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	<title>California Vagabond</title>
	<link>http://www.californiavagabond.com</link>
	<description>The business of eco travel</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:00:06 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Experience His Yosemite: Retiring Superintendent Tollefson</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Park Superintendent Mike Tollefson began “Experience Your Yosemite” when he first arrived at the national park in 2003, and today, Halloween, is his last program before retiring at the end of January 2009.
“This is our largest group in the six years,” he tells the sixty participants who hail from the park’s neighboring gateway communities. “We [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.californiavagabond.com/news/experience-his-yosemite</link>
			</item>
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		<title>Climate Plan Aims to Cut California&#8217;s Greenhouse Gases</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The California Air Resources Board presented its plan to reduce the state&#8217;s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020 at a workshop in San Jose on August 8, 2008. The audience of about 100 came to offer comments on the AB 32 draft scoping plan, designed to implement the California Global Warming [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.californiavagabond.com/news/climate-plan</link>
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		<title>California&#8217;s Climate Change Plan Gets Public Airing</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It was standing-room only at the Santa Clara County auditorium on August 8, 2008, when representatives from the California Air Resources Board opened the public hearing on the state&#8217;s plan to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. The parking lot outside the auditorium was also full, since the board [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.californiavagabond.com/news/climate-plan-comments</link>
			</item>
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		<title>Tourism Responds to Climate Change</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The UN World Tourism Organization is leading a major initiative, dubbed, &#8220;Tourism: Responding to the Challenge of Climate Change.&#8221; The year-long campaign, which will kick off on September 27, 2008, World Tourism Day, will encourage travel-related businesses, non-governmental organizations, NGOs, and governmental agencies to take measures to reduce the industry&#8217;s greenhouse gas emissions and adapt [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.californiavagabond.com/resources/tourism-and-climate-change</link>
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		<title>Geotourism, the Successor to Eco Tourism</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The National Geographic Society&#8211;publisher of National Geographic Magazine, National Geographic Traveler and National Geographic Adventure&#8211;formed the Center for Sustainable Destinations with the mission &#8220;to protecting all the world&#8217;s distinctive places through wisely managed tourism and enlightened destination stewardship.&#8221;
The center coined the term &#8220;geotourism&#8221; to describe this market niche, and defines it as:
&#8220;Tourism that sustains or [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.californiavagabond.com/resources/geotourism</link>
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		<title>California Land Trusts</title>
		<description><![CDATA[There are dozens of conservancies and land trusts in California that work to preserve sensitive natural areas, farmlands and ranchlands, water sheds, and notable landmarks. Trusts use a number of strategies to provide this protection&#8211;from outright acquisition of property to the purchase of a conservation easement, which prevents development on the land.
Land trusts play an [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.californiavagabond.com/resources/land-trusts</link>
			</item>
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		<title>Business Essentials for Ecolodges</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The International Finance Corporation&#8217;s 2004 report, &#8220;Ecolodges: Exploring Opportunities for Sustainable Business, summarized its findings, identifying the business essentials for ecolodge operators.
&#8220;Although there is no single magic formula for a profitable ecolodge, the most successful share a number of key characteristics. Ideally, an ecolodge should:


Be no more than one hour from a local airport that [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.californiavagabond.com/research/ecolodge-essentials</link>
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		<title>Framework for Developing an Ecolodge</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The International Finance Corporation study, &#8220;Ecolodges: Exploring Opportunities for Sustainable Business,&#8221; provides a comprehensive framework for developing and operating an ecolodge, based on the triple bottom line&#8211;ecological, economic and socio-cultural sustainability. The framework considers three phases of ecolodge development&#8211;pre-construction, construction, and operation&#8211;in its analysis. The framework published below is based on the IFC study, but [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.californiavagabond.com/research/ecolodge-framework</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>The Business of Ecolodges</title>
		<description><![CDATA[There is no hard and fast definition of an &#8220;ecolodge.&#8221; Like the term eco tourism, there are some generally accepted principles that ecolodges incorporate into their design and operation.

Ecolodges are designed to be in harmony with their surrounding environment; and they incorporate &#8220;ecologically-friendly&#8221; management practices, adhering to the triple bottom line&#8211;economic, social and environmental sustainability;
They [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.californiavagabond.com/research/ecolodge-biz</link>
			</item>
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		<title>$17 Million in Grants for Sierra Nevada</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Sierra Nevada Conservancy will distribute another $17 million in fiscal year 2009, to projects designed to protect or restore &#8220;rivers, lakes and streams, their watersheds and associated land, water and other natural resources.&#8221; The money was authorized by California voters in 2006 when they passed Proposition 84, the Clean Water, Parks and Coastal Protection [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.californiavagabond.com/news/sierra-nevada-grants</link>
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