Websites of interest
www.mongabay.com As noted on their extensively researched website, ‘with more than one million visitors per month, Mongabay.com is one of the world's most popular environmental science and conservation news sites. Mongabay aims to raise interest in wildlife and wildlands while promoting awareness of environmental issues'.
http://www.dronestagram/ An amateur techie site that really is for everyone. The website encourages drone owners to upload their images/videos and site visitors to enjoy the phenomenal perspectives. The site provides a fresh view of urban and natural landscapes around the world including a kaleidoscope of ecotourism destinations.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/citscitoolkit/projects/clo/eBird/ Jointly coordinated by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, eBird is a ‘real-time, online checklist programme’ that has revolutionised the way the birding community reports and accesses information about birds. A fantastic site for bird watchers, educators, tour guides, park managers and their staff.
Notable publications
Revisiting Leopold: Resource Stewardship in the National Parks. A report of the National Park System Advisory Board Science Committee. 2012. An updated re-envisioning of US National Park system management. http://www.nps.gov/calltoaction/PDF/LeopoldReport_2012.pdf
Tourism Concessions in Protected Natural Areas: Guidelines for Managers. 2014. An excellent UNDP publication. http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/environment-energy/ecosystems_and_biodiversity/tourism-concessions-in-protected-natural-areas/
The Millennium Development Goals Report 2014. The United Nations: New York. An update on progress towards the MDG.
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2014%20MDG%20report/MDG%202014%20English%20web.pdf
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2014 has released a synthesis report and three sub-reports. Visit http://www.ipcc.ch/ to choose which of the reports you want to download.
IUCN World Heritage Outlook 2014: A conservation assessment of all natural World Heritage Sites worldwide. https://www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/wcpa_worldheritage/about_world_heritage/worldheritageoutlook/
Ecotourism relevant organisations
http://www.ecotourism.org/ The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) ‘is a non-profit association committed to promoting responsible tourism practices that benefit conservation and communities'.
http://www.iucn.org/ The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) ‘is the world's oldest and largest global environmental organization'. To learn more about the phenomenal work of the IUCN check out their website.
http://www.responsibletravel.com This commercial site, Responsible Travel, claims to have the ‘largest collection of small holiday companies in one place and all 400 have demonstrated their responsible tourism credentials'.
Our readership is encouraged to share websites of interest, newly released or sparsely distributed reports or other publications, organisations or other relevant material to the editor for inclusion in this section.