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"The place to be Local Alike is using tourism to boost the profiles of struggling communities 15 Jun 2016 at 04:00 1,021 viewed0 comments NEWSPAPER SECTION: LIFE | WRITER: KANIN SRIMANEEKULROJ Somsak Boonkam observing a forest hiking trail in Chiang Rai. Photos: Sayan Chuenudomsavad With their focus on introducing sustainable tourism practices to local rural communities in order to improve quality of life, local-tourism website Local Alike has recently been chosen to represent Thailand in Chivas' The Venture campaign, a competition among the world's social-enterprise start-ups, with the winner receiving a US$1 million prize. Now in its second year, The Venture's final round of judging will occur sometime next month. "We actually competed in the Thailand preliminaries last year, though we didn't make the cut," said Local Alike's founder and CEO Somsak Boonkam. "The judges last year were concerned about our ability to scale up, as we had only 18 partner communities offered. This year, we've grown to include over 50 member communities, all of whom were working very closely with to introduce and develop sustainable tourism in their communities. It goes together nicely with the campaign's slogan of 'Win the right way', as we are helping these local communities grow by their own strength instead of just giving them money." Unlike many other tourism-related businesses, Local Alike puts a significant emphasis on collaborating with locals in improving their community's quality of living. Furthermore, they also work closely with these communities to develop unique tourism experiences based on the community's cultural heritage. Once they're ready, Local Alike puts the community on their online platform, where tourists can go and enjoy the activities and facilities prepared and overseen by the locals themselves. Somsak Boonkam meeting with representatives from a partner community. To demonstrate his point, Somsak recalled his experiences working with the Baan Suan Pa com

"Floods and drought highlight summer of climate truth Published: 31/07/2012 at 01:46 AMNewspaper section: News For years, climate scientists have been warning the world that the heavy use of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) threatens the world with human-induced climate change. The rising atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, a byproduct of burning fossil fuels, would warm the planet and change rainfall and storm patterns and raise sea levels. Now those changes are hitting in every direction, even as powerful corporate lobbies and media propagandists like Rupert Murdoch try to deny the truth. In recent weeks, the United States has entered its worst drought in modern times. The Midwest and the Plains states, the country's breadbasket, are baking under a massive heat wave, with more than half of the country under a drought emergency and little relief in sight. Halfway around the world, Beijing has been hit by the worst rains on record, with floods killing many people. Japan is similarly facing record-breaking torrential rains. Two of Africa's impoverished drylands _ the Horn of Africa in the East and the Sahel in the West _ have experienced devastating droughts and famines in the past two years: the rains never came, causing many thousands to perish, while millions face life-threatening hunger. Scientists have given a name to our era, the Anthropocene, a term built on ancient Greek roots to mean "the Human-dominated epoch" _ a new period of earth's history in which humanity has become the cause of global-scale environmental change. Humanity affects not only the earth's climate, but also ocean chemistry, the land and marine habitats of millions of species, the quality of air and water, and the cycles of water, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other essential components that underpin life on the planet. For many years, the risk of climate change was widely regarded as something far in the future, a risk perhaps facing our children or their children. That

"Use the slider to compare 1990 false-color Landsat views (left) with recent true-color imagery (right). Humans are increasingly transforming Earth's surface-through direct activities such as farming, mining, and building, and indirectly by altering its climate."

