This Christmas one travel company is giving a gift to its customers and the environment.

Sustainable tour operators Undiscovered Mountains are planting a tree for every booking made with them in the month of December.

The multi-activity holiday specialists have a strong commitment to sustainable tourism and are making the most of the festive season as an opportunity to encourage holidaymakers to be eco-friendly and responsible travellers.

The Alps-based company's Plant a Tree for Christmas scheme is a festive launch for the company's new carbon offsetting programme in collaboration with social enterprise Mossy Earth, which allows travellers to off-set the environmental impact of their travel.

One tree would offset the carbon cost of an average European flight for one person.

The new carbon offsetting programme will normally see customers given the option to pay €9.99 to plant a tree when making their booking, but as a special festive launch for the new venture Undiscovered Mountains are covering the cost of planting a tree for every booking made through the month of December.

Sally Guillaume, Owner and Director of Undiscovered Mountains says:

“Sustainable tourism is at the heart of what we do year-round. At Undiscovered Mountains we actively promote eco-friendly travel and we are passionate about launching our carbon offsetting scheme to compensate for the inevitable environmental impact that travel has. We are very excited to launch the scheme with our Plant a Tree for Christmas offer and we can't wait to see our forest grow.”

Undiscovered Mountains have a specially allocated area within the Mossy Earth forest in Portugal. Those who sign up to plant a tree will receive a photograph of their tree as well as GPS co-ordinates so the tree can be located on the interactive forest map on the Undiscovered Mountains website, or even visited in person.

The Plant a Tree for Christmas offer is available for one tree per booking for every booking made through 1st-31st December 2017.

A group of students in Oldbury have been selected as special representatives at their Academy – after putting their names on a ballot paper in a special election.

Twenty students were elected as Excellence Leaders during an election at the Q3 Academy Langley

The students put their names and “manifestos” forward in a new move to elect representatives who will pass on the views of other students to Academy bosses.

Councillor Steve Trow, cabinet member for core council services, said: “I was very pleased to get along to Q3 to meet students who have got involved with democracy at this young age and to present badges to the winning candidates.

“I also wanted to congratulate the other young people who put themselves forward and were not successful. I am sure that the winning candidates will enjoy representing the views of the students.

"This early introduction to the democratic process may help to create some budding politicians at Q3 Academy Langley."

The election process was supported by Sandwell Council’s elections participation officer Surinder Singh.

Mr Peter Lee, the Academy’s Head of School, said:“Twenty students from Year 7 and 8 were successful and they will meet regularly and represent the student body views to the Academy.

“They will be in charge of various initiatives during the year, including matters of the environment and local community.

“They will also support our Head Boy and Head Girl who were elected last year in various Academy events, including for example the New Intake Evening.”

Mr Lee said the democracy initiative had been very interesting, with all students in Year 7 and 8 being able to put themselves forward for election.

“Voting took place, using real-life ballot boxes, after the applications were vetted with candidates pitching their manifestos to their peers.” he said.  Q3 Academy Langley, built on the former Langley High School site on Moat Road in Oldbury, opened its doors to the first pupils in September 2016.

Currently the school has nearly 400 students in years seven and eight and will eventually accommodate 1,500 students.

Building work continues on-site and is due to be completed by September 2019.

CaminoWays.com are pleased to announce Mossy Earth as the recipients of the Greenlife Fund. Sticking with our commitment to sustainable and inspirational projects we are thrilled to be supporting the Native Oak Reforestation project in Northern Portugal.

Following the devastating wildfires in Portugal earlier this year this is just the type of project assist with our fund. For this inspiring project we aim to support the reforestation of areas affected by the wild fires that have destroyed vegetation and wildlife habitats in regions surrounding the Camino routes.

This year alone the Portuguese wildfires are understood to have been responsible for over 100 deaths and countless destruction of the beautiful landscapes across Northern Portugal. The fires destroyed about 29,000 hectares of land and the hope is that we can all help to prevent such devastating events in the future.

To start this initiative we have planted one tree per staff member in Northern Portugal where Mossy Earth have secured a site. We are inviting Camino walkers from around the world to support this fantastic project. For every tree bought Mossy Earth will provide exclusive GPS coordinates of the area where the trees are planted and regular updates on the forest.

Katarina Line, winner of the “Best Croatian DMC” award, announced that its 2017 fundraising drive to help the Down Syndrome Associations of Dubrovnik and Rijeka in Croatia raised nearly $35,000. As part of the drive, launched early in the year, the company donated one Euro – approximately one U.S. dollar – for every guest who booked a cruise with them in 2017. The contribution reflects the nearly 30,000 passengers who booked with Katarina Line this season – a record for the company as it continues to expand its presence in North America and Europe.

Katarina Line presented checks of equal value – approximately $17,500 each – to the two Down syndrome centers in Dubrovnik and Rijeka in a special ceremony recently. The money will help to improve the quality of life for people with Down syndrome, providing them with improved medical care, education and employment.

“Down syndrome affects nearly one in 700 births of all races and nationalities, so we all probably know someone who has been impacted by it,” said Daniel Hauptfeld, marketing director for Katarina Line. “We felt that contributing to this worthy cause was one of the best ways for our company to celebrate 25 years of success in business.”

Hauptfeld noted that customers, partners and friends are still contributing to the drive. Therefore, the additional funds will be presented to the Down syndrome associations during the company's 25th anniversary celebrations in Opatija on November 25th.

Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre has become one in only a handful of theatres across the UK to be awarded Theatre of Sanctuary status, recognising its commitment to becoming a welcoming and safe place.

The award was presented to the Theatre during an event to mark Universal Children’s Day on Tues 21 Nov, which featured a showcase of music, artwork and live performances by Syrian Refugees in collaboration with the Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre in partnership with The Children’s Society and Positive Youth Foundation.

Dr. Seyedeh F. Naseriniaki, a member of the City of Sanctuary assessment panel, and Reem Doukmak, Community Participation Officer at Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre and President of Student Action For Refugees, presented the award which was accepted by the Belgrade’s former General Manager Claire Simpson.

In order to achieve this status as a Theatre of Sanctuary, the Belgrade has demonstrated to a visiting panel its ability to raise awareness of what it means to be a person seeking sanctuary and take action to support the inclusion of sanctuary seekers and refugees in its activities.

Earlier this year, the theatre held an event to mark Refugee Week 2017, which included a panel discussion on what it means to be a place of sanctuary for refugees and asylum seekers, involving leading figures from organisations working with refugees in Coventry and beyond. Throughout the week, the theatre also hosted a free exhibition of community artwork based on the themes of home, belonging and identity.

The Belgrade’s Associate Director, Justine Themen said, “We are delighted to have been awarded the status of Theatre of Sanctuary. The Belgrade prides itself on welcoming and building strong relationships with the diverse communities in the city – whether as audiences, participants or artists. We recognise that a city is a continuously evolving place, and that we need to be responsive to change within it. Whilst continuing to build our longer term relationships with existing communities, we want to open our doors to newly-arriving communities to share their stories and build understanding. We look forward to the challenges and inspiration that come with this. A theatre is a space for dialogue within the city and celebrating both our differences and our shared humanity.”

Together with the Community Participation Officer at the Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre, the Belgrade Theatre will be co-designing a short pilot programme of four workshops for newly arrived women. The workshops will use drama to build confidence and language skills. If the work is found to have significant impact, the partners will work to explore the possibilities of rolling out a longer programme.

Universal Children’s Day, organised internationally by the United Nations and UNICEF, encourages people around the world to come together to help fight for children’s rights, campaign for better welfare and help them fulfil their potential.

An academic from Birmingham City University has been selected by the Thai government to lead a team of 60 artists from around the world, as part of a major contemporary art exhibition opening in Thailand next year.

Professor Jiang Jiehong, Head of Research at Birmingham School of Art will curate the inaugural Thailand Biennale, which will exhibit various works under the theme ‘Edge of the Wonderland’.

As the foremost international exhibition of contemporary art in Thailand, the Biennale is being supported by the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture (OCAC), part of the Ministry of Culture, which is based in Bangkok. As a national initiative of contemporary art, the institution behind the Bienniale will choose different cities and sites in Thailand for each edition.

Unlike conventional art museum exhibitions, the Thailand Biennale will be staged outdoor and organisers have selected the country’s Krabi Province for the inaugural exhibition.

Located on the west coast of the southern part of the country, the area is one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations and is known as ‘the emerald of the Andaman Sea’. Its unique natural beauty will provide opportunities for artists to develop site-specific work at a range of outdoor locations, and to turn beaches, streams, waterfalls, caves, cliffs and rainforests into art spaces.

Discussing the theme of the Biennale, Professor Jiang Jiehong, Birmingham City University, said:

“Different versions of a ‘wonderland’ derive from different cultures. In the West, we have learnt the renowned English story of Alice’s adventures, where the young girl falls through a rabbit hole into a world of fantasy. This land connects to our everyday reality and yet, it is somehow hidden and can only be visited through dreams and imaginary journeys.

“In the East, for example, a compilation of geographical and cultural accounts are the origins of Chinese mythology and first appeared in the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’, or ‘Shan Hai Jing’, in the fourth century BCE. Furthermore, in South Asia, surrounding the base of Mount Meru in Hindu mythology, the legendary Himmapan Forest is believed to be the home of many supernatural beings, which are blessed under the heavens, invisible to the human eye and inaccessible by mortals.”

In this curatorial project the wonderland will be revisited from its very edge. The term ‘edge’ included in the title has three signifiers. First, it is simply geographically indicative. Similar to other provinces of Thailand on the west coast, Krabi – and the venues of the Thailand Biennale in particular – are situated on the coastline and can be seen as part of the edge of either the mainland or the Andaman Sea. It is the start and at the same time, the end of a territory, from which it belongs and departs.

Secondly, edge has its own historical and cultural significance in the region, since two ancient swords (‘krabi’ in Thai) were unearthed in the late 19th century, and are seen sacred above all natural existence.

The third signifier will explore that, conceptually, in the context of wonderland, edge is precisely the borderline between in and out. It is a pivotal point; like the rabbit hole in Alice’s adventure, between reality and fiction, the existent and the imagined, the material and the spiritual, the experienced and the unworldly, and ultimately, the known and the unknown.

Under Professor Jiang’s leadership, the inaugural biennale in Thailand aims to engender a new way of thinking, stimulating dialogues and conflicts at a point when the global meets the local, and invites all to take a creative journey through art, nature, tourism or everyday life, starting from the ‘Edge of the Wonderland’.

Professor Jiang was annoaunced as the curator of the inaugural Thailand Biennale at its launch, which took place at West Bund Art Center in Shanghai, China on Friday 10 November.