World Tourism Blog

India is a rich land in terms of both natural beauty as well as cultural heritage, and this is what eco tourists actually look for in their trip. Hence, all those interested in eco tourism have tremendous scope in India. You can visit the ancient cities, hill stations, remote villages, desert areas, wildlife parks to witness the diversity of India as an eco tourists destination. The beauty these places exude and the significance they hold in our lives have made them tremendously charming.

An eco tourism trip in India will not only bring you face to face with the exemplary creations of nature and man but will also cultivate in you an awareness about the importance of all these elements in our lives. It will also arouse in you an understanding of the importance of keeping our environment clean and beautiful.

And all this is not without fun as the eco tourism destinations in India have numerous ways to make your trip entertaining and memorable. All these places have a very different terrain and style of living as such a visit to these places is definitely going to be one of the most enjoyable trip in your life. Nothing else can be a better option for those who love nature and environment as dearly as their own entertainment.

By Indialine

Elephant Safaris in Kaziranga National Park, Assam.

Adventure travel in the Amazon rainforest attracts tourists looking to explore exotic lands and primitive cultures. Stretching from the Andes Mountains in Peru to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in Brazil, the Amazon rainforest comprises roughly half of the world’s biodiversity. With so much natural beauty and myriad indigenous cultures, it’s no wonder the Amazon has emerged as a premier ecotourism destination.

Tribal Visits

Witness the ways of life practiced by Amazonian tribes as a highlight of a trip to the region. Numerous indigenous communities exist throughout the dense jungles and snaking rivers of the Amazon. According to Fodor’s Travel Guide, the largest groups include the Korubo and Yanomami clans of Brazil as well as the Matsés of Peru. Some tribes have adapted slightly to better accommodate tourists, but the primitive means of survival and ancient customs remain intact for the most part. Adventure travelers can see how locals have managed to live in harmony with the rainforest over the centuries, free from the development and distractions of the outside world. However, it is not advisable to visit tribes on your own. Fodor’s recommends using a trusted tour company, such as Amazon Adventures of Brazil, if you plan on going to any of the remote indigenous villages in the region. A professional guide will facilitate transportation and cross-cultural communication while taking appropriate safety precautions.

Wildlife

Wildlife abounds in the Amazon rainforest. Tourists will find national parks and nature reserves in many of the countries spread across the Amazon Basin. Professional guides take visitors to popular spots where large concentrations of exotic animals live in their natural habitats. From monkeys and frogs to jaguars and parrots, the Amazon boasts an immense array of wildlife for tourists to discover. Jaú National Park in Brazil and Manú National Park in Peru are two of the best-known places for ecotourism and wildlife observation. Fodor’s suggests wearing boots and pants if you plan on trekking to see wildlife in a park or nature reserve. This will help protect you from bites, stings and rashes.

Canopy Tours

Canopy tours are one way to see the jungle from a new perspective. Travelers move across rough terrain via treetops connected by rope bridges and zip lines. This elevated approach to trekking allows you to spot animals from above and quickly traverse dense patches of the jungle. Canopy tours are also an eco-friendly way of traveling. Much of the environmental impact that would be caused by cutting paths or roads through the forest is eliminated thanks to the raised networks of bridges and zip lines in canopy tour zones. This is an exhilarating way to see the Amazon for adventurous individuals that don’t mind heights. The Canopy Walkway, operated by Explorama, is a prominent option located in the CONAPAC Biological Reserve near Iquitos, Peru. Brazil also has many ecolodges that offer canopy tours, including the well-known Ariaú Jungle Towers resort facility.

Boat Trips

Boats provide the primary means of transportation in the Amazon. The massive Amazon River and hundreds of tributaries connect the various cities and villages in the region. A lack of roads and airports due to the dense jungle makes it necessary for most travelers and residents to get around by boat. Tour companies offering short cruises and long-distance river transportation can be found in most cities. You can take quick trips on smaller vessels or go between villages on larger ships. The G.A.P (Great Adventure People) tour company offers comfortable cruise services out of the Amazonian village of Nauta in Peru. According to Fodor’s, some oceangoing cruise ships also ferry passengers to the Brazilian cities of Manaus and Belém with most trips taking place between October and May. Fodor’s recommends companies such as Princess Cruises and Royal Olympic Cruises for tourists who want to travel with oceangoing ships along the Brazilian portion of the Amazon River.

by David Thyberg

rainforest motorboat image by Sophia Hendrick.

