Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for December 5, 2007

Protecting the integrity of Eco-accreditation

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In what has been described as an important victory, Ecotourism Australia has been granted a number of interlocutory court orders by the Queensland Supreme Court, to protect both intellectual property and also the public from potentially misleading environmental marketing.

Ecotourism Australia found that an uncertified operator was using its ECO Certification Logo, without permission. The Eco Certification Program provides accreditation to successful eco and nature tourism applicants in Australia and is now being exported as the International Ecotourism Standard.

Indonesia Under the Media Spotlight

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The Bali climate conference has inevitably put Indonesia under the media spotlight. The conference itself is not the only story deemed to be newsworthy:

Indonesian scientists say many of Indonesia’s islands may be swallowed up by the sea if world leaders fail to find a way to halt rising sea levels.

Doomsayers take this dire warning by Indonesian scientists a step further and predict that by 2035, the Indonesian capital’s airport will be flooded by sea water and rendered useless. (That might put an end to Indonesia as a climate conference venue).

Read the rest of the Yahoo news article ‘Global warming may threaten Indonesia’

The following story made the ITN News in the UK and ABC News online in Australia (Thanks Luke):

Because of illegal logging, the climate conference host, Indonesia, is losing an area of forest the size of a soccer field every 10 seconds. Most threatened are the peatlands of Kalimantan and the orangutans which call them home.

This is what they’re making way for – palm oil plantations. Chasing a boom in demand for biofuels and along the way, killing up to 50 orangutans a week.

The unintended consequences of CO2 hysteria.

Watch the video report here or read the transcript here, from ABC’s usual perspective.