Through practical steps facilitating and enhancing the natural regeneration of trees, Trees for Life works to re-establish areas of healthy young forest scattered throughout the barren, deforested glens. As these new trees reach seed-bearing age they will form the nuclei for an expanded natural regeneration in the surrounding area. “The Caledonian Forest originally covered 1.5 million hectares of the Scottish Highlands as a vast primeval wilderness of Scots pine, birch, rowan, aspen, juniper and other trees. Today, though, just 1% of the forest remains.”

“There are plans to build an incinerator in St. Dennis in Cornwall. We want people to stand up and protect Cornwall and its beautiful countryside!” Due to the dioxins that would be released from the incinerator in St Dennis, no one in Cornwall will be able to grow organic produce within the next seven years, if these plans are executed. Good is Planet Earth is collecting as many names as possible to support this cause until Saturday, March 14, 2009. The petition will be submitted to the Prime Minister, requesting an immediate cessation of the planning, building and commissioning of the waste incinerator.

TIES encourages you to reduce your carbon emissions by minimizing energy use, utilizing alternative transportation, and choosing low-impact activities. There will always be unavoidable carbon footprint of your travel. Contribute to a credible carbon offsetting program to support conservation, renewable energy, and other energy saving projects. For those travelling to and within the UK, here are some useful information on measuring the carbon footprint of your travel, and how to travel consciously as you select air travel, local transportation and lodging options.

We recommend these great travel books for those considering visiting the UK for the first time or returning to the UK and looking for new experiences. Encouraging travelers to “enjoy life at its slowest,” this guide celebrates fascinating people, fine architecture, history and landscape. Go Slow England is the first in a series of “Go Slow” guides, featuring stunning colour photography and interviews with the owners. Imagine sitting in a bath looking out over a beautiful Welsh bay from the comfort of a tiny eco cottage, knowing that you won’t be polluting the sensitive coastline.

Looking for amazing rural destinations and traditional experiences? Learn from Sally Broom, Founder, Your Safe Planet: “The UK is not well known for being an ecotourism destination and yet we have some of the most beautiful rural areas in Europe. On the border of beautiful Wales is Shropshire where ‘Eco-cabin’ is located costing just £90 a night for up to 4 people! From there you can head to Mid Wales which is an ecotourism haven. The Lake District offers the chance to stay in traditional tepees and yurts.”

Officially named the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the UK is an island nation comprised of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Consistently among the top 6 international destinations, and boasting 27 natural and cultural UNESCO world heritage sites, there’s no shortage of awe-inspiring places to explore in the UK. Consequently, travellers continually repeating similar tracks puts a heavy burden on the natural and built environment, and motivates visionaries in the industry to find solutions to manage tourism in a sustainable way.

A recent article in Tico Times, “Grim Tourism Outlook Has Silver Lining,” discusses the impact of the global economic downturn on tourism in Costa Rica, noting that “the economic crisis presents an opportunity for the [tourism] sector to reinvent itself” and “to ensure future development in Costa Rica shares the vision of sustainability.” If handled effectively, the crisis can be an opportunity for fostering sustainable growth of Costa Rica as an ecotourism destination, concludes the report by a local tourism consulting group.

“Since I have been excited by the development of community-owned ecotourism businesses in Costa Rica over the last decade, and have given them a lot of space in The New Key to Costa Rica, I started seeing over development as a community issue too. It’s a sign that the people of a community do not have a say in what goes on there–to the point where the community’s water supply can be threatened. This has been the subject of several lawsuits in the northern Guanacaste beaches… Beatrice Blake, author of The New Key to Costa Rica

The Initiative “Peace with Nature”, which gives birth to the National Strategy for Climate Change, and which plans to convert Costa Rica in a C – Neutral country by the year 2021, asks for great changes and reveals big challenges to be overcome. This proposal invites us to redefine and re-invent our creative capacities in order to assume the greatest task human kind has ever faced both as a victimizer and as victim at the same time: to overcome the self imposed threat of climate change and global warming.

Foto Verde Tours, the Costa Rican ecotour company that I started with local ecologist and tourism entrepreneur Paulo Valerio, has grown since its inception three years ago, and this growth is providing a platform for us to expand our own benefits to conservation and local communities.
Foto Verde Tours offers open signup tours and customized photo travel. We run a number of photographic tours with set dates that have a particular theme. Some trips are co-led by other professional photographers…