“SEE these olive trees?” said Celso Pereira as his pickup truck slalomed down a road flanked by thousands of them, their pale, pointy leaves glistening faintly, their limbs wretched and magnificent with age. “They make the most wonderful olive oil.”

 “And those orange trees?” he added, pointing to a small grove. They brimmed with bright, ripening fruit. “The oranges are amazing.”

The tiny restaurant ahead? “Phenomenal,” he said. The dark soil in the vineyard to the left? Incomparable. It wasn’t thickly accented English he spoke so much as the language of local pride — exultant and, truth be told, hyperbolic. I had tasted the olive oil: lovely, not life-changing. And the oranges: perfectly fine.

But there was one soaring superlative with which I couldn’t quibble. “This drive,” he said as the truck dropped like a roller coaster into the valley below. “It is the most beautiful, no?”

Yes. Oh yes. And that heady conviction had only a little to do with the wines that Mr. Pereira, a vintner in this enchanted region of northern Portugal, had just had me sample. All around us mountains undulated into the distance. The slopes in the foreground were a precipitous, mesmerizing patchwork of greens, reds, browns and grays, the earth alternately craggy and lush, terraced and cleanly diagonal, as if some grand hand had fashioned it into a tutorial on all that nature and agriculture can do.

And at the base of those slopes: a ribbon of water, playing peek-a-boo as it twisted into and out of view. This was the Douro River, the cause and compass of my trip.

I had been drawn to Portugal by word of how splendid the area around the Douro is. It is from the banks of the Douro that the sublime city of Oporto rises. It is along the Douro that a disproportionate share of Portugal’s most respected wine producers fuss over their grapes.

And it was my hope that by tracing the river from Oporto toward Spain, I might construct my favorite kind of vacation, one that mingles — within a few days and a few hours of driving — some time in an old, architecturally distinguished city with even more time in gorgeous countryside, all punctuated by big, slow, boozy meals. That’s my Italy, my France, my Spain. I wanted to make it my Portugal, too.

In fact Portugal has advantages over its more celebrated neighbors. It is appreciably less expensive, especially now, given its economic woes, which sometimes earn it mention in the same paragraph, or even sentence, as Greece. Those troubles make its outreach to tourists more ardent than ever, an effort manifest in new hotels and a fancier class of restaurants throughout the area around the Douro, where a growing tourism infrastructure has been spurred by closer international attention to Douro wines and winemakers.

What’s more, you can experience Portugal without excessive buildup and, well, bullying. Tell your friends that you’re bound for Italy and out pour the recommendations, myriad and insistent: you must, you must, you must. Tell them you’re going to Portugal and they are as likely as not stumped. You can discover this country on your own, fashion it for yourself. And in Portugal you encounter a pride of place, like Mr. Pereira’s, that doesn’t bleed into the kind of arrogance it can in a country over which the whole world fawns. Portugal’s self-regard is defensive, pleading, sweet.

I FIRST connected with the Douro in Oporto. If you’ve never been to this city and haven’t read up on it you know it mainly as the tipsy mother lode of its namesake product, port, exported to any and every country with an appreciation of fortified wine. You’re reminded of this by the gigantic signs in Vila Nova de Gaia, on the opposite side of the Douro from Oporto, that advertise some of the most prolific local producers.

But you can be indifferent to port and still thrill to Oporto, with its high bridges, its tall hills and the succinct labyrinth of narrow, cobbled streets in its scruffy old heart, snug against the river.

It’s a city of bold, sudden architectural contrasts, in which two or three blocks collapse two or three centuries. On my first afternoon there, near the summit of the city, I traced the edges of Praça da Liberdade, marveling over the way its Beaux-Arts flourishes recall Paris at its prettiest. Thirty minutes later and less than a half mile down the sharply graded descent toward the river, I was staring at the rococo facade of the Igreja da Misericórdia, which dates to the 16th century. It put me in mind of Rome.

By FRANK BRUNI

The guest house at Quinta do Vallado, overlooking one of the property’s many vineyards.

Visitors Will Soon Be Allowed to See the Monument’s Underground Chambers.

Come this summer, visitors to Rome will be able to see parts of the Roman Colosseum never before open to the public. They will descend to the dank depths under the world’s biggest ancient amphitheater, and climb the steep steps to its highest (existing) level to admire the majestic views over the arena and the magnificent ruins of the Roman Forum and Arch of Constantine next door.

