In our increasingly virtual existence, tactile in-person experiences are becoming more and more precious. As you consider the state of your relationships, it may be past time to gather within hugging distance with family or friends—and maybe hug some trees in the process. Your bonds with loved ones and with the earth are synergistic, and can feed off one another if you go on an eco-tour together.
Make sure you find the real thing, though; a lot of people, businesses, and governments are trying to jump on the “green” bandwagon without earning their passage. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, eco-tourism is travel which promotes and fosters “the observation and appreciation of nature as well as the traditional cultures prevailing in natural areas.”
Eco-tourism unites conservation, communities, and sustainable travel, reducing the toll that travel and tourism take on the environment and local cultures. The tour operators must be locally owned businesses, the tour groups must be small, and the eco-tourism activities must generate economic benefits for the local community, contribute to conservation, and help sustain the locale’s cultural heritage.
On eco-tours, advocates say, you will make more meaningful connections with local people and have a more enjoyable travel experience. The tours are more culturally sensitive, building mutual awareness and respect, and empowering local people. To find out more about eco-tourism, visit www.ecotourism.org, www.sustainabletravel.com, and www.ecotour.org.
For basic business and personal travel, you can be kinder to the planet by staying in environmentally conscious hotels and resorts with policies that save water and energy and reduce solid waste. Again, there are a lot of pretenders out there. At the very least hotels should have a policy of changing linens daily only if you ask them to. That’s an easy one, because it saves the hotels money without requiring an up-front investment.
Other clues to look for include low-flow toilets, motion-activated lights, on-site recycling facilities, xeriscape landscaping, waste water management, use of “green” cleaning products, environmentally sensitive purchasing (e.g., minimal packaging), and towels made of organic cotton.
And you don’t have to do all this research yourself. You can find environmentally friendly lodgings at www.greenseal.org and www.greenhotels.com.
If you really want to reach out and embrace the world, consider taking a volunteer vacation. You live and work with local people for as little as a week or up to several months, helping individuals, families and communities around the world. No specialized skills are required to make a genuine contribution. To find out more about such programs, check out www.globalvolunteers.org, www.crossculturalsolutions.org, and www.utec-lowell.org.
