Jeremy Torr

Coping With Corona: Raja Ampat Eco Resort

Many eco-resorts have been hit particularly hard by the recent pandemic. Relying heavily on incoming tourists, often situated in remote areas with relatively limited connectivity and supply chains, many have been left out on a limb. One dive resort in West Papua has taken the pandemic as an opportunity to relook its overall approach to sustainability.

Passions in Cairns: Coral Reef Planters

Despite having to close temporarily due to the coronavirus pandemic, Cairns-based diving outfit Passions of Paradise couldn’t stop thinking about their local reef even though they had no customers. So they did what they do best: helped look after Mother Nature. They teamed up with some reef scientists and got stuck into work on a new coral reef nursery.

The Lisbon Experiment: Making Cities Social Post-COVID-19

Many cities across the globe have banned AirBnB to avoid hollowed-out city centres and displaced local residents. Covid 19 has changed all that, with many cities seeing hundreds of short term rental properties lying unused. Fernando Medina, mayor of Lisbon in Portugal, has come up with an innovative suggestion for remedying both problems at once. He also plans to use the re-livening of the city centre to springboard greening initiatives including adding cycle lanes, creating green areas and public spaces to give people more places to socialise and exercise.

Sustaining Culture: The Kumano Kodō

The Kumano Kodō mountain paths have been trodden for over 1000 years, and are one of only two pilgrimage routes worldwide that have been awarded UNESCO World Heritage status. Today, the mountain trails are helping to sustain and renew communities that have been clinging on to survival for the last few decades.

Thung Dap – Rebuilding with Sustainable Tourism

When a subsea earthquake generated a massive tsunami in 2004, thousands lost their lives and tens of thousands lost their livelihoods along the Khao Lak coast of Thailand. But today, sustainable tourism is well on the way to replacing – and enhancing – the lifestyles of some of the local people