Thanks to special government funds, conservation projects are underway at what is arguably the world’s most famous monument to shore up areas that have been closed for decades, and allow access to visitors. Particularly fascinating is the warren of underground chambers and passageways that housed the animals, gladiators, machines and scenery that made up the greatest show on earth two-thousand years ago.

Soon, small groups of visitors with a guide will enter the Colosseum through the back entrance known as the Porta Libidinaria — where in Roman times the gladiators made their grand entrance into the arena — and take a glass elevator down into the bowels of the arena. There, with some imagination, you can picture the noisy, smelly chaos of animals and men preparing for showy battle.

The area opening to the public is under a modern reconstruction of the floor of the Colosseum that was built with steel beams in the year 2000. The original was built of wood, and covered with sand. Under this roof visitors get a feel for what it was like to be in the underground area where wild animals and gladiators waited their turn in what was the backstage of the biggest spectacle in the world at the time.

“The public will be able to visit this area for the first time in August or September,” says Barbara Nazzaro, the architect in charge of the still-to-be completed restoration under the Colosseum, “and they will see the area under the arena where people worked all day to put on the show.”

Lions, tigers, buffalo, gazelles, ostriches and more were brought into the Colosseum through an underground tunnel and locked in cells before being hoisted up in one of the 80 elevators to the stage above, appearing as if by magic in different corners of the arena (elephants used the ground-level entrance) .

By ANN WISE

Come this summer, visitors to Rome will be able to see parts of the Roman Colosseum never before open to the public. They will descend to the dank depths under the world?s biggest ancient amphitheater, and climb the steep steps to it?s highest (existing) level to admire the majestic views over the arena and the magnificent ruins of the Roman Forum and Arch of Constantine next-door.

AS the sun’s last rays streaked the sky bubble-gum pink and tangerine, the residents of Con Dao Island were calling it a day, and the mile-and-a-half-long beachfront promenade that serves as this small Vietnamese island’s social hub was filling up as the heat of the day finally relented.

Teenage boys pulled up on Honda scooters, kicking off their shoes and rolling up their jeans to play soccer on the white sand; young mothers led small charges by the hand into the gently lapping aquamarine water; an elderly woman, her teeth lacquered black in the style of her ancestors, watched a group of children fly colorful, animal-shaped kites on the pier, built in 1873.

If not for the Communist slogans being piped out of the town’s loudspeakers, it would have been hard to believe this was Vietnam. Where, after all, were the motorbikes, the honking horns, the shiny high-rises, and the constant activity that has come to characterize this rapidly developing country?

Until recently, the isolated 16-island archipelago of Con Dao (its largest island, Con Son, is commonly called Con Dao Island), 110 miles off the mainland’s southeastern coast, was a place most Vietnamese wanted to forget. For 113 years, this island was home to one of the country’s harshest prison systems, established by French colonists in 1862 and later ruled by South Vietnamese and American forces until Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese in 1975, at which point the prisons were closed.

These days, officials on government-sponsored group tours make pilgrimages to the crumbling stone prisons, which have been turned into museums that depict the suffering endured by their comrades.

Other buildings constructed by the French have been converted into cafes and private homes in the main town, which consists of little more than a daily market, a few seafood restaurants and a couple of souvenir shops selling shells, carved wooden canes, and Ho Chi Minh paraphernalia. The few signs along the quiet streets lined with flame-trees and bougainvillea tout pearls of wisdom such as “With the party comes peace, comfort, and happiness.”

But despite, or perhaps because of, its ugly history, Con Dao is one of Southeast Asia’s most untouched and breathtaking getaways. Its past, coupled with its remoteness, have spared it from the million-plus hordes that descend on coastal boomtowns like Nha Trang and Danang every year. (According to government figures, in 2008 Con Dao received 20,000 visitors, only 2,600 of whom were foreign.)

A lack of development and, until recently, of access (the number of 45-minute flights from Ho Chi Minh City has gradually increased from a handful per week four years ago to three times a day now) has also helped to keep the islands’ beaches empty and immaculate. The azure waters are brimming with Vietnam’s best coral reefs, and the forests bustle with macaque monkeys and black squirrels, one of several species indigenous to Con Dao.

