In 2008, Rios Tropicales, led by co-founder Rafael Gallo, moved into international sustainable community development collaboration by winning a South-South grant for a rural tourism project between Bhutan and Costa Rica. Rios Tropicales has historically kept a low profile about its sustainable tourism practices and philosophy within its company operations and across its local Costa Rican communities.

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.

In India as in most other places in the world, indigenous communities often exist on the fringe of society and their socio-political situation is complex. It is important for us to provide our guests with accurate and up-to-date information. Inevitably we have more information than can be easily digested on one holiday experience; our greatest challenge is to summarise centuries of history and evolution into bite size pieces! A common assumption our travellers make is that all indigenous communities share the same customs and costumes.

Danielle Weiss, Planeterra Foundation – My first volunteer experience was a two-month solo trip to the Middle East when I was 19 where I divided my time between volunteering on a kibbutz and travelling throughout Israel and Egypt. This first experience enabled me to make lasting friendships with local people, gain an in-depth knowledge of their daily life, and build the confidence to know that I could travel alone as a single woman.

By Nina Fogelman – Discovering opportunities to help develop “Rural Living Tourism” in Peru has become a real passion for me. My visit in September 2007 led me to a community in the Lake Titicaca area that truly captured my heart. I feel blessed to be able to offer opportunities to a segment of Peru’s tourists who wish to participate in unique and rewarding activities, and return to Peru, to my heart of hearts. The local residents of a village called Atuncolla (pronounced atoon coya) are the descendants of the Qolla Kingdom in the Andean highland region.

(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.

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.

Community-based ecotourism has been facilitated in Giao Xuan by NGOs, such as Volunteers for Peace in Vietnam (VPV) and the Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (MCD), which aim to reduce the strain on the local natural resources. They do this by promoting hospitality as an alternative income to destructive fishing and aquaculture techniques which have damaged the nearby national park. The money paid to the host family stays in the community and does not go to any sort of global corporation.

We were the five women who had traveled to Senegal with Women Travel for Peace. Our goal: to fund and help construct a sturdy, concrete well for the women’s farming collective. While this project had begun several months before our arrival with village meetings and discussion, on this, our last day in the village, we were all ready to inaugurate and celebrate our much needed contribution. Women Travel for Peace’s community-based tourism enables women from the industrialized world to work side-by-side with women in the developing world in support of a community project.

La Selva Jungle Lodge, located in the heart of the pristine Amazon Rainforest of Ecuador has created what they call The Indigenous Spa, offering rejuvenating treatment by two native Quichua Indigenous women. This unique 1 hour and 20 minute spa treatment features native plant-based “rainforest spa” products and is a spiritual and educational experience. The treatment, for instance, includes a magical dusting away of evil spirits with special leaves, a foot massage with special scented plants from the forest..