"Green with envy Published: 8 Apr 2013 at 00.00Newspaper section: Life I'm sure there are people out there who aren't aware that there is a 500-rai tract of lush green land sitting smack in the middle of the city. You might even drive past it, or around it, every day, but it has always eluded you. It's the big plot of land belonging to the State Railway of Thailand in Makkasan, bordered on one side by the Airport Link, and on the other by the Chaturatis Road that connects Si Ayutthaya Road with Rama IX Road. No one paid any attention to it until recently when the SRT announced it was considering developing the land into a commercial complex to boost its books, which always stand in the red. I do sympathise with them in a way, having to give away all those free train rides as part of the government's populist policies. As far as state enterprises go, the SRT incurs the highest losses _ over 7 billion baht a year, equivalent to 50% of its annual budget. But suddenly there looms the spectre of yet another commercial complex in Bangkok. The SRT governor was quoted as saying that he envisions a "new Bangkok landmark where people can use the facilities for important events to be seen around the world", citing the New Year's countdown and Songkran festivities among these. He also expects the complex to dwarf the nearby CentralWorld. According to the SRT governor, some 200 rai of the plot will be used for building new roads, and the remaining 300 rai or so will be for commercial development. He does say, however, that 15-20% of this _ approximately 60 rai _ will be landscaped as green areas. He makes it sound so generous I could cry. The way other cities calculate a per capita park area, it seems Bangkok thrives on a per capita shopping centre area. I'm sure we can be proud of the number of upmarket commercial complexes in the city. On the 4.5km stretch of road between Sukhumvit Soi 24 and Pathumwan intersection, I can already count almost 20 shopping centres ranging

"Mumbai Land Grab"

Freer Trade Could Fill the World's Rice Bowl TWITTER LINKEDIN SIGN IN TO E-MAIL OR SAVE THIS PRINT REPRINTS SHARE By TYLER COWEN Published: April 27, 2008 RISING food prices mean hunger for millions and also political unrest, as has already been seen in Haiti, Egypt and Ivory Coast. Yes, more expensive energy and bad weather are partly at fault, but the real question is why adjustment hasn't been easier. A big problem is that the world doesn't have enough trade in foodstuffs. Enlarge This Image Alanah Torralba/European Pressphoto Agency Filipino port workers unload sacks of rice imported from Vietnam to be distributed by the National Food Authority. Related Times Topics: Rice Blogrunner: Reactions From Around the Web Managing Globalization: Can rice Farming Be Laissez-Faire? The damage that trade restrictions cause is probably most evident in the case of rice. Although rice is the major foodstuff for about half of the world, it is highly protected and regulated. Only about 5 to 7 percent of the world's rice production is traded across borders; that's unusually low for an agricultural commodity. So when the price goes up - indeed, many varieties of rice have roughly doubled in price since 2007 - this highly segmented market means that the trade in rice doesn't flow to the places of highest demand. Poor rice yields are not the major problem. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that global rice production increased by 1 percent last year and says that it is expected to increase 1.8 percent this year. That's not impressive, but it shouldn't cause starvation. The more telling figure is that over the next year, international trade in rice is expected to decline more than 3 percent, when it should be expanding. The decline is attributable mainly to recent restrictions on rice exports in rice-producing countries like India, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Cambodia and Egypt. At first glance, this seems understandable, bec

"Middle-earth effect The impact of Sir Peter Jackson's The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit Trilogies on tourism in New Zealand cannot be dismissed.  The International Visitor Survey from 2004, completed following the release of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, found that six percent of visitors to New Zealand (around 120,000 - 150,000 people) cited The Lord of the Rings as being one of the main reasons for visiting New Zealand. One per cent of visitors said that the Lord of the Rings was their main or only reason for visiting. This one per cent related to approximately NZ$32.8m in spend. In 2004, 63,200 visitors participated in a Lord of the Rings activity while here and since 2004, an average 47,000 visitors each year have visited a film location. In 2014 research completed by the New Zealand Institue of Economic Research found that the marketing of New Zealand as Middle-earth has had a significant and quantifiable impact on growth in visitor arrivals from Western markets.  International Visitor Arrivals data for year ending August 2014 show holiday arrivals into New Zealand are up 7.2 per cent on last year. Holiday arrivals from the United States, a key target market for the Middle-earth campaign, are up 14.2 per cent on the same period last year. The International Visitor Survey shows that 13 per cent of all international visitors surveyed July 2013 - June 2014, say The Hobbit was a factor in stimulating their interest in New Zealand as a destination. Source: Tourism New Zealand Corporate Website / Statistics New Zealand"

"The man from Lindon embarked on his adventure to raise awareness about child obesity in the US, wanting to highlight the importance of making healthy lifestyle choices. He also raised money for the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation, an organisation led by the professional chef that works in schools to provide people with better access to food education."