Indeed, efforts to preserve Con Dao’s natural beauty are unrivaled in the rest of Vietnam. Of the archipelago’s total area, 83 percent is protected by the Con Dao National Park, including over 50 square miles that make up the country’s first marine reserve.

With help from organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and the United Nations Development Program, the park has just won approval for a $16.5 million development plan through 2020, which will finance natural resource protection, research and eco-tourism.

Though the government hopes to more than double the islands’ population to 13,500 by 2013 through a series of ambitious residential and tourism projects, for now, Con Dao’s slow, friendly rhythms and spectacular beauty remain largely undisturbed.

On a recent visit, except for a film crew shooting a coming season of “Koh-Lanta,” the French adaptation of “Survivor,” foreign tourists were scarce. One of them was Fred Burke, a 51-year-old managing partner of Baker & McKenzie, an international law firm with offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

“This feels like some sort of secret Tahiti,” he said, referring to the lush, rolling hills and sharp cliffs that abut the sea. “Most of the popular seaside destinations in Vietnam are being degraded with trash on the beach, inadequate waste-water treatment, noisy motorbikes and Jet Skis. It’s a complete surprise to find an amazingly beautiful place like Con Dao with almost nobody here.”

Despite its rich beauty, Con Dao is still far from being a luxury destination. Right now there is only a smattering of simple, Vietnamese-run lodgings and restaurants. But the much anticipated arrival late this year of a Six Senses resort, from the Bangkok-based company known for introducing eco-luxury to the region’s most unspoiled up-and-coming locales, suggests that Con Dao might soon become part of the international travel scene.

Though English is not widely spoken and most places cater to Vietnamese tour groups, independent travelers can still partake of the islands’ treasures. The Con Dao National Park arranges guided treks through dense tropical jungle and to remote beaches like Dam Tre Bay, a deep, sheltered cove that is home to golden fields of swaying seaweed and giant clams with electric blue lips. There are also snorkeling trips to Bay Canh islet, where fine sand lures endangered hawksbill and green sea turtles during the May to September nesting season.

But cruising the winding cliffside roads on a rented scooter might be the most memorable way to experience Con Dao, where the only traffic is the occasional black-haired goat or wild pig. Hidden down a sandy track marked “Mieu Cau,” about eight miles northeast of town, is Dam Trau Beach, a crescent-shaped expanse of golden sand and sapphire fringed by feathery casuarinas, the peace disrupted only by the arrival of flights from Ho Chi Minh City.

By NAOMI LINDT

A beach on Con Son Island, one of the Con Dao Islands off the southern coast of Vietnam.

Universal and Disney theme parks offer crazy fun for all.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Raising teenagers is not always easy. But as I walked around Walt Disney World recently, observing crying babies, melting-down toddlers and whining 6-year-olds — not to mention stressed-out parents — I felt lucky that my only challenge in visiting Orlando with two big kids — ages 12 and 17 — was to find the fastest, craziest rides.

We spent two days in theme parks, one day at Disney’s Epcot and Animal Kingdom, and the other at Universal Orlando, and I can honestly say we had a blast. And in the end, not all of our favorite attractions were fast or scary; my kids gave points for interesting shows (including “Flights of Wonder” at Animal Kingdom) and high-tech design as well. Here are some of the best attractions, in their opinion, for the middle- and high-school set.

Universal Orlando: Many attractions at Universal Studios Florida and its sister park, Islands of Adventure, seem tailor-made for the teenage mindset. Like “Disaster! — A Major Motion Picture Ride . Starring YOU” or Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, a 65 mph coaster, 17 stories tall, where they get to customize their own soundtrack, choosing from classic rock/metal, club/electronica, country, rap/hip-hop or pop. Visiting this park was more fun than staying home from school to play video games (not that such a thing would ever happen in my house).

I did not personally experience Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit — no way could this mom handle it! — but I did spring for the $35 DVD, a personal video of my kids screaming their heads off and laughing hysterically as the coaster shook them silly. Every time I watch the tape, I start cracking up too — it’s that funny.

Their No. 2 favorite at Universal was Dueling Dragons, which consists of a pair of inverted roller coasters, each with its own unique design, one called Fire, the other, Ice. Dueling Dragons goes 55 mph, 125 feet in the air, and riders on one coaster pass within inches of riders on the other. The kids liked it so much, they did it twice so they could experience both coasters.

