EASA rebuffs cockpit claims

COLOGNE, 24 January 2013: The European Aviation Safety Agency today hit back at what it called a “current disinformation campaign organised by the European Cockpit Association.”

EASA has a proposal on the table to amend the current EU rules on flight and duty time limitations and rest requirements for commercial air transport.

However, the pilot association claims the proposals could lead to pilots flying for as many as 22 hours on night flying shifts.

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Travel and plant a tree

PHNOM PENH, 23 January 2013: Tourism Minister, Thong Khon, said Cambodia will launch a “One Tourist, One Tree” campaign next month to promote green tourism and encourage visitors to protect the environment.

The minister said the campaign will be begin, 27 February, during a national celebration to promote clean cities.

“The tree-planting campaign will be a new and attractive tourism product and will ensure tourists are also making a contribution to a cleaner and greener environment.”

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Southeast Vietnam taps tourism

BINH PHUOC, 14 December 2012: Tourism experts are urging Vietnam’s southeast tourism associations to join hands and create “outstanding tourism products” in the region, based on sustainable development and protection of the environment.

Vietnam Institute of Culture and Arts Studies Associate Professor, Dr Truong Quoc Binh, said recognising the need to preserve the environment was an essential factor that bring high value to tourism in the southeast provinces.

“Tourism development programmes need to respect the natural and social environments in order to build a sustainable tourism business,” he told tourism leaders last week.

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Halong Bay clean up

QUANG NINH, 23 November 2012: The province’s People’s Committee says Quang Ninh will take urgent measures to protect Halong Bay’s natural environment.

The committee deputy chairman, Dang Huy Hau, said: “Local authorities will ban the handling of bulk cargo in the area, and treat wastewater and sewage discharges by 2013.”

He added: “They will also minimise encroachment, closely monitor industrial production establishments and urban projects and raise the public’s awareness of environmental protection.”

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Mae Hong Son pilots green map

BANGKOK, 28 August 2012: As a part of the United Nations’ holistic mission to improve living standards of communities in Mae Hong Son province, a green map project that supports local communities and environment friendly businesses was officially introduced last week.

Mae Hong Son Green Map is designed for independent travellers who want to explore the province’s cultural and natural assets and support local communities and environment friendly businesses.

Covering a project spanning, 2009 to mid-2013, eight UN agencies –FAO, UNIDO, UNFPA, IOM, UNDP, UNHCR, WHO and UNESCO – are collaborating with the provincial government.

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Samui tourism supports second airport

SAMUI, 30 July 2012: Access to Samui Island remains one of the major problems that is limiting the island’s tourist arrivals as well as curtailing the island’s tourism industry from actively marketing their products, worldwide, local entrepreneurs told TTR Weekly over the weekend.

Interviews with the island’s tourism associations and government offices confirmed the general viewpoint that the island needed a bigger airport.

They claimed the single private airport and environmental restrictions on flights that limits airport operations from 0600 to 2200 was seriously hampering development.

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Mak lowers carbon footprint

TRAT, 13 June 2012: Projects that should reduce carbon emission are lined up for Mak Island, a small island in the Gulf of Thailand.

The island that comes under Trat province should become the country’s first low carbon holiday island if a Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration project succeeds.

Mak Island is included in DASTA Area 1, Moo Koh Chang and Related Areas. The island covers an area of 3,800 acres. In terms of tourism it is still in the development stage with just 600 rooms in 35 accommodation establishments.

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Plan to exploit Vientiane’s marsh

VIENTIANE, 6 January 2012: Vientiane plans to develop the capital’s That Luang marsh into a green zone of wetlands, a public park, residential estates and a commercial centre.

According to Vientiane Times, a Japanese company has proposed a sustainable development of the marsh through to 2030, but critics would differ on what constitutes sustainable and possibly claiming the  natural marsh area is a natural barrier against flooding.

The government must approve the plan, which breaks down into five zones, covering an area of 2,200 hectares, of which 660 hectares would be dry land and the rest wetlands. Read more

India vetos greenhouse pacts

NEW DELHI, 28 December, 2011: India said Tuesday it would reject any global pact legally binding it to cut greenhouse gas emissions as such a move could stifle economic growth needed to eradicate poverty.

Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan’s statement came after a UN conference in Durban earlier this month agreed for the first time to seek to negotiate a legally enforceable agreement to control all nations’ emissions.

“There is no question of signing a legally binding agreement at this point of our development. We need to make sure that our development does not suffer,” Natarajan told the upper house of parliament. Read more

Canada out of Kyoto Protocol

OTTAWA, 13 December 2011: Canada formally withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol, becoming the first country to abandon the agreement on climate change after ratifying it, its environment minister announced Monday.

“We are invoking Canada’s legal right to formally withdraw from Kyoto,” Environment Minister Peter Kent said, following a marathon UN climate conference in South Africa.

The landmark pact reached in 1997 is the only global treaty that sets down targeted curbs in global emissions.

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