Microfinance helps Latin Americans lift themselves out of poverty

Miriam lives in a one-room shack in El Salvador with her husband and 11 children. They store their fresh water in a barrel by the side of the house and cook on a stove in the yard. Although the kids go to school it's unlikely that they'll finish their education.

Miriam is not unique, but what's interesting about her situation is that she has taken the first steps toward improving her family's income and standard of living. That's thanks to a $100 microfinance loan that has allowed her to begin buying produce from farmers and selling it to local residents. Over time additional loans will help Miriam grow her business and improve her family's prospects.

I heard Miriam's story a few days ago at a breakfast briefing by Global Partnerships (GP), a Seattle-based nonprofit organization that works to help people in Latin America to better their lives through microfinance.  GP identifies and invests in microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Latin America, which then make small-scale loans to borrowers, most of whom would never qualify for a traditional bank loan.

According to Jason Henning, GP's director of development and investor relations, roughly a third of Latin America's 560 million people live below the poverty line and approximately 94 million live on less than $2 per day. Henning estimates that around 48 million people in the region could benefit from microfinance, but fewer than 20 percent have access to loans. GP seeks to increase that number.

Currently, the organization works in seven countries: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. In addition to its Seattle headquarters, GP maintains an office in Nicaragua whose staff performs much of the screening work to identify MFIs to partner with.

"All microfinance is not created equally," says Henning. Many charitable MFIs are doing fine work but are not growing to meet the demand for microfinance credit. At the other end of the spectrum are the commercial microfinance institutions, which operate like traditional banks according to a profit-seeking model. GP has developed a model that enables it to continually increase the amount of money it invests in MFIs, which in turn can then extend loans to more and more borrowers.

While GP carefully evaluates MFIs based on traditional investment criteria, social service factors are equally important in the selection of GP partners. Some of the criteria examined include an MFI's percentage of female clients, the percentage of loans to rural areas, interest rates, and the average cost of a first-time loan. In addition, GP's practice is to invest only in institutions that reinvest their profits into services such as health care, education, business training, and other much-needed programs. As part of this effort, GP is partnering with the nonprofit organizations Pro Mujer and PATH to develop models for improving access to low-cost health care. (See my earlier post, "Health care through microfinance" for more on this pilot program.)

GP's investments come from philanthropic donations and socially motivated investors, including individuals, corporations, foundations, and other organizations. According to Henning, large-scale institutional investors are increasingly supportive of social enterprise investments. As of June 2009, the organization had more than $46 million invested in 28 different microfinance institutions.

The beauty of microfinance is that it helps people help themselves. Often it takes only a small amount of credit to start or expand a business and increase a family's income. Although the size of the loans provided by GP's microfinance partners varies, the average is about $500. That's enough to make a significant difference in the life of someone like Miriam.

Photo by Chris Megargee/Global Partnerships: Norma, also from El Salvador, is a member of a communal bank organized by GP's partner organization Enlace. Microfinance loans have helped Norma start and expand a business making and selling hammocks, a skill she learned from her grandmother. This business has created an additional source of income for Norma's family, enabling her to buy medicine and clothing for her five children.

World's 10 best ethical travel destinations revealed

Are you the kind of traveler who wants to have a great time AND feel good about where your travel budget is going? Ethical Traveler's new report, "The World's Best Ethical Destinations" identifies the 10 countries in the developing world that are best protecting their natural environments, promoting responsible travel, and building a tourism industry which provides real benefits to local communities.

“There’s no doubt that worldwide interest in mindful, responsible travel is growing -- not only among travelers, but within the countries that host us," says Jeff Greenwald, executive director of Ethical Traveler and coauthor of the report. "Now is the perfect time for savvy travelers and well-intentioned governments to evolve together, each encouraging the other. This is especially true in the developing world, where travel and tourism can be developed as lucrative, low-impact alternatives to forestry, mining, and the destruction of ocean habitats.”

