http://www.ecoafrica-travel.com Travels through Africa Fri, 02 May 2008 13:00:30 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en No doubt you have heard by now that South Africa has decided that culling will once again be an optional intervention in the management of elephant populations, albeit an intervention of last resort, to address what is known as "the elephant problem". Elephant conservation has been enormously successful in southern ... http://www.ecoafrica-travel.com/2008/05/02/elephant-options-in-africa/ Corridors are the sexiest thing in conservation.  It has been realised for some time now that Africa will be one of the continents hardest hit by the effects of climate change.  When Africa’s protected areas were initially proclaimed, no-one foresaw the increases in human population that we’ve experienced, and now these ... http://www.ecoafrica-travel.com/2008/04/16/corridors-and-climate-change/ Apart from the cute rhyme there are a number of traits that are common to the Archbishop emeritus and the small southern Africa Kingdom. Contained in the fortress of the Drakensberg and Maluti mountains Lesotho lies 1000m above sea level - close to God. Like Desmond Tutu, the Basotho people under their ... http://www.ecoafrica-travel.com/2008/04/08/lesotho-and-tutu-what-do-they-have-in-common/ Madikwe, short for Madikwena, meaning Mother of All Crocodiles is a shining example of ecotourism success in Africa.  This 76,000 hectare reserve was created in 1994 and was the subject of the largest game reintroduction exercise on the planet.  Operation Phoenix saw the translocation of 8000 animals over a period of ... http://www.ecoafrica-travel.com/2008/04/02/mother-of-all-crocodiles/ Every once in a while I trawl through the research output of academia, specifically in the fields of ecotourism, sustainable tourism and ecotourism certification. The other day I came across the following article in the Journal of Ecotourism (vol 6, no. 1, 2007) entitled "Wildlife viewing preferences of visitors to ... http://www.ecoafrica-travel.com/2008/02/17/is-it-only-about-the-big-5/ Here's an excellent post from my favourite blog about energy and the crisis that faces us, The Oil Drum: Understanding the current energy crisis in South Africa, in which the authors point out that the underlying problem is exponential growth. To quote: Yes, at this rate of growth we will double ... http://www.ecoafrica-travel.com/2008/02/02/power-down-in-south-africa-continued/ The CEO of the Southern African Tourism Services Association (SATSA), Michael Tatalias, attracted the ire of both Eskom, South Africa's power utility, and FIFA, world football's governing body, when he stated that Eskom's rolling blackouts are threats to both tourism and the 2010 World Cup. Predictably, the local media latched ... http://www.ecoafrica-travel.com/2008/01/24/powerdown-and-travel/ This post is only tangentially related to travel, but it has a lot to do with sustainability, so I thought I would vent here on this blog anyway. As I sit here writing this, South Africa has entered a period of rolling blackouts. The cause is uncontested: the government failed ... http://www.ecoafrica-travel.com/2008/01/22/powerdown-in-south-africa/ Nestling between the sweep of False Bay and the dragonback Helderberg Mountains near Cape Town (and not far from the ecoAfrica Travel offices) lies Khayelitsha. This sprawling shanty town was the setting for the winning film of the 2007 Commonwealth Vision Awards presented last week in London. Made by Jacqueline ... http://www.ecoafrica-travel.com/2008/01/02/free-energy-1st-in-commonwealth-vision-awards/ When I first learned of Robert R. Frump’s book called the “Man-eaters of Eden” I have to confess I groaned inwardly.  Thinking of the Hollywood version of the man-eaters of Tsavo  (Michael Douglas in the Ghosts of Darkness)  I didn’t want to hear more demonizing of a perfectly natural phenomenon ... http://www.ecoafrica-travel.com/2007/12/20/man-eaters-of-eden/