the wild animals which they had committed to protect.

The rangers are facing numerous psychological pressures leading to potentially serious mental health implications. They are frequently subjected to violent confrontations inside and outside their work.

Many rangers see their families as little as once a year, causing immense stress to personal relationships and the mental strain.

In Tanzania, for example, a community leader was killed by a suspected poacher in an attempt to prevent poaching in the Tarangire National Park, the famous wildlife tourist park in northern Tanzania.

The village leader Mr. Faustine Sanka had his head cut off by a suspected poacher who, disastrously ended the life of the community leader near the park in February this year.

Police said that the brutal killing of the village chairman, Mr. Faustine Sanka was done just to frustrate anti-poaching in Tarangire National Park which is rich in elephants and other big African mammals.

The suspected poachers killed the village leader by cutting off his head using a sharp instrument. After killing him, his body was wrapped in a plastic bag and his motorbike he was riding was left there, police officers said.

Early in April last year, suspected member of an armed militia gunned down five wildlife rangers and the driver in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It was the worst attack in Virunga’s bloody history, and the latest in a long line of tragic incidents in which rangers have lost their lives defending the planet’s natural heritage, conservation media reports said.

Despite a growing awareness of the vulnerability of many of the world’s most beloved and charismatic species such as elephants and rhinos, there is little awareness and virtually no research into the stress and possible mental health implications for those tasked with defending them, conservationists said.

“We have got to take care of the people that make a difference,” said Johan Jooste, head of anti-poaching forces at South Africa National Parks (SANParks).

In real fact, more research has been conducted on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among elephants following a poaching incident than on the rangers protecting them as well.

Wildlife conservation experts further said that 82 percent of rangers in Africa had faced a life-threatening situation in the line of duty.

They described challenging working conditions, community ostracism, isolation from family, poor equipment and inadequate training for many ranger, low pay and little respect as other life threats facing African rangers.

The Thin Greenline Foundation, a Melbourne-based organization dedicated to supporting rangers, has been compiling data on ranger deaths on the job for the last 10 years.

Between 50 and 70 percent of the recorded wildlife ranger deaths in Africa and other wildlife rich continents are carried by poachers. The rest percent of such deaths are due to the challenging conditions rangers face every day, such as working alongside dangerous animals and in perilous environments.

“I can categorically tell you about the 100 to 120 ranger deaths we know of each year,” said Sean Willmore, founder of the Thin Green Line Foundation and president of the International Ranger Federation, a non-profit organization overseeing 90 ranger associations worldwide.

Willmore believes that the true global figure could be much higher, since the organization lacks data from a number of countries in Asia and the Middle East.

Rangers in Tanzania and rest of East Africa are facing the same, life threatening situations while on duty in protecting the wildlife, mostly in national parks, game reserves and forest conserved areas.

Selous Game Reserve, Africa’s largest wildlife protected area has not been spared from such ugly incidents facing the rangers. They work in harsh conditions, traversing hundreds of kilometers on patrol to protect the wildlife, mostly elephants.

Full with stress and psychological problems, the rangers conduct their duties with full commitment to ensure the survival of wildlife in Tanzania and Africa.

In Selous Game Reserve, rangers live far away from their families; succumb to life risks including attacks by wildlife and poachers from neighboring villages, mostly those killing the wild animals for bush meat.

Communities neighboring this park (Selous) have no other source of protein more than bush meat. There is no livestock, poultry and fishing in this part of Africa, a situation which drives villagers to hunt for bush meat.

Rangers in this park as well, suffer from psychological stress from work. Most of them have left their families in towns or other localities in Tanzania to protect the wildlife in the Selous Game Reserve.

“We have our children living alone. I don’t know if my children are doing well in school or not. Sometimes we don’t communicate with our families far away taking into account that no communication services available in this area”, a ranger told eTN.

Mobile phone communication, now the leading source of inter-personal contact in Tanzania, is no longer available in some areas of the Selous Game Reserve due to geographical locations.

“Every everyone is like an enemy here. Local communities are looking for game meat, poachers are looking for trophies for business, the government is looking for revenue, tourists are looking for protection against robbers and all like that. This burden is our backs,” the ranger told eTN.

Politicians and wildlife managers are driving posh cars in big cities enjoying high class lifestyles, banking on hardships the rangers are currently facing.

Travel News | eTurboNews

Facing the Demographic Challenge through Tourism and Innovation

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Facing the Demographic Challenge through Tourism and Innovation”, opening event today was attended by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez; Spain’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, María Reyes Maroto; the President of the Junta de Castilla y León, Juan Vicente Herrera; the Mayor of Segovia, Clara Isabel Luquero; and UNWTO Secretary-General, Zurab Pololikashvili.  The forum was held in Segovia Spain by the World Tourism Organization.

Tourism and innovation were highlighted as key solutions to address the depopulation being suffered by the rural environment at the forum entitled “Facing the Demographic Challenge through Tourism and Innovation” in Segovia, which gathered together more than one hundred people with the objective of finding solutions from the tourism sector to combat this phenomenon.

“The UNWTO wants to work alongside Spain to turn the discussion on the challenge of rural depopulation into a conversation about the opportunities that the rural environment represents,” said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, showing the United Nations agency’s  support in searching for solutions through tourism. He added: “The 2030 Agenda is committed to leaving no one behind, including rural areas and their inhabitants.”

Likewise, he pointed out that as a sector that represents one of every ten jobs in the world—in 2019, the UNWTO is dedicating the year especially to education, the development of professional skills and employment—quality training in tourism and innovation are very necessary to face these challenges and ensure the survival of the rural environment.

The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, highlighted the efforts being made by the UNWTO and advocated the creation of opportunities in the interior regions of Spain through rural tourism, digital transformation and new models of economic activity. He announced that the Government would review the guidelines of the National Strategy to address the demographic challenge. He said that in the Strategy, “the tourism sector is a key driver”, adding that Spain is “a global power with a large margin for improvement in the interior of the country”, said Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain.

During the event, leading figures from the political, business and cultural spheres addressed the challenges posed by the gradual loss of population in rural areas. In addition, many experts in the field discussed the role of rural tourism as a tool for socio-economic revitalization, sustainability and territorial rebalancing.

Thus, the first round table, moderated by Asís Martín de Cabiedes, President of Europa Press, discussed on the challenges of overcoming the depopulation of rural areas in developed countries. For her part, Spain’s High Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda, Cristina Gallach, moderated a second panel of experts focused on the relevance of the tourism sector for sustainability and territorial rebalancing.

Furthermore, various successful cases of public-private collaboration were analysed, with SEGITTUR providing insights into the field of smart destinations.

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