PROGRESS IN UK
The article 'Death of a Porter' has now been published in not only High and Summit magazines but also in The Great Outdoors and in Doug Scott's publication Trek Tidings. News of the IPPG has also been spread by way of two lectures given by Paul Deegan on Himalayan Trekking. These two lectures took place in the Reading and London branches of the 'Cotswold' outdoors store, and in the middle of each one Paul very kindly allowed me to speak specifically about the IPPG and MRF.
I hope that by now our newsletter has been spread far and wide. Over 150 people received copies at the lectures and the magazine articles continue to generate letters of interest in whose reply a copy of the newsletter is always included.
Here in Britain awareness of the work of the IPPG is undoubtedly increasing. A small fund is also slowly building up from occasional donations. I would like to thank all those who have donated but especially Harvey Lloyd and the Gorphwysfa Club who very kindly donated £200 to the IPPG, which they had raised through a sponsored trek in Nepal.
Edward Cartwright, UK rep
Doug Scott of UK gave IPPG a mention in his magazine "Trek Tidings" and gives everyone a good example of sustainable trekking by making his company into a charity, and donating much of his profit to local Himalayan projects.
FROM NEW ZEALAND
Jamie McGuinness, IPPG's representative, is completing a proposal for 'Enhancing Mountaineering Tourism in Nepal'.
Already there are 18 mountai-neering peaks called the 'Trekking Peaks', for which there is the minimum of red tape. These have been very successful. Basically making mountaineering on a broad range of peaks cheaper will increase mountaineering revenue. Jamie continues to promote porter issues on his itineraries in the mountains.
FROM SWITZERLAND
Urs Efti, IPPG Swiss rep, is an executive member of the Swiss Society of Mountain Medicine. Urs reports on his efforts to establish awareness of another part of high altitude medicine, namely porter safety by educating trip leaders from travel agents, establishing a course for members of the Swiss Alpine Club in trekking- and expedition medicine and culture of porters safety for non-doctors. Urs says that it takes a lot of time to convince people!
FROM NEPAL
Mr Prakash Adhikari, IPPG representative in Nepal, reports that the porters issue was raised at the Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA) conference last month. There was definitively an interest from the participants (trekking companies and representatives from various governmental and non-governmental organizations). IPPG was also mentioned, and its newsletter distributed, during the sustainable tourism workshop organized by ACAP and KEEP.
