By Shams Uddin, Chitral Association for Mountain Area Tourism (CAMAT)

Booni is a village 80 kilometers to the north of Chitral town. Just like the rest of the villages in the Hindu Kush region, Booni is a fan-shaped landmass formed by glacial deposit at the mouth of what is called ‘Booni Gol’ or the stream of Booni, which cultivates the tracts of crops, vegetables, fruit bearing apple, pear and grape trees, and so on. On the afternoon of July 26th, 2010, a huge flash flood that originated from Booni Zom glacier smashed road networks, telephone and water supply lines, depriving the local communities of the basic life amenities.

In October 2009, WildChina’s educational travel department launched a new sustainable tourism initiative to improve local practices and standards of living in rural southwest China. This initiative involved organizing service learning projects for student groups in which they helped villages in Sichuan province, still recovering from the devastating May 2008 earthquake, build eco-friendly, waterless toilets.

Thai Ecotourism and Adventure Travel Association leads this project to bring first and innovative of Thailand Green Routes which all major supply chain and tourist destination will conform to sustainable standards to the market.CSR-MAP project bring good impact to Thailand sustainable tourism industry. Thailand benefits immensely from its position as a leading holiday destination for European tourists. However, Thai tourism actors agree that to maintain this position in the long-term, the industry must work to reduce the negative impacts of tourism on the environment and society.

Raw Wildlife Encounters was born out Jessica McKelson’s passion for, and dedication to the conservation of Indonesia. One of the earth’s few remaining biodiversity hotspots, Tangkahan is home to some of the world’s most endangered wildlife including Sumatran Tigers, Orang-utans, Asia Rhinos and Asian Elephants. The region is perched on the edge of Gunung Leuser National Park, an area that has been disseminated by illegal logging for timber and to make way for oil palm plantations.

Wild Asia’s Responsible Tourism Awards is an annual award that aims to recognize tourism businesses – from small community based projects to large resorts – that are making significant contributions to sustainable tourism. By sharing best practices of sustainable tourism seen among operators in Asia, the annual awards demonstrate how responsible tourism can be an effective tourism strategy that’s good for communities, the environment and businesses.

Help Tourism have been at the vanguard of sustainable tourism initiatives in North East India for well over a decade. They have developed a wide variety of adventure and activity programs, including trekking in the Himalayas, tiger, rhino and bird spotting in the National Parks and Reserves networks, elephant safaris, jungle lodges, heritage and cultural tours in this fascinating and diverse region of India. Uniquely, all these programs are designed with specific sustainable development and conservation goals in mind.

By Alex Narracott, Managing Director, Much Better Adventures – Spiti Ecosphere is an endeavour to promote community-based ecotourism in the Spiti valley, a stunning high altitude desert region tucked away in the Trans-Himalayan belt of Himachal Pradesh. A passion for conservation, mountain travel and adventure brought together a collaboration of local community members and professionals from diverse backgrounds to offer a range of trekking, mountaineering, biking, rafting, cultural and spiritual adventures in this beautiful and remote corner of the Himalayas.

Born in a nearby village, Alee moved to Ton Kloy as a young man, and, for many years, supported his family by hunting wild animals. The forests surrounding Ton Kloy are renowned for rare plants, a great diversity of butterflies, and abundant wildlife. Over time, Alee began to understand that it was important “to protect the forest and keep wildlife in this area for people to see in the future.” While keeping a clear eye on the future, Alee is also addressing the pressing conservation problems of today.

Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme (MWSRP), as its name suggests, study whale sharks in the Republic of Maldives. However, that aspect of their work is merely the tip of the ice berg. The programme was created in 2006, when four British university graduates set off to the 1192-island archipelago on a pilot study in search of the whale shark, after learning from the dive industry (already well established in the Maldives) that there were a substantial number of whale sharks throughout the country but not one person was studying them.

The Jalore Wildlife Sanctuary, established in 2005 in a remote jungle area of granite hills, savanna and forest, is the first and only privately owned and operated wildlife sanctuary in India. The sanctuary’s mission is to balance the needs of locals and wildlife by combining conservation and ecotourism. The idea to create a new wildlife refuge in Jalore was first born out of discussions among a group of friends and family – Gajendra Singh Chouhan, a patron of the arts from Jodhpur, and his friends