In alphabetical order, the best ethical travel destinations for 2010 are:

• Argentina

• Belize

• Chile

• Ghana

• Lithuania

• Namibia

• Poland

• Seychelles

• South Africa

• Suriname

“In drafting our report, we use scores of information sources -- including publicly available data -- to rate each country's genuine commitment to environmental protection, social welfare and human rights.” says Christy Hoover, coauthor of the report. “Data sources include the United Nations Development Program, Human Rights Watch, Columbia University, Reporters Without Borders, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and many others. Private interviews with NGO leaders are part of the process, as well.” The full report can be viewed at www.ethicaltraveler.org/destinations.

Ethical Traveler is an international alliance of travelers who believe that travel is a powerful tool for international goodwill and cultural understanding. The group seeks to harness the political and economic clout of tourism to support human rights and the environment. Ethical Traveler is a project of the Earth Island Institute.

Photo credits: Jaguar in Belize by CTO-Demian Solano (top); Kalahari dunes by Namibia Tourism (bottom) 

Help Passports with Purpose build a school in Cambodia - and you may even win a great prize, too

We all know that social networking is powerful, and that travel has the power to change lives. Well, here's a way to combine all those things in support of a great cause. It's the second annual Passports with Purpose (PwP), a collaborative online fundraiser dreamed up by four Seattle-based travel bloggers: Beth Whitman of Wanderlust and Lipstick, Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby, Pam Mandel of Nerd's Eye View, and Michelle Duffy of Wandermom. Last year PwP raised $7,500 for Heifer International. This year the organizers have an even more ambitious goal: they aim to raise $13,000 to help build a school in Cambodia.

This year's PwP will benefit American Assistance for Cambodia (AAfC), an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving opportunities for the youth and rural poor of Cambodia. AAfC Chairman Bernard Krisher notes that the project will benefit the many Cambodians who live close to the poverty line. “Passports with Purpose and AAfC projects give them the chance to better their lives through education and gives them the message that opportunities are limitless,” Krisher says.

PwP co-founder Dubrow adds, “Like last year, we hope that this effort will not only raise money for a very worthy charity, but also help develop a stronger sense of community among travel bloggers, and demonstrate the effect we can have when we work together.”

Here's how it works: Bloggers secure raffle prizes and/or post information about PwP on their site. The prizes include getaways, travel gear, experiences and more. Readers make donations through the PwP site, in increments of $10. Each $10 donation earns one prize drawing entry. One hundred percent of the proceeds will benefit AAfC’s rural schools project.

The raffle begins today, November 30, and ends on December 21. Prize winners will be announced on January 5, 2010.

To make a donation and enter the drawing, click on the logo below.

Patagonia vs. the dams: Travel companies offer a special trip to fight a destructive project

Picture this: two wild and scenic rivers rushing from the glaciers of the southern Andes, through dramatic canyons, ancient forests, and productive ranchlands, traveling through some of the most pristine landscapes on earth. Now picture those same rivers tamed by megadams, the surrounding landscapes marred by clearcuts, power lines, and new roads, the livelihoods of local people interrupted. That's what's at risk if the controversial HidroAysén project to dam the Baker and Pascua rivers in Chilean Patagonia is approved.

Located more than 1,200 miles south of the national capital, Santiago, Aysén is the most sparsely populated region in Chile. In addition to indigenous communities and local ranching families who have lived on this land for generations, the area surrounding Baker and Pascua rivers supports a thriving sustainable tourism industry based on river rafting, trekking, and sport fishing.

One of the principal tourism operators in Aysén, Patagonia Adventure Expeditions (PAEX) has been running rafting trips on the Baker River for over a decade and have established several new trekking routes in the region. PAEX founder Jonathan Leidig sees a tremendous potential for sustainable tourism to generate income for both local residents and Chile as a whole - a potential that would be seriously reduced by the construction of the dams.

According to Berkeley, California-based International Rivers, one of the many international and Chilean environmental groups that have formed an alliance against the project, the proposed two dams on the Baker River and three dams on the Pascua River would involve creating the world's largest clearcut in order to lay new transmission lines and build thousands of 220-foot-high transmission towers over a 1,500-mile-long corridor. The reservoirs created by the dams would flood an area of 23 square miles, including prime ranching and agricultural lands, as well as critically important wildlife habitats. The transmission lines would cross 64 communities and 14 legally protected conservation areas.

