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Realizing that they can accomplish much
more toward developing better and more ecotourism on Russia's
Kamchatka Peninsula, a number of Kamchatka tour operators,
guides, NGOs, and travel agents have joined forces to found
the Kamchatka Ecotourism Society (KES). KES is open to ecotourism
enthusiasts from 16 years old on up. The goal of KES is
development of sustainable ecotourism on Kamchatka, a unique
area of the Russian Far East. The Society encourages the
socio-economic development of Kamchatka through rational
use of tourism resources, especially our special protected
territories. As well the organization seeks to preserve
Kamchatka's natural and cultural heritage through responsible
tourism. The emphasis of the organization is on responsible
recreation by locals and Russians as well as by the growing
numbers of non-Russian tourists.
KES President Yelena Avramenko was recently
in the United States under a SABIT sponsored program in
"Ecotourism" and together with KES members is currently
creating a strategic plan for developing this organization.
Key goals in the near future are starting regular training
seminars in ecotourism, and creation of criteria for certification
of Kamchatka's best ecotours under our own quality label.
For this KES has relied heavily on resources
and inspiration provided by the SMART project and Sweden's
Nature's Best quality label criteria.
For more information about KES contact either
Vice President Martha Madsen (explorekam@elizovo.ru)
or Secretary Tatiana Oborskaya at oborskaya@unkam.ru.
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