By Ronit Epstein

The sprawling Amazon rainforest is alive with sights, sounds and movement that cannot be seen anywhere else on our beautiful planet. Bolivian Amazon covers 59.6 million hectares, and more than 11 percent of Bolivia is officially protected. Anyone visiting this beautiful region will experience some of the world’s most stunning, strange and wonderful wildlife, leaving memories that are difficult to beat.

By Laurel Angrist

Well-planned ecotourism is one key to rainforests’ continued survival. It places value on preservation of nature as a commercial resource. Reputable tour outfits offer employment opportunities for locals as leaders and wildlife guides, enabling them to earn their money through sustainable and environmentally responsible forms of income. Travellers’ passion for traditional culture encourages locals to continue ancient forest-friendly practices.

By James Lantz

Located in the high jungle of Peru, Tingana was started by seven families with the objective of preserving the natural resources of a municipal conservation area called Asociacion Hidrica Aguajal Renacal del Alto Mayo. With the support and leadership of the community, Tingana was developed to promote conservation and ecotourism. Tingana’s 8,596 acres not only offer an important piece of conservation for the local wildlife, but helps protect the local water supplies for nearby cities.

By Andre Franchini

If you’re new to eco-travel, ecolodges are a great place to start. Frame your trip around an ecolodge that stands out. Look for places that have gained international recognition and awards for the conservation and community work they are doing. Look for places that meet third-party green certification standards. Find your fantasy ecolodge, then make it the centrepiece of your trip.

By Melanie Jae Martin

If you want to see great apes in the wild, Sumatra’s rainforest is one of the most accessible places to do just that. However, you need to know how to visit them responsibly or you could introduce illnesses, since they share over 97 percent of our DNA. Less than 7,000 Sumatran orangutans live in the wild, and they’re an essential part of the rainforest ecosystem, helping seeds to germinate and even pruning the canopy.

By Melissa Lim

The quality of life of our future generation lies in our actions today. Borneo Eco Tours, through its work with the Borneo Ecotourism Solutions & Technologies (BEST) Society, has always put effort in not just promoting the conservation of Sabah’s mega biodiversity to tourists, but also in nurturing the young generation of the “River people” (Orang Sungai) of Kinabatangan emphasizing the importance of forest-regeneration and its impact on the biodiversity of flora and fauna in the Kinabatangan flood plan.

By Hollie Tu

Last month I headed out on a tiny plane into the interior of Borneo to spend 10 days with the Penan. The Penan are one of the indigenous peoples of Sarawak and were, until recently, the only people to live a nomadic lifestyle within the rainforest. Today, most Penan have settled in villages where they primarily cultivate the land yet still utilize their hunter-gatherer skills to supplement their diet.

During the month of April, Gap Adventures (TIES business member) is celebrating the International Year of Forests, focusing on rainforest conservation, awareness-building, and fundraising – through the the Planeterra Foundation – for reforestation and sustainable farming education in Brazil. In addition, the team at Gap Adventures Base Camp in Toronto, Canada is joining up with other residents to help tree-planting efforts to contribute to the health of one of Toronto’s biggest urban parks.

The Rainforest Alliance provides tourism entrepreneurs and community-based businesses in Latin America with the tools and training they need to become more environmentally and socially responsible, to compete in the marketplace and to contribute to the conservation of the local cultures and nature. Last year, we launched the Rainforest Alliance Verified program.

Part 1 – Ecotourism 20 Years Ago

In 1989, hundreds of thousands of acres were being added to park systems to conserve ecosystems around the world. International conservation was going into high gear, driven by the rude fact that development was accelerating in the most vulnerable and biodiverse regions of the planet. Conservationists were talking more about preserving the Amazonian rain forest, and less about “saving the panda.”