Not only would the dams destroy the pristine character and traditional lifestyle of the Baker-Pascua region, it would likely also negatively impact Chile's international reputation as an ecotourism and adventure destination.

Environmental groups call the dam project unnecessary, destructive, and shortsighted. Rather than building more dams, Chile needs to embrace more modern, forward-thinking energy alternatives, as noted in a 2008 New York Times editorial. Yet the HydroAysén dam controversy is more than just a Chilean issue. In fact, the project's backers include not only Chilean companies but also multinational corporations.

In an effort to increase awareness of the HidroAysén issue, PAEX has joined forced with Vaya Adventures, a Berkeley-based tour operator specializing in South America, to offer a special "Ice to Ocean Fundraising Adventure" trip to the threatened area. The trip, which runs from February 26 to March 12, 2010, will include trekking through glacial valleys at the edge of the Northern Patagonian Ice Cap, the source of the Baker River, as well as rafting the Baker River all the way to the ocean. Under the proposed project, the river would be dammed in two places, making such a rafting adventure impossible.

All net proceeds from the trip will go to the International Rivers Patagonia campaign. The trip costs $4,975, not including airfare. Participants who commit to raising $2,000 for the International Rivers campaign prior to departure will receive a $1,000 discount.

In addition to raising awareness and funds for the anti-dam campaign, Vaya Adventures hopes to highlight the region as a sustainable tourism destination. "The region is too special not to try to do something to protect it from needless harm," says Vaya Adventures founder Jim Lutz. "The potential long-term benefits to Chile from sustainable tourism in the area are immense."

For more on the International Rivers Patagonia campaign, visit the organization's website or check out this fact sheet. For more on the fundraising trip, including how to sign up, visit the Vaya Adventures website.

Photos courtesy of Vaya Adventures: An area of the Baker River that would be flooded by the dam (top); a proposed dam site on the Pascua River (bottom)

Costa Rica seeks volunteers to teach English for sustainable tourism development

If you're looking for a way to support sustainable tourism development, have a background in English teaching, and have the ability to take off for three months to a year, here's a new volunteer opportunity worth looking into. The recently established Costa Rican English for Sustainable Tourism (CREST) program is seeking volunteer English teachers to help improve the international marketability of its tourism industry. Another goal is to provide Costa Ricans of all social classes and regional origins with the language skills to gain access to high-paying tourism jobs.

According to the CREST website, the program is part of "a government sponsored initiative that seeks to improve the country´s economic competitiveness by increasing the number of English-speaking professionals by 2017." CREST is coordinated by ALIARSE Foundation, which works to promote sustainable development and social responsibility in Costa Rica. Support for the program comes from the Ministry of the Presidency of Costa Rica, the Ministry of Tourism, public and private enterprises, and various local development associations.

Volunteers serve either as teaching assistants in technical high schools or as community leaders teaching employees from hotels, restaurants, and local ecotourism companies. Applicants are required to have a college degree and Teaching of English as a Foreign Language certification or the equivalent.

The program offers volunteers the opportunity to learn of improve their Spanish through immersion in a local community. Volunteers have a choice of living either with carefully selected Costa Rican host families or in international dormitories with other volunteers and a regional coordinator.

Volunteers choose between a full-year commitment, starting in January, or a six-month commitment, starting in January or July. For volunteers unable to commit to a long-term stay, CREST also offers a summer program beginning in June.

Although CREST does charge volunteers a fee, the charge is less than many that for many comparable programs. The current costs are:

• Full-year program: $1,750 plus $1,000 refundable deposit
• Half-year and summer programs: $1,250 plus $1,000 refundable deposit

All programs include transportation to and from the airport, lodging and three meals a day, support and 24-hour backup, teaching materials, professional and educational mentoring, and administrative costs. The full- and half-year programs also include a five-day induction program. The refundable deposit is required to cover the costs of getting a new volunteer if you leave early or are dismissed for misconduct.

CREST recommends applying to the program three months ahead of the desired start date in order to ensure sufficient time for paperwork processing and other preparations.

Supersize me: Is the world's largest cruise ship just too big?

