CafeLitt 89: Ecotourism in Iran

Fri 12 Sep 2008, 14:49, by , at Cafe SABA: 5124 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montreal, QC (Map)

Subject: Ecotourism in Iran
Date: Thursday 18th Sept. , 20:00
Presented by: Negar Ghadimi
Place: Cafe Culturel SABA, 5124 Sherbrook Ouest, Montreal, QC
Metro: Vendome
Bus: 24 directly from Down town
17 Décarie, 37 Jolicoeur, 90 Saint-Jacques,102 Somerled, 104 Cavendish, 105 Sherbrooke, 124 Victoria

According to The International Ecotourism Society, beginning in 1990s, ecotourism has been growing 20% - 34% per year in the world. In 2004, ecotourism and nature tourism were growing globally three times faster than the tourism industry as a whole. This new industry has also affected Iran and made government and private businesses to take advantage of this opportunity. Because of climate variety and considerable biodiversity, Iran has a good potential for ecotourism development; however, since the main challenge of ecotourism is its sustainability there is a fear among people who are trying to conserve Iran's nature about possible negative impacts of ecotourism on Iran's environment if it is executed without complete respect to accepted principles and policies. If conducted in a true way, ecotourism can be a powerful tool to save small communities cultures, shrinking ecosystems and their wildlife.

About us

CaféLitt is not a place; it is a gathering of minds. We are a group of mostly Persian young students, scholars and professionals who gather every Thursday evening around 19h00 to discuss various subjects and share different ideas, ranging vastly from history to science, from literature to fine arts. We started these gatherings on Jan 17th, 2006 with 5 people and have reached an average weekly audience of about 40 people. Each week, one of us takes the responsibility of presenting a topic for about an hour in a subject s/he is intimately familiar with or has an expertise in. Afterwards, the evening turns into a discussion forum and all members of the audience will have an opportunity to ask their question(s) and share their points of view.

Some new and exciting ideas were born out of CaféLitt sessions. We have started a series of monthly meetings called CaféCinema during which a movie is presented and discussed in some detail afterward. This year's program of CaféCinema revolves around the history of Iranian cinema. Some Cinema students hold these sessions (mainly conducted in English) on the last Sunday of each month.

Likewise, CaféLitt BookClub is an activity where people who like books decide to read a book each month and discuss it during a cozy Café session on the second Sunday of every month.

CaféTheatre is a series of semi-rehearsed sessions in which we select a play, divide the roles among different people and read the play from the text in front of an audience. Similar to other CaféLitt sessions, each CaféTheatre session will end with a discussion of that day's play.  

CaféScience and CaféPhilo are our plans for near future. The purpose of CaféScience is to provide a forum for the public discussion and understanding of all scientific findings and ideas, with an emphasis on new, interesting and publicly relevant topics. During CaféPhilo sessions, we will talk about philosophy, its history and all its related aspects.

CaféLitt is pen to all comments, suggestion and new ideas. CaféLitt provides an unparalleled opportunity for learning about culture, science and philosophy in a relaxed and friendly environment, and for sharing your knowledge and expertise with like-minded members of your community.

CafeLitt is a nonpartisan, nonreligious and nonpolitical entity.
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