Accelerating climate action in tourism is critical for the resilience of the sector and host communities The G20 economies must lead the way in ensuring tourism fulfils its huge potential to build a fairer and more sustainable future for people and planet. At a meeting of the Ministers of Tourism of the G20 economies in Belem, Brazil, UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili noted that the sector is on track to fully recover pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year. Given this, the focus must now shift to the future, with an emphasis on empowering and including local communities, fighting climate change, and progressing nature net positive and circularity. Secretary-General Pololikashvili said: “Tourism heavily depends on biodiversity, climate stability and natural ...
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UN Tourism joins G20 Presidency to discuss the future of tourism policies and governance
On the eve of the official meeting of the G20 Ministers of Tourism, the side event called for a new approach to tourism policy and governance that places a focus on people and planet. With the event held under the Brazilian Presidency of the G20, high-level representatives of Azerbaijan, Canada, Chile, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Saudi Arabia, Spain and the USA as well as the InterAmerican Development Bank, recalled the positive importance and impact of tourism in the economy and society and its potential to contribute to the SDGs and to reduce inequalities within and among countries. Opening the event Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili applauded Brazil’s G20 Presidency focus on inclusion and sustainability and said “The challenges ahead of us are immense. As so are the opportu...
Read MoreIndigenous chants and the rattle of maracas resounded Thursday in a Rio de Janeiro park, where Brazil’s Tupinambá people gathered to celebrate the homecoming of a sacred cloak absent for some 380 years. Made of feathers from the scarlet ibis, the artifact from northeastern Brazil resided in Copenhagen until the Danish National Museum donated the cloak to its Brazilian counterpart. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Indigenous Peoples Minister Sonia Guajajara attended a ceremony at Brazil’s National Museum atop a hill in the Boa Vista Park. “It is impossible not to appreciate the beauty and strength of this centuries-old and well-preserved piece, even after so much time outside Brazil, abroad. It is our commitment to preserve this heritage,” Lula said, addressing dozens o...
Read MoreA fishing community in southern Brazil has an unusual ally: wild dolphins. Accounts of people and dolphins working together to hunt fish go back millennia, from the time of the Roman Empire near what is now southern France to 19th century Queensland, Australia. But while historians and storytellers have recounted the human point of view, it’s been impossible to confirm how the dolphins have benefited — or if they’ve been taken advantage of — before sonar and underwater microphones could track them underwater. In the seaside city of Laguna, scientists have, for the first time, used drones, underwater sound recordings and other tools to document how local people and dolphins coordinate actions and benefit from each other’s labor. The most successful humans and dolphins are skilled at ...
Read MoreOn a stormy evening in mid-November, a huge, abandoned cargo ship broke free of its moorings and slowly floated into the massive concrete bridge that carries cars across Brazil's Guanabara Bay to Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's navy said the 200-meter-long (660-ft.) Sao Luiz, a rust-spattered bulk carrier built in 1994, had been anchored in the bay for more than six years awaiting legal proceedings before it crashed into Latin America's longest over-water bridge. The navy said it was investigating. A general view of the Conceicao island, where some abandoned ships are placed, is seen in the Guanabara Bay in Niteroi, in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil December 28, 2022. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares "The Sao Luiz is still in the Port of Rio today, with 50 tonnes of fuel oil in it," Sergio Ricardo,...
Read MoreEven in the most biodiverse rainforest of the world, the pirarucu, also known as arapaima, stands out. First, there is its mammoth size: It can weigh up to 200 kilos (440 pounds), by far the largest of 2,300 known fish species in the Amazon. It is found primarily in floodplain lakes across the Amazon basin, including the region of Medio Jurua. Second, the giant fish not so long ago nearly vanished from Jurua, as vessels swept the lakes with large nets. The illegal and unsustainable fishing left river and Indigenous communities struggling to catch their staple food. And it left pirarucu designated as threatened with extinction, unless trade in the fish is closely controlled by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Fishermen join boats...
Read MoreJust months after enduring floods that destroyed crops and submerged entire communities, thousands of families in the Brazilian Amazon are now dealing with severe drought that, at least in some areas, is the worst in decades. The low level of the Amazon River, at the center of the largest drainage system in the world, has put dozens of municipalities under alert. The fast-decreasing river water level is due to lower-than-expected rainfall during August and September, according to Luna Gripp, a geosciences researcher who monitors the western Amazon’s river levels for the Brazilian Geological Survey. A man walks in an area impacted by drought near the Solimões River, in Tefe, Amazonas state, Brazil, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Edmar Barros) As most of Amazonas state is not ...
Read MoreLuakam Anambé wanted her newborn granddaughter to have a doll — something she’d never owned as a child working in slave-like conditions in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. But she wanted the doll to share their Indigenous features, and there was nothing like that in stores. So she sewed one herself from cloth and stuffing. The doll had brown skin, long, dark hair, and the same face and body paint used by the Anambé people. It delighted passersby; while Indigenous dolls can be found elsewhere in Latin America, they remain mostly absent in Brazil, home to nearly 900,000 people identifying as Indigenous in the last census. Luakam Anambe, of Brazil’s Anambé indigenous group, who is at the helm of a small, burgeoning business selling handmade indigenous dolls poses for a photo in her sewing w...
Read MoreDeforestation in Brazil’s Amazon surged to record levels for the month of April, nearly doubling the area of forest removed in that month last year -- the previous April record -- preliminary government data showed on Friday, alarming environmental campaigners. In the first 29 days of April, deforestation in the region totaled 1,012.5 sq km (390 sq miles), according to data from national space research agency Inpe. The agency, which has compiled the monthly DETER-B data series since 2015/2016, will report data for the final day of April next week. April is the third monthly record this year, after new highs were also observed in January and February. FILE PHOTO: Billows of smoke rise over a deforested plot of the Amazon jungle next to the Transamazonica national highway, in Labre...
Read MoreRio de Janeiro's famous Christ the Redeemer has competition. The small town of Encantado in southern Brazil has built a taller Christ to attract tourism. A new Brazilian statue, taller than Rio's, named "Protective Christ", is seen in the Morro das Antenas hill in the city of Encantado in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil April 29, 2022. REUTERS/Diego Vara Christ the Protector is 43 meters (141 feet meters) high, compared to Rio's statue, which is 38 meters (125 feet), including in both cases their pedestals. Built with concrete over a metal structure, it has already been erected on a hill above the town, but the venue will only open to the public sometime next year, said Robison Gonzatti, vice president of the association that sponsored the statue. "It is the largest Christ in the...
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