I skipped Dragons, but I did join the boys on other rides. We aren’t big fans of “The Simpsons” show, so for the first few minutes of The Simpsons Ride, as the story line was laid out in an anteroom, we weren’t all that engaged. But once we were strapped into our seats for the high-tech ride, we loved it. You feel like you’ve stepped right into the cartoon and are part of the animation.

Sadly, my boys seemed a bit too big to love the relatively slow-paced Jaws water ride, but we all liked Jurassic Park River Adventure, a raft ride. Other attractions that were fun for all of us: Revenge of the Mummy, The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, and Men In Black Alien Attack. All are dark rides in vehicles on tracks, with plenty of special effects and surprises. Men In Black is a shooting game; mom’s score for electronic zaps was the lowest in the family. A final coaster that the kids did alone was Incredible Hulk.

We’d visited Universal Hollywood in Los Angeles in the past and really enjoyed the live shows that give a behind-the-scenes look at the movie biz, so we wanted to be sure to catch one of those in Orlando too. We chose “Disaster!” and loved it. I hope to never be on a real subway during an earthquake with fire breaking out all around me and buildings falling down, but Universal’s fictitious depiction sure was some crazy fun.

Our trip was too early in the season to catch the big news at Universal this year — the opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter on June 18. We’ll have to go back for that.

Disney World Animal Kingdom: No surprise here: Expedition Everest was the favorite at Animal Kingdom, for our whole family. The coaster was thrilling enough for the kids but not so stomach-churning that mom couldn’t handle it.

Our No. 2 pick in Animal Kingdom was “Flights of Wonder.” This live show features birds — owls, falcons, hawks and more — swooping over the audience as their handlers explain their behaviors. We found it exciting, captivating and often funny. The show was not as highly recommended to us as many of the other live animal attractions at Animal Kingdom, yet my boys preferred it to Kilimanjaro Safaris, a ride through a landscape inhabited by African wildlife, and Maharajah Jungle Trek, a self-guided walking tour to see tigers, bats and other Asian wildlife. My guess is that for kids who are veteran visitors to zoos and animal parks, the opportunity to see interesting behaviors like those shown in “Flights of Wonder” is more exciting than seeing animals lazing about their natural habitats.

Other Animal Kingdom attractions that the big guys gave a thumbs-up to were Kali River Rapids, a water ride, and Dinosaur, a fun and wild dark ride.

By Beth J. Harpaz

Riders on "Dueling Dragons" at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure theme park. Dueling Dragons goes 55 mph, 125 feet in the air, and riders on one coaster pass within inches of riders on the other.

Kate Siber treks into the jungle of Ecuador to spend four days at an ecolodge run by the Huaorani tribe.

From the window of a van, during a four-hour drive south from Quito to Shell, Ecuador, I watch what seems like several countries roll by. In small towns, mere jumbles of concrete houses, women dressed in colorful shawls and dark Andean hats carry bundles of thatch on their backs. Beyond the towns, Andean volcanoes rise up to over 16,000 feet in halos of clouds and snow. Farther south, the peaks soften to hillsides patched with fields, which then plunge into the steamy, jungle-choked interior, where farmers sell oranges by the side of the road and beautiful dark-haired women stir steaming pots in restaurant windows.

We arrive at a one-room aviation club in Shell, a speck of a town, and, soon after, take flight in a six-seat Cessna. Chartreuse squares of farmland quickly dissolve into a verdant carpet that stretches to the horizon. Rivers the color of milky coffee sneak beneath gorges then plow through the forest. On the horizon, a bank of clouds tumbles to the ground midst a downpour.

After 40 minutes, the pilot dives and banks hard left. Skimming over the forest canopy, we were close enough to spot monkeys if we weren’t moving so swiftly. Just as it seems we’ll crash into the tangled jungle, the trees part to reveal a tiny dirt airstrip. We land in a metallic clamor and splash through a pond-sized puddle before coming to an abrupt halt. Unfolding ourselves from the cabin, we emerge into the soupy heat to find two dozen indigenous Amazonians surrounding the plane—women with babies in palm-leaf slings, wide-brown-eyed children, and toothless old men. They all stare and grin at us, such rare curiosities.

Meeting the Huaorani people is exactly what brought us here. My group consists of four travelers—an expat Brit living in Costa Rica, two business partners from San Diego, and myself—and a bilingual guide named Jorge. We are on our way to the Huaorani Ecolodge, an outpost that officially opened in January 2008. It is so hidden in Ecuador’s swath of Amazon Rainforest that it takes nearly a day by car, plane, and dugout canoe to get there.

