Paul Miles
After a science degree, an abandoned PhD, some voluntary work in Peru and four years in Bristol working in a fair-trade co-operative, selling crafts and music from around the world, I moved to Solomon Islands in the South Pacific where I lived for five years. In between learning to scuba dive and paddle dugout canoes, I worked on community ecotourism with WWF and other NGOs. One village tourism project was shortlisted for a Tourism for Tomorrow award.
Ten years ago, I returned to the UK and combined my interests and experience in photography, writing, travel and development into the perfect job – contributing stories and pictures to newspapers and magazines, mostly on travel, especially ecotourism and pro-poor tourism. In the early days, I made the South Pacific my specialist area. I was pleased to win a couple of awards – one for photography, one for writing.
Now I contribute to an odd assortment of outlets including Financial Times, Conde Nast Traveller and The Ecologist. Until recently I’d persuaded myself that the benefits of tourism to local communities and protected areas outweighs the environmental damage from flying but as evidence mounts and climate change wreaks havoc faster than predicted, I’m not so sure so. I no longer promote flying, by, for instance, accepting invitations to join tourism industry press trips that include free flights.
I currently live in the Midlands and hope soon to make the inland waterways my home, by living on a narrowboat. You can read more about that and other aspects of my life on my blog http://milesawayagain.blogspot.com/ but I am a bit of a Luddite when it comes to modern technology and communicating. Give me pen and paper, a poem and an idle moment in the sun any day. Yes, as Gandhi said: “there’s more to life than increasing its speed”
Recent trips have included a visit to the Bass Rock gannet colony in the Firth of Forth, interRailing around Europe and a visit to the Cree in Alberta to do a story about the devastating impact of tar sands mining.
