Planeta Forum

[planeta]

Planeta's Guide to Brazil
http://www.planeta.com/brazil.html

We do create reciprocal links with other portals, educational, media and environmental sites. Businesses that offer tours should consider listing their services in our World Travel Directory
http://www.planeta.com/worldtravel.html

TIP -- Please consult the forum guidelines
http://www.planeta.com/worldforum.html

[planeta]

Recent volley on Green-Travel
>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/green-travel

Subject:† Brazil
Date:† Wed†Jun†30,†2004
>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/green-travel/message/1581

I am trying to confirm the existence of a Brazil nature travel operator who has applied for a listing on Planeta ... and so far have not received a response to my query sent to Brazil's tourism ministry, Embratur
<http://www.embratur.gov.br>

If anyone has suggestions about figuring out whether or not an operator has a working business in Brazil, post in this forum or via the backchannel
>> http://www.planeta.com/contact/index.html

Ron Mader

Subject: Brazil and Beyond
Date:† Wed†Jul 3,†2004
>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/green-travel/message/1585

In response to my query I received the following bit of advice

"EMBRATUR is a huge burocratic governmental Institution for tourism matters of all types here in brazil (White Elephant). The site you used is correct for directing questions to them but I doubt there are too many people who speak English at EMBRATUR. If they have not answered you, I can't imagine that there will still come an answer."

Ha! The suggestion here is simply to discount the usefulness of EMBRATUR. Ok.

My question -- why is it so difficult to get answers to basic questions from
national tourism ministries? Brazil is not alone in not responding to traveler -- or media -- queries. For all of the hoopla about 'sustainable tourism/ecotourism certification' (another white elephant ... check out
the current issue of Conde Nast), it remains difficult to confirm the existence of travel companies, hotels or restaurants when consulting ministry websites.

I am curious now -- I wonder if we would find any of the green travel businesses that have participated in the Green-travel discussion on their relevant ministry websites?

Ron Mader
http://www.planeta.com

From:† "Claudia Derp" <cderp@y...>
Date:† Sun†Jul†4,†2004† 9:48 am
Subject:† Brazilian Registry of Tourism Operators
>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/green-travel/message/1587

In defense of the Brazilian Tourism Ministry - the registry of Brazilian
Tourism Service Providers is available online, though only in
Portuguese!

You can access it directly at:

http://www.cadastro.embratur.gov.br/main.asp

Or via the main Tourism Ministry website as follows:

1. If you are from outside of Brazil, your default view when you access
the website is the English language one. You need to change it to
"Portugues" in the upper right corner
2. Go to the menu on the left and look (don't click) underneath the
heading "Sobre o Brasil" for the title "Profissionais" and click on it.
3. In the new window, look for "Cadastro de Turismo" on the left menu.
When you mouse-over it, 4 new options appear to the right of it. Pick
the first one "Empresas prestadoras de services"
4. Look under the second big heading "Pesquisa" for the type of company
you are looking for.

If you need further assistance navigating the site, please feel free to
contact me directly. I'll certainly do my best, even though I am not
native Brazilian (though I will be moving there in the fall).

All the best and a Happy Holiday Weekend,
Claudia

[planeta]

Adding a link to Salvador Bahia Online

"This online guide to the city of Salvador and the state of Bahia is a growing compendium of observations, recommendations, history and general information, all based on personal experiences in the environs of this intriguing tropical port perched up on Brazil's northeast coast. Capoeira, Carnival and candomblÈ, hotels, hostels and pousadas (after a visit to every hotel, hostel, and pousada featured), music and dance, food and drink, beaches and buses and taxis; all have their place in this electronic guide to Salvador da Bahia, BRAZIL!"

>> http://www.bahia-online.net

[planeta]

Brazil Newspapers
>> http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/period/pubsouth.html#Branews

[planeta]

FYI - Brazilmax is a featured guest at Brazil's Adventure Travel Expo.
>> http://forum.planeta.com/viewtopic.php?t=65
>> http://www.BrazilMax.com/

[planeta]

REMINDER -- The Urban Ecotourism Conference takes place online between September 20-30th
>> http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/tour/urban.html

We are featuring news about urban conservation and eco travel options in the following cities in Brazil

Rio de Janeiro
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/south/brazil/rio.html

Sao Paulo
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/south/brazil/saopaolo.html

[planeta]

Loan targets Brazil's environment - BBC

Brazil is to get a $1.2bn (£0.67bn) loan from the World Bank over four years to help protect its environment. The bank says it is the largest single loan given to protect a country's environment, with an initial payment being made this year of $505m. The cash is to ensure Brazil, thought to have the greatest biodiversity on earth, considers environmental issues and management in government policies.
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3596714.stm

(Thanks to the ECOCLUB website for calling attention to this feature)

[planeta]

TIP -- For current features about Brazil, consult Google News
>> http://news.google.com/news?q=Brazil

[planeta]

Brazil Orders Amazon Reserve After Killing - Michael Astor/Associated Press

"Brazil's president ordered the creation of a huge Amazon environmental protection area in a lawless region coveted by soy farmers and ranchers less than a week after an American nun was gunned down trying to protect the jungle from deforestation."
>> http://tinyurl.com/3lgn4

[planeta]

Responsible Travel in Brazil: Visitors Join the Race to Save the Amazon
Article & Photos By Volker Poelzl/Transitions Abroad

"Despite the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio and numerous other environmental conferences, ecotourism in Brazil is still in its infancy, and its impact on regional development in the Amazon is still small. This situation is gradually changing however."

