It figures, I have just a few hours before leaving for my Songkran holiday, and the post material just floods in. So, while I usually like to keep my posts confined to a single topic, on this occasion I’m going to wrap several news bits into a single post:

Plant A Tree Today International Volunteer Program

Plant A Tree Today is a UK registered charity with offices in Bangkok. Founded in 2005, their mission is to "react to problems caused by the massive and increasing levels of deforestation worldwide, raise awareness of environmental issues and the role forests play, take action against climate change, educate children on these issues and to PLANT MORE TREES."

The organization is now looking for volunteers to participate in a couple of programs: The first is for community advocacy and outreach volunteers who would be responsible for doing community and school outreach to inspire others to plant more trees and take action to care for our environment. The second opportunity is for EcoCamp leaders to help supervise small groups of 6 to 12 year-olds at the group’s Bangkok EcoKids camp. Full details on both programs can be found at their web site.

Making a Difference Off The Map

Mark Wiens is not your average gap-year backpacker. In fact, I’m not sure he even owns a backpack, and it seems he plans for his gap year to last the rest of his life. He has a web site called Migrationology that he uses to update people on where he is, which for now is Bangkok. Mark recently hooked up with In Search of Sanuk founder Dwight, who got him off the tourist trail to see the things most tourists never see, or want to. Read his post on Little Things Make a Difference to see how you can make a difference too.

Corporate Responsibility

When I first started looking at "responsible" travel, I found all the usual guidelines about "staying local" and avoiding chains, etc. But when I evaluated the situation close to home, here in Thailand, I concluded that, at least where hotels were concerned, the international chains were on the whole a lot more responsible that most local hotels. While there are a few exceptions, it’s all too often that I see wholesale environmental destruction to make way for a local hotel, and there are even cases where this has happened in national parks. The irresponsible behavior continues when the hotel or resort is completed, with lack of environmental safeguards, and even using cheap Burmese labor rather than hiring locals.

Things are generally different where the international chains are concerned. Call it "window dressing" if you want, but many of these companies seem to take sustainability – which I believe has to be a cornerstone of responsible travel – much more seriously. I’ve also found many more cases of true community involvement among the international brands.

So, it comes as no surprise that IHG, one of the world’s largest hotel groups, whose brands include Intercontinental, Holiday Inn and others, has been given an award for social responsibility by the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) at their first Green Travel Summit in California, USA. The NBTA, who represent corporate travel managers and travel service providers, recognized IHG’s commitment to improving local communities and reducing the environmental impact of their hotels through a number of initiatives.

The bottom line is, if you want to travel responsibly, forget the abstract advice found on many of the web sites promoting such things and look at the situation that really exists where you’re going. A big chain is not necessarily less responsible than a local hotel.

Posted by michael under Responsible Travel
Tags: Thailand
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