While Canada is expanding already protected areas and freezing use fees for visitors, across the United States, parks are facing proposed and actual closures as a result of an economic downturn leading to lower tax revenues for most states. The Honorable Jim Prentice, Canada’s Environment Minister and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, recently announced the […]
A recent Freedom House report spotlights the world’s most repressive countries—places where freedom and democracy don’t exist. The non-profit organization, which promotes democracy around the world, cited North Korea, Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Somalia and Sudan as being among the least free countries in the world. Along with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, these countries received the […]
A controversial relocation of one of the world’s last free-ranging elephant herds from Malawi’s southern Mangochi district to the Majete Wildlife Reserve in the Chikwawa region has been resumed after the country’s high court overturned an injunction issued by disgruntled locals to halt the rescue project. The Malawian government approached the International Fund for Animal […]
A program called Tourist Assistants, which trains former gang members to become tour guides, is receiving rave reviews in the developing country of Panama. The program was launched in 2004 by Minister of Tourism Ruben Blades, the famous Panamanian musician now turned politician, soon after newly-elected President Martin Torrijos declared war on corruption. The San […]
Take a year off to travel, work or volunteer abroad? The “gap year,” typically taken after high school and before university, is a long-held tradition in many European countries, and in Australia and New Zealand. But the tradition is unheard of in the United States. Author and committed traveler Rita Golden Gelman is launching a […]
A report recently issued by the watchdog group Catholic Land Pastoral shows that debt slavery in Brazil has reached record numbers. The report stated that in 2008, there were 280 reported cases of debt slavery, a six percent increase from 2007. Over one third of the cases were linked to sugarcane production which propels Brazil’s […]
One of the twenty-first century’s greatest — and most controversial — engineering feats in terms of tourism, the Qinghai Railway from Xining in China to Lhasa in Tibet, faces an added threat because of global warming, which may melt the permafrost on which nearly half the 1,956-kilometer railway is built. The railway, ostensibly built by […]
Depletion of the Brazilian rainforest has long been known to affect climate change, and preserving this lush area is a major issue for many environmentalists — but rarely does the spotlight shine on the relationship between the native and non-native Brazilians who call this area (the least populated in Brazil) their home. That changed in […]
Long a Shangri-la for freedom-questing European hippies, the sandy white beaches of Goa have gradually attracted a more upmarket clientele — and in the process turned away hordes of Olive Ridley marine turtles, which have used the beaches for nesting purposes for centuries. Marine turtles are among the most threatened species in the world: only […]
