Green Channel

Good news for turtles: people in the Caribbean are worried about you. The area is home to six species of endangered sea turtle, and populations throughout the Caribbean are declining rapidly. Turtles are sensitive to light, movement and noise while they are ashore nesting. The construction of beachfront hotels often causes erosion of beaches and creates obstacles and disruption that put the nesting turtles out of sorts for laying eggs.

But the Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network is championing the cause of turtles and encouraging hotels to take action to minimise the impact of tourists on nesting beaches. The aptly named Turtle Beach Hotel in Tobago has modified its lighting to reduce unhappy effects on the turtles and their hatchlings, has employed guards to ensure beach etiquette during turtle watches, and is removing all beach furniture, jet skis and boats from the beaches at night to give the turtles a free run.

Bad news for Bushmen in the Kalahari desert: your home is nowhere near as safe as a turtle's. The Bushmen - the original inhabitants of southern Africa - are living in extreme poverty after being removed by the Botswanan government from their last refuge, the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The government maintains that the Khwe settlements in the reserve are incompatible with management and conservation of wildlife and future tourism development. Large areas have been set aside as tourism zones, and wildlife protection is given priority. The Bushmen have asked to be involved in tourism, but there are no signs that they will be.

Ironically, the reserve was set up in the 1960s as a safe haven for the Bushmen and the animals they hunted, and is one of the largest protected areas in Africa. Until last year, around 1,000 people lived there permanently and around 3,000 had customary land and resource rights. Now only about 200 remain and they are fighting for their indigenous rights to the land.

Survival International is fighting the Bushmen's corner in European political circles. An international outcry led to the Botswanan government shelving its plans to move the Bushmen two years ago, when even Prince Charles and Norman Tebbit took up their cause. Survival International hopes to raise enough support to deter the Botswanan government from evicting the remaining Bushmen and for the expelled Bushmen to be allowed to return.