Telemarkzone is an international nonprofit organization started in 1999, today being active in
knowlegde transfer and capacity building
touristic product development
networking
outreach and awareness raising
in sustainable (sport) tourism development, to improve environmental governance in emerging wilderness zones in the face of global environmental change.
We seek to find and develop alternative tourism practices that are more sustainable than current practies, which can exchange and substitute exisiting, conventional activities and programs that often cause huge environmental problems. We do not want to increase tourism quantitatively which would cause more environmental problems, in especial those of emissions from transportation. Our approach is that of incubating and stimulating real alternative practices that are sustainable - being more ecological, and still allow for social development and economic welfare. Telemarkzone fosters green business development in a qualitative way.
In particular, the Ski for Nature partnerships seek to foster sustainable, low impact snow based ecotourism to increase the economic viability and sustainability of ecotourism activties in these emerging wilderness tourism markets, for example in Kamchatka, Russia, or Svalbard, the Arctic archipelago of Norway. A goal is to foster sustainable tourism as a market driven tool to improve environmental governance in those emerging wilderness zones to replace current most harming activities and developments.
As the organizations' roots are based in the Telemark sport, a focus has been on snow and mountain related tourism. With the beginning of 2009 we are launching a new program in four season and summer related tourism, the Ride for Nature projects.
Telemarkzone is an international network of backcountry telemark skiers, ski instructors, mountain guides, scientists, photographers and cinematographers, as well as wind- and kitesurfers or mountainbikers who are dedicated to environmental stewardship related to social sport activities in the great outdoors, thereby connecting people and nature, researching, capacity building and networking in human-environment systems.
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