Famed as fearsome warriors in the past, the Huaorani resisted contact by Westerners through the mid-20th century. Two clans still shun Westerners and guard their villages fiercely from any visitors, including other clans. Most of the 3,000 Huaorani inhabit a 1.7-million-acre parcel of land, the largest tract set aside for any of Ecuador’s indigenous peoples. They live a peaceful existence, practicing subsistence hunting, gathering, and agriculture in relative isolation.

But it’s hard to maintain an isolated, peaceful existence when sitting atop a treasure trove of resources, including Ecuador’s largest oil reserve and large swaths of valuable tropical hardwood trees. And oil companies, loggers, and missionaries have all negatively affected the Huaorani’s way of life. Finally, in the late ’90s, five villages came together to build a tiny ecolodge to help sustainably support themselves and raise awareness of their rare and fragile culture. The tribe runs the lodge entirely, though a Quito-based sustainable-travel company named Tropic Eco helps market and arrange trips. They have received funding from several NGOs, and a non-profit called Rainforest Alliance has helped train staff members.

By Kate Siber

NATURAL LANDING: Indigenous Amazonians greet the six-seat Cessna as the author exits (Kate Siber).

As the safari industry follows the global trend to go green, one company has been leading the charge toward sustainable tourism in Africa for over 40 years. Hopefully, other outfitters will follow in their footprints.

Peering out of the Jeep window at the savannah flats extending south to the Serengeti in the Great Rift Valley, we spotted the curved horns of water buffalo, baboons, impalas, a mother and baby giraffe, a field of zebras, four lions sleeping peacefully under an acacia tree, and a big and brawny 35- to 40-year old elephant with long tusks. Unlike the Serengeti, the Masai Mara, a park reserve in southwestern Kenya named for the Maasai people who traditionally inhabited the area, offers a place where you can drive off-road to get a close-up glimpse of a lion on her back, rubbing her belly with one powerful paw.

“It’s the Discovery Channel without the remote control,” says John Neva, a safari guide who’s been leading guests into the African bush for the past 15 years. He’s refering to the intimate experience available at Masai Mara, where you can view a wild animal in person from the same distance that you would view one on the TV from your couch.

Mara is Swahili for dotted hillside, and if you glance around the Mara triangle inside this refuge, you can’t help but be enamored by the wealth of wildlife peppering the valley, especially during early summer and fall, when vast hordes of wildebeests make their way to and from the Masai Mara and the Serengeti. Yet only two decades ago this same wilderness area was rife with poachers hunting rhino, Maasai warriors spearing male lions as a ritual gateway to manhood, villagers killing ostriches and impala for their meat, and mass tourism allowing 20 to 30 safari trucks to corral a lone leopard.

It was during this time, when hunting and poaching were climbing at an alarming rate and park rangers were shot and killed on a regular basis, that Jorie Butler Kent, co-owner and President of sustainable travel company Abercrombie & Kent, discovered a dead black rhino less than a mile from her camp. The tusks had been removed, likely ground into a powder that makes the cocaine trade look like chump change—to this day, one rhino horn, used as an aphrodisiac in China, Taiwan, and Thailand, can fetch upwards of $100,000 U.S. on the black market.

Soon, Butler Kent formed a rhino conservation program, which morphed into the Friends of Conservation (FOC) in 1982, long before “green” was a travel trend. Geoffery Kent, her husband at the time and business partner to this day, had implemented the John Muir principal to leave only footprints at Abercrombie & Kent back when he took over his father’s company in the mid-1960s. He also masterminded the high-end tented safari concept so that guests could get up-close and personal with the wildlife. More than 40 years later, Kent remains committed to eco-friendly practices, making such efforts as using solar lighting in tents, providing locally harvested produce during meals, and encouraging guests to get on horseback and leave the safari trucks behind.

Butler Kent’s work with the FOC has become the blueprint for ecotourism in Kenya and East Africa. In 1999, Abercrombie & Kent unveiled Olonana, a permanent tented camp on the banks of the Mara River—the sinuous waterway that snakes through Masai Mara all the way to Lake Victoria, the world’s largest lake. The walls may consist of canvas, but the 14 tents on the property are decidedly upscale in flavor, with queen-sized beds, mosquito netting, indoor and outdoor showers, and flush toilets. The veranda overlooking the rushing river is a real highlight. Upon request, the front desk will wake you up with hot Kenyan coffee and muffins at sunrise; head to the veranda with your cup-o-joe and you might glimpse a mother hippo teaching her young child to swim upstream.

