It’s not hard to advocate ecotourism—loosely defined as a form of travel that protects an area of the natural world while enabling the local people to preserve their culture and meet their daily needs.
The hard part is making ecotourism work.
Not all Atlantic bluefin tuna are homebodies, scientists have learned.
That means officials will have to rethink present management plans designed to prevent overfishing of the species, say the authors of a study that provides the best knowledge so far about the Atlantic bluefin’s migratory and spawning patterns.
Step back and take in the big picture. Thousands of scientific studies assess the environmental impacts of a single road, or oil well, or mountain lodge, but the conclusions of these studies are generally disconnected. That is beginning to change.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has developed a global mapping technique, called GLOBIO, that combines these myriad conclusions into a comprehensive picture of the cumulative toll that infrastructure development is having on the planet.
When the male potency drug Viagra came on the market in 1998, conservationists and animal protection groups were hopeful it would produce an unintended side effect: an end to world demand for animal parts—often from endangered species —used as aphrodisiacs.
In the case of harp seals, which are not endangered, anecdotal evidence has suggested that Viagra may have helped to shrink trade in seal genitals used in traditional medicines to enhance male virility. But conservationists and others caution against overstating the significance of such evidence, saying the link is tenuous.
Since the late 1990s, tequila has moved to the front of the shelf as one of the world’s most popular alcoholic drinks. Behind the scenes, however, the trend is threatening tropical dry forests of Mexico.
The key to preventing that may lie in a bottle of mezcal, a close cousin to tequila, which is produced in limited quantities and is gaining ground as new premium alcohol.
Sail around the world in record time. Win the coveted America’s Cup. Get knighted by the Queen of England. Successfully defend the cup in New Zealand. Retire from racing. Tap into the Internet. Take people on an Internet voyage to exotic locales. Compel them to love the environment.
Such is the life of Sir Peter Blake.
Aboard the Seamaster, a 118-foot (36-meter) aluminum-hulled vessel that has two 89-foot (27-meter) masts and twin 350 horsepower engines, Blake is on a mission to help protect life in, on, and around the waters of the world. He said he hopes people will follow his journey via the Internet on his Web site and television documentaries and be inspired to join the mission to save parts of the world that are key to the planet’s ecosystem.