The big news in the cruise industry today is the official debut of Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, which arrived in her home port of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after a 14-day voyage across the Atlantic from Turku, Finland. The world's largest cruise ship, the Oasis is 1,187 feet (360 meters) long and 208 feet (64 meters) wide. She has 16 decks and holds 5,400 passengers at double occupancy in 2,700 staterooms, including 28 multilevel loft-style suites. That is one enormous ship.

I've previously written elsewhere about the sustainability of the cruise industry. Overall, the industry is not known for being particularly eco-friendly, though many cruise lines have recently been making efforts to implement measures to make their ships less polluting and more energy efficient. Though significant advancements have been made, there's still a long way to go.

In an article on the Mother Nature Network, Shea Gunther recently wrote:

The Oasis of the Seas is far from green, but it does make some strides in the greener direction. The ship's huge liquefied natural gas fueled engines come equipped with pollution scrubbers that completely eliminate all SOx emissions, cut NOx emissions by 80 percent and CO2 by more than 20 percent. Manufacturer Wärtsilä claims Oasis of the Seas will use 25 percent less power than smaller but similar cruise ships. The ship will also process its own waste on board, reusing the wastewater and dumping nothing into the ocean. It's the first cruise ship to have a large tropical park filled with thousands of plants and natural features.

Short of a total societal breakdown or a severe and long lasting global economic depression, cruise ships aren't going anywhere anytime soon. If they're going to be sailing the seas, they should be as green as they can get, so kudos to Royal Caribbean for pushing the envelope in the right direction.

I agree with Gunther that as long as people want to travel on big cruise ships, it's great that some cruise companies are making efforts to become more sustainable. It seems as though the large size of the Oasis of the Seas has allowed Royal Caribbean to implement some new green measures.

There remains, of course, the question of whether bigger is actually better in other ways. While some observers have noted that larger ships mean more tourist dollars for ports of call, the reality of 5,400 passengers spewing from a single ship could be overwhelming for many smaller ports. For residents, that may not be such fun after all.

For the traveler, a larger ship may offer more on-board options, but being joined by 5,399 fellow passengers is bound to negatively affect the chances of unique local experiences on land. Then again, travelers seeking a deep connection with a destination and authentic interactions with the local culture aren't particularly likely to be on this ship in the first place.

In the end, I'm sure this behemoth will appeal to many travelers for whom a cruise vacation is as much - or more - about the on-board experience as it is about the ports of call. But sorry, Royal Caribbean, I'm afraid it's just not for me.
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Addendum: I personally prefer small cruise ships (no more than 100 passengers, preferably smaller) and find even the standard big ships (2,000 passengers or so) much too big for my taste. For a discussion of large-ship versus small ship cruising, see my article on the subject at Seattle International Travel Examiner.

2009 Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Award winners announced

The 2009 winners of the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards were announced this morning in London as part of the celebration of World Travel Market's third annual WTM World Responsible Tourism Day. Sponsored by Virgin Holidays, the awards are organized by responsibletravel.com together with partners The Daily Telegraph, WTM, and Geographical Magazine.

This year's overall winner was New Zealand-based Whale Watch Kaikoura. Announcing the reason for their selection, the panel of judges said: "Rarely do we see a tourism initiative developed from the ground up by a local community to such a successful and grand scale – growing from modest beginnings to securing in a joint venture with Sea World on the Gold Coast of Australia to provide their whale watching. Whale Watch Kaikoura provides consistently responsible whale watching tours with minimal impacts. The founding of the enterprise by four Maori families has demonstrated that the local Maori community can not only grow a considerable tourism business, but, more significantly, use that business to buy back their ancestral land for the benefit of the indigenous people and their cultural identity."

Read more at Seattle International Travel Examiner

Introducing Ethical Traveler

Today is World Responsible Tourism Day, so how appropriate that it’s also my first day as News Editor for Ethical Traveler, a Berkeley, California-based nonprofit organization that seeks to make travel a force for positive change.

Ethical Traveler is the first grass-roots alliance uniting adventurers, tourists, travel agencies, and outfitters — everyone who loves to travel, and sees travel as a positive force in the world. We feel that all travelers are, in effect, freelance ambassadors. We also believe that we have the ability to join our voices, and to use our economic power to strengthen human rights and protect the environment.