Solar-powered lighting and a small vegetable garden used by the African-themed restaurant add to the environmentally conscious allure, as does a wetlands project behind the tents that filters the toxins from waste water, and returns it to the Masa River cleaner than the actual water found there. A series of three ponds slowly purify the wastewater using vegetation like lily pads that naturally absorb nutrients. Each guest can also plant a tree on the property—not to be used as firewood, but for much needed shade.

By Stephen Jermanok

MASAI BY TWILIGHT: A view of the Masai Mara as darkness envelopes the savannah (Stephen Jermanok)

Santa CATALINA ISLAND, Calif.
ASK Southern Californians if they have been to Santa Catalina Island, an hourlong ferry ride from Long Beach, and the answer will most likely be, “I went there when I was a kid, but haven’t been back in years.”

The Santa Catalina Island Company would like to change that. It’s spending $11 million to entice a more globetrotting generation of visitors, with new attractions like a zip line that carries riders from 600 feet above sea level through a canyon down to the beach.

“What we’re trying to do is create a little bit of a renaissance for Catalina,” said Brad Wilson, chief marketing officer for the company. “We want to offer activities that would better suit the current traveler.”

Despite its proximity to the wealthy California coast, the 22-mile-long rocky island has never become the American equivalent of Capri in Italy. Once a destination for big bands and ballroom dancing at the famous Casino — which is not actually a gambling spot — Catalina evolved into a quaint, family-friendly destination, better known for waffle cones and glass-bottom boat rides than for fine dining or hotels with fancy sheets.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. For many people, Catalina’s slow pace and the sense you get of stepping back in time are crucial to its appeal. Its main town, Avalon, is only one square mile, a picturesque scene as you approach the harbor by ferry, and golf carts are the primary form of transportation. (The number of cars on the island has been restricted since the 1970s.)

“If you were to stand out on the pier,” Mr. Wilson said, “and take a photo looking back at the town and compare it to one taken 60 years ago, you’d be hard pressed to see a change.”

The challenge for the Santa Catalina Island Company, which owns 10 percent of the island, is preserving that picture while at the same time bolstering tourism — the lifeblood of the local economy.

Most of the remaining land is owned by the Catalina Island Conservancy, a nonprofit created in 1972 to preserve the island in its natural state. Members of the Wrigley family — the chewing gum Wrigleys, who owned the island — deeded 88 percent of the land to the Conservancy, guaranteeing that it would remain largely undeveloped.

That has set up an odd situation on the island, which resembles a less tropical version of the landscape on the television show “Lost.” Catalina residents (there are about 4,000) refer to the Conservancy land as the interior, and most tourists — and many who live on the island — never venture beyond the gates dividing the Conservancy property from Avalon’s gift shops and piers (other than on packaged tram tours).

The zip line represents a tentative effort to bridge that divide. It starts in the hills near the Conservancy gate and descends in five separate zips between platforms, where educational signs highlight facts about the wildlife and scenery. Riders harnessed to overhead cables with pulleys get to experience the island’s natural side as they whiz by, with views of the ocean along the way.

“There’s an opt-out if it freaks you out after the first zip,” Mr. Wilson said. “You’re pretty committed after that.”

During a visit in mid-April, the zip line was just one of the projects construction workers were rushing to finish before the island’s peak summer season begins in late May.

The Descanso Beach Club, a short walk from Avalon, was getting a face-lift, with private cabanas and a fresh look for the outdoor restaurant and bars. The Descanso will be a hub for waterfront activities like kayaking and snorkeling, as well as a new Sea Trek Undersea Adventure, a tour that will outfit guests in special diving helmets for a walk along an underwater trail.

No diving experience is required for that tour, but Catalina is also a popular scuba diving destination, known for its kelp forests and shipwrecks.

What the island is not known for is great dining, though that is starting to change. When I was in town, I had sushi for dinner at C. C. Gallagher, a cafe that is also a gallery and wine store and feels refreshingly like a neighborhood hangout.

For lunch, I bypassed the kid-pleasing pizza shops and hamburger joints along the waterfront and found healthier sandwiches and salads at Cafe Metropole, a true traveler’s oasis, with patio seating. It’s the kind of place anyone who eats vegetables is thrilled to find in a town that mostly caters to tourists, especially boardwalk or seaside destinations that lean heavily toward fried things.

