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...hoteliers such as Starwood's Brian McGuinness are on to you. Pulling up to a warehouse in an anonymous Hawthorne, N.Y., industrial park, McGuinness, head of Starwood's new line of hotels, Aloft, is eager to show off the full-scale model of the group's newest brand, a 136-room hotel with an average rate of $150 per night. Leading the way, McGuinness stops before a brightly lit entrance. A waterfall cascades down a wall, replete with the soothing sounds of a babbling brook, "to wash away troubles," he explains as he passes through the second set of doors...
Deputy forest conservator Raghuvir Singh Shekhawat, who took over the reins at Ranthambore in November 2005, says the park was "in chaos" when he arrived. Driven by demand for pelts--a single tiger skin in India was then worth about $1,200, a sixth of the price today but still more than the average annual income--poachers had laid siege to the park. Meanwhile, the proximity of villages, whose residents collected firewood and grazed cattle in the reserve, drove away the cats' natural prey and cramped their love life (tigers seem to mate successfully only when they feel secure...
...reverse the trend, local officials persuaded villagers to stay away from the tigers' turf in exchange for fresh water and cooking gas. Patrols were stepped up and better equipped, penalties for breaking the rules were increased, and some 60 camera traps were placed around the park. At the same time, forest officials won over the Mogiya community--a nomadic hunting tribe that had turned to poaching--with jobs, housing and schooling. In return, the Mogiya agreed to help authorities crack open poaching rings...
There have been changes higher up the chain of command too. In the past few months, New Delhi has promised an extra $153 million for tiger conservation, outlined a plan to move 200,000 people away from the edges of tiger parks and said it wants to expand tiger reserves. But with the conviction rate for poaching still pitifully low, saving tigers will often come down to better park management...
Another, often overlooked, factor is the simple matter of safety. Urban children should get at least one break in trying to stay healthy, since the greater density of city life makes it easier to walk to school, the park or just about anyplace else. But that advantage often evaporates in poorer neighborhoods, where recreational areas can be few and walking anywhere is perceived to be dangerous. Xuemei Zhu, a doctoral student at Texas A&M University, surveyed the neighborhoods of Austin and found that even in dense communities, parents often refused to allow kids to walk to school, fearing they...