I’ll be taking charge of the news team, which delivers original stories about responsible travel developments and issues, as well as links to related content from other trusted providers.

Check out www.ethicaltraveler.org for tips on how to be a responsible traveler, to join the Ethical Traveler network, or to sign up for the monthly newsletter.

World Responsible Tourism Day is an initiative of World Travel Market, with support from the United Nations World Tourism Organization and leading travel industry associations. It was first celebrated in 2007.

Adventure travel industry highlights sustainability at recent World Summit

Last month I had the pleasure of attending the Adventure Travel World Summit in the Charlevoix region of Quebec. It was exciting to meet with tour operators and other travel specialists from around the world, including places as far afield as Patagonia, China, Ethiopia, and Iran.

Particularly gratifying was the emphasis placed on sustainable and responsible tourism. Among the issues discussed were sustainable tourism in emerging destinations, climate change and its effect on tourism, voluntourism and community-based development, and the role of tourism in conservation. Specific topics of presentations included employing indigenous people in rainforest tourism in Guyana, creating a transfrontier network of peace parks in southern Africa, protecting the rivers of Fiji through a tourism and conservation partnership, preserving the cultural heritage of Kurdistan as the region establishes itself as a tourist destination, and creating voluntourism programs driven by local community needs rather than traveler desires.

During one of the sessions, a prominent sustainable tourism expert said, "We are well past the question of does sustainable tourism work. The question perhaps is how far we can take it." Judging by the ongoing projects discussed at the Summit, the possibilities for responsible tourism development are far from exhausted.

Over the next several months, Crossing Time Zones will feature reports about issues and participants from the Summit, including news about ongoing developments as well as interviews with travel experts and responsible tour operators.

Health care through microfinance

Three of the most respected nonprofit organizations in the fields of microfinance and health have announced a joint initiative to address health issues in Latin America through a microfinance model. Microfinance organizations Pro Mujer and Global Partnerships are joining with the leading global health organization PATH in an effort to improve access to essential, low-cost preventive and primary health care. The initiative aims to break the cycle of poverty and poor health that affects many communities in Latin America and elsewhere.

Based in New York, Pro Mujer focuses on development and microfinance programs for poor women in Latin America. Seattle-based Global Partnerships also supports microfinance and other poverty-reduction programs in Latin America. PATH, also headquartered in Seattle, works to create solutions to health care problems in communities throughout the world.

Over the course of the next year, the three organizations will work together to create and launch a financially sustainable health program for Pro Mujer in Nicaragua. The initiative will build on Pro Mujer's history of helping poor women in Latin America improve their income and the lives of their families through an integrated package of financial services, training, and health care. The ultimate goal is to create a model that can be replicated elsewhere.

“Pro Mujer has 20 years of experience providing high-quality, low-cost healthcare and preventive health education," said Rosario Pérez, CEO of Pro Mujer. "Collaborating with Global Partnerships and PATH will enable us to do so with greater focus, higher impact, and lower costs, with the goal of tackling the health care problems that contribute most to poverty and pose the greatest danger to women and their children.” 

Global Partnerships will provide overall leadership for the initiative. “Poverty and poor health are inextricably linked, and the solutions are as well,” said President and CEO Rick Beckett. “One of the strategic challenges facing the microfinance industry is the need to develop fully sustainable solutions that address multiple facets of poverty. This collaboration with Pro Mujer and PATH allows us to bring together microfinance experience, global health expertise and rigorous economic discipline to advance the field for the benefit of people living in poverty.”

During the initial phase of the microfinance-health initiative, PATH will conduct an assessment to identify priority health concerns and develop appropriate strategies for addressing them through microcredit services. Pro Mujer will test the strategies in a follow-up pilot project. The experiences garnered in the pilot project will form the basis for a resource guide for defining an integrated health strategy for microfinance institutions that can be replicated in other markets.

“We will be looking at a range of health solutions—largely preventive and primary care—that are affordable, sustainable, and appropriate to Pro Mujer’s client base and infrastructure,” said Chris Elias, president and CEO of PATH.