(MY) - Ecotourism

[Guest guest]

Tuesday November 15, 2005 - The Star

 

Focus on eco-tourism

 

Eco-tourism is a key development target for many developing countries

for it can bring much-needed money into impoverished areas. It can

also help people understand and appreciate the importance of

biodiversity. However, eco-tourism can also increase disturbance in

sensitive areas.

 

So how can eco-tourism play a positive role in conservation? How can

this role be enhanced? How should it be portrayed in the media?

 

The coming International Media and Environment Summit (IMES) in

Kuching, Sarawak, from Nov 30 to Dec 2 seeks to address these issues

in a session entitled Ecotourism – Boon or Bane?

 

Tourism Minister Datuk Dr Leo Toyad, a keynote speaker at the summit,

says the gathering will discuss the challenges of using the media to

project eco-tourism in an effective way.

 

 

A group of tourists enjoying the view on a river boat ride down Sungai

Kinabatangan. Eco-tourism brings much needed cash into impoverished

areas.

" Eco-tourism is central to sustainable development, offering one key

realistic solution to the apparent conflicts between environmental

protection and economic growth. The success of eco-tourism initiatives

depends to a great extent on how it is portrayed to the public,

through the media, " he says.

 

News World Nature, the organiser of the summit, encourages

participation from tour operators as the gathering will provide an

opportunity for talks with the international media, environmental

scientists and policy-makers. They can also join an exhibition to be

staged alongside IMES.

 

IMES will bring together the media, scientists, environmental

organisations, the academia, and corporate policy decision-makers to

debate on how best to report on pressing environmental issues.

 

One session titled Hurricane Katrina: A Global Expertiment will

discuss whether disasters like Hurricane Katrina warn of a conflict

between natural and human processes, and whether media coverage of

such events have sufficiently conveyed the environmental causes and

consequences of these disasters.

 

Other topics at IMES: Who Sets the Media Agenda?; Balancing the

Agenda; The Challenges of Covering the Marine Environment; The Media's

Love Affair with Orang Utans and Cuddly Bears; and Disseminating Eco

Science to a General Audience.

 

Among the speakers are filmmaker and conservationist Prof David

Suzuki, Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew) director Sir Peter Crane, IUCN-The

World Conservation Union vice-president Javed Jabba, renowned

underwater photographer Michael Aw, Great Apes Survival Project senior

consultant Ian Redmond, Animals Asia Foundation director Jill

Robinson, Wild Aid founder Steve Galster, Wild Asia (Malaysia)

director Dr Reza Azmi, Wildlife Conservation Society Malaysia

Programme director Dr Melvin Gumal and Asia-Pacific Federation of

Environmental Journalists chairman Quamrul Chowdhury.

 

Learn more at www.newsworldnature. com. Exhibitors seeking more

information should contact Illka Gobius at +65-67283820 or e-mail

illka.