>> http://www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/magazine/0411/responsible_travel_the_brazil_amazon.shtml

[planeta]

The previous link cited by Claudia no longer works. New link for Brazilian tour operators.

Prestadores de Serviços Turísticos
http://www.extranet.turismo.gov.br

The info is only available in Portuguese

[brazadv]

COP 8: The eight Ordinary Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP8) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was held in Curitiba, Brazil from 20 to 31 March 2006. The CBD was signed by 150 government leaders at the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992.

Target 2010: The parties committed themselves to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on earth. In order to achieve this overall objective 11 concrete goals have been defined of which the most important is to have effectively conserved at least 10% of each of the world’s ecological regions until 2010. Brazil’s ecological regions or biomes are: Amazon, Cerrado, Caatinga, Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlântica), Pantanal and Pampa.

Status: Brazil and the rest of the world are far away from achieving this objective. Despite the Amazon, Brazil’s largest biome with about 11,7 % of its total area effectively protected, in the other biomes Caatinga, Cerrado, Mata Atlântica and Pantanal only 2 – 2,5 % of their total area is actually effectively protected. The situation in the rest of the world is similar. According to a report presented by the United Nations during the opening of the COP-8 about 60% of the total 825 ecoregions in the world have less than 10% of legally protected areas. In 140 ecoregions (17%) less than 1% of their total area is legally protected. With regard to marine and coastal ecosystems the situation is even worse, only 0,6 – 1,4 % of their total area is legally protected until today.

Also no results have been achieved with regard to the key issues of COP 8 such as the creation of a global network of protected areas, bio – piracy or the fair sharing of benefits gained through the exploitation of biodiversity resources to the poor countries and the protection of traditional knowledge of indigenous and local communities. In addition the United States, the only UN - country that did not ratify the CDB, declared their intention to reduce their financial contribution to the World fund for Natural Environment by 50%. According to Greenpeace the COP 8 was a fracaso. The only indirect positive result of the COP 8 for Brazil’s biodiversity was the creation of two national parks of araucaria forest, an ecosystem that has been reduced to less than 1% of its original size.

Language and communication issues: Despite the fact that the convention was announced to be held in 6 official languages (english, spanish, french, russian, chinese and arab), the translations mostly happened at the end and only about the final conclusions. The discussions within the working groups were exclusively in english. Consequently the representatives of many countries and particularly the representatives of the indigenous and local communities were facing significant difficulties to bring in their interests into the discussion.

Despite the language issue, the communication - level in general is problematic and was at least recognized at COP8. Just to have an idea, the topics, wording and terminology of those conferences is so complicated that the state of Paraná had to organize a pre-meeting for all the national journalist prior to COP8 in order to enable them to understand and follow at least some part of the discussions. To my feeling, this is one of the reasons that the media coverage of COP8 (particularly during and after the event) was relatively poor. I believe that the aim of protection biodiversity is only achievable when the whole society is first of all well informed and secondly actively involved in this issue. But therefore it is indispensable that the language of the COP - meetings is understandable for everyone and not only for scientists and conservationists.

Conclusion: The COP 8 in Curitiba showed once more the complexity and diversity of the different interests with regard to environmental issues, which probably is as high as the biological diversity itself. Facing these disappointing results, 16 years after the Earth Summit, it is hard to believe in the sense and the effectiveness of an Institution such as the Conference of the Parties. Hopefully the COP 9 in Germany will be better.

Frank
Brazil Adventure International
http://www.brazadv.com

[Ariane]

The site of the Brazil Tourism Board now is www.braziltour.com
it is available in several languages and has a lot more information than a few years ago. You can go to the Ministry of Tourism site from here by clicking on institutional.

Responsible companies linked to the Brazil Sustainable Tourism Program can be found at www.pcts.org.br/brazilfortravelers.

The sustainable tourism standards for accomodations, developed within the Program have now been approved as an official Brazilian standard. A version in English is available at www.pcts.org.br.

Trip reports on the Pantanal and the Amazon can be found at http://www.sustainabletourismbrazil.org/pubbrasil/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm?sid=76.

[planeta]

New on Planeta.com
http://www.planeta.com

Brazil Maxed: A Conversation with Bill Hinchberger
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/weaving/billhinchberger.html

Bill Hinchberger is the founder of BrazilMax. We are big fans of Bill's efforts to create a hip online guide to Brazil. The following conversation was conducted in November 2006.

Questions:

How did you start BrazilMax?
What is roots tourism?
Can you tell us about your podcasting?
Can you recommend any news site in English for those interested in Brazil?
What is your favorite guidebook to Brazil?

Full interview
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/weaving/billhinchberger.html

RELATED

Weaving the Web
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/weaving/weaving.html

Brazil
http://www.planeta.com/brazil.html

[planeta]

New on Planeta.com
December 2006
>> http://www.planeta.com

Planeta.com is conducting the Brazil Travel Survey. The survey is aimed at a broad audience, including Brazilians and visitors. The aim is to assess what travelers want from a trip.
http://tinyurl.com/u3ach