By Ethan Gelber, whl.travel – About 190 kilometres south of Tirana, Albania, between Dhërmi and Himara (Himarë) in the hills above the coast, the small town of Vuno isn’t on most tourist radar. Not, that is, unless they’re headed two kilometres away to two of the Albanian Riviera’s most beautiful waterside retreats: the Jal and Gjipe beaches. Although not entirely devoid of tourist services – there are a few family-run restaurants and guesthouses at Jal – they are still blissfully unspoiled by mass tourism.

“To become familiar with Parque Natural da Madeira means valuing it and conserving it better! The area of Parque Natural da Madeira, which covers approximately two-thirds of the territory of the Island of Madeira, is protected by legal mechanisms and concrete measures. It also enjoys the dedicated actions of private and public services and, in particular, counts on the determination of Madeiran citizens to preserve and hold it in high esteem.” – Manuel Antonio Rodrigues Correia, Madeira Regional Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources

(This article was first published by our friends at whl.travel, who have agreed to its republication here.) The port city of Marmaris, set in southwest Turkey, is one of many of the country’s summer hotspots. Although little remains of the quiet fishing village that survived until a building boom in the 1980s, further down the Datça Peninsula is a place that has little to do with the hubbub of the resort city, a place where the community has come together in opposition to mass-tourism gigantism and instead opted to take a more holistic approach.

Costa Rica is a small biologically diverse country in Central America, hosting 6% of all the species of flora and fauna on the planet in an area about the size of West Virginia in the USA. Costa Rica has been the global leader in the areas of conservation and sustainable tourism. Throughout its history, Costa Rica has demonstrated its progressive efforts to promote peace, conserve the environment, and strengthen the cultural identity of the Costa Rican through responsibly managed tourism development.

Ruby Falls (Chattanooga, Tennessee), America’s deepest commercial cave and most-visited underground waterfall, receives over 400,000 visitors annually. This 80-year-old natural attraction with a 1928 Irish style castle, listed in the National Register for Historic Places, has in recent years been transformed into a more sustainable business operation with progressive energy-saving strategies, waste reduction efforts, and sustainable land use initiatives – and a Green Globe International seal to testify to the successful implementation of these sustainability efforts.

By Shams Uddin, Chitral Association for Mountain Area Tourism (CAMAT) – Chitral, in the extreme north of Pakistan, is home to 40,000 people, settled in more than 300 small villages boasting great cultural and natural diversity. These villages offer unique opportunities highlighting Indigenous arts, crafts and music, traditional sports, cuisine, and the fascinating local way of life. CAMAT has been promoting community-based, culturally-rooted and environmentally-friendly tourism in Chitral for the last one and a half decade.

Virginia Beach, the most populous city in the state of Virginia, was recently featured on Mother Nature Network (MNN), highlighting the various environmental efforts by the city – from “Virginia Green Travel Month,” which was started this year by Governor Tim Kaine, to the xeriscaping garden on “Mount Trashmore.” We asked Pamela Lingle, Communications Manager of Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) for more inside scoop on what the destination is doing to attract lovers of the environment and what’s in store for Virginia Green initiatives.

By Ian MacWilliam, Communications Officer, Aga Khan Development Network – Tourism in Afghanistan? It’s not what you expect from this remote and beautiful, but troubled Central Asian nation. Most media reports on Afghanistan talk of war and bloodshed, insurgents and explosive devices. What they rarely report is that most of the northern half of the country is in fact quite peaceful and that reconstruction and development are moving forward. A trickle of adventurous tourists is already arriving in Afghanistan, reminding Afghans of the heady days of the 1960s and 1970s

As disparate as the subjects of tourism and biophilia would seem, it is apparent that in my life and countless others, they are indeed closely connected. Biophilia is a term created by my environmental hero, Edward O. Wilson, to describe the innate affinity, fascination, and awe that we humans have for other species. Judging from the rates that we visit our zoos and wildlife parks, it must be a common affliction. Yet today, many of us spend our vacations traveling to natural environments not knowing the effect tourism has on the habitats of the very species we set out to see.

Science and conservation groups around the world are struggling to keep up with the rate of climate change and it’s effects on the globe. These groups also struggle with budget limitations effecting the time and range of survey work in the field. The iEco-Reporter Program, using eco-tour operators and the general public, offers one additional tool to assist them in extending their research. At the same time, it engages and educates the public in this much needed work and the need for sustainability, conservation and preservation.