This month the Santa Catalina Island Company is adding another new restaurant to the mix: the Avalon Grille, which overlooks the harbor and aims to become an upscale watering hole, with a horseshoe bar as its centerpiece and doors that open to sidewalk tables. The menu I saw seemed to balance seafood and American grill fare with a few creative twists, like ahi tuna tostadas — trying to appeal to a more sophisticated palate without alienating parents traveling with kids.

By SUSAN STELLIN

A view of Avalon harbor, where the ferry drops off visitors.

East-central Madagascar is home to many species found nowhere else on the planet, and to one of the boldest conservation initiatives designed to benefit communities.

Conservation International (CI) is working with the Government of Madagascar, the World Bank and other partners to address deforestation and mitigate climate change, and to create sustainable livelihoods for the citizens of this island nation.

The Andasibe-Mantadia corridor is one of the last remaining places in Madagascar with large areas of native rain forest. A garden of stunning biological diversity, this 405,000-hectare area is host to species of plants and animals that exist nowhere else in the world.

But the ongoing use of slash-and-burn agriculture due to the growing human population’s need for fertile land continues to be a significant threat to the forests and their biodiversity.

 IN DEPTH: Conserving forests is vital to protecting species and reversing climate change. Learn about the work we are doing in the Andasibe-Mantadia corridor.

Around the world, the use of fossil fuels like coal and oil drives the modern economy, but scientists and world leaders in government and business now acknowledge that industrialization and global commerce are contributing to climate change, affecting the health and viability of all life on the planet.

At the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain, CI is presenting a program on engaging indigenous people in climate change.

A New Project Brings Hope
 
Decades of deforestation have left eastern Madagascar with only 8.5 percent of its original forest and isolated the Analamazaotra Special Reserve, which is the most visited protected area in Madagascar.

The ongoing project, employing about 200 local people, involves connecting three forest fragments. The National Association for Environmental Action (ANAE), one of CI’s partners, coordinates the field activities of this unique project, which involves many stakeholders from government officials to local farmers.

ANAE organizes research on forest restoration and sustainable agricultural practices and then trains the members of seven local associations that participate in the project. In addition, the government is working to clarify land ownership issues, which need to be clearly established in carbon trading projects.

The trees planted to restore the forests will absorb carbon dioxide as they grow, providing carbon credits to the project that are sold through carbon markets. Thus international investment in carbon sequestration will provide a source of income for decades, benefiting local communities in the form of local employment and investment in sustainable and more productive agriculture.

LEARN MORE: CI works with people around the world to help protect the environment. Read about some of the communities we’ve worked with and the progress we’ve made.

Claude Rakotoarivelo, a local project technician, explained that there are 24 tree nurseries, each capable of producing 20,000 seedlings. When seedlings are ready, they are transplanted into the areas being restored.

By helping to recreate the corridor, local communities not only protect Madagascar’s extraordinary biodiversity, but they also benefit from the sale of carbon dioxide absorbed by the forests of Andasibe-Mantadia.

Overcoming challenges

Dr. Daniela Raik, CI’s natural resource management adviser, said the project has been a success even though “we’ve met with challenges of all sorts.” She says that residents “have even donated land of their own, to be planted with native plant species.”

One challenge was to ensure the viability and sustainability of agriculture.

“At first the people were reluctant because they wonder where they can plant their crops,” says project adviser Baoarilala Ramavalisoa. “But with the [project] demonstration sites, they see it’s possible to do companion planting, where you can plant forest trees as well as rice and corn.”

“I believe that planting trees will improve the forest and improve people’s lives,” predicts tree nursery technician Jules Randrianatoandro.

As for understanding the problems brought by climate change, residents have been quick to grasp the effects of global warming.

“We are talking in terms that are relevant to their lives,” Raik says. “As far as climate change, they understand how the forest relates to rainfall. When the forest is intact, there is a healthy, reliable cycle of rainfall – they really feel connected to this.”

“Cyclones cause erosion,” explains Joseph Andrianjaka, deputy mayor of Andasibe. “That’s why restoration is important.”

Some of the benefits of the project cannot be measured in economics. One local resident says simply, ““I am happy with the project because it will help bring back things I saw as a child.”

By Steve Goldstein