The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) defines eco-tourism as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people." You can find eco-friendly travel tips, statistics, and touring companies and associations -- listed by destination under "Travel Choice" -- at the TIES website, www.ecotourism.org. Ecotravel.com is part online magazine and part eco-directory that lets you search for touring companies in several categories (water-based, land-based, spiritually oriented, and so on). Also check out Conservation International (www.conservation.org) -- which, with National Geographic Traveler, annually presents World Legacy Awards (www.wlaward.org) to those travel tour operators, businesses, organizations, and places that have made a significant contribution to sustainable tourism.
At the moment, eco-tourism is very trendy in Brazil. Unfortunately, many of Brazil's "eco-tourism" operators offer nothing that even comes close to the ideals of eco-tourism. Often, Brazilians will label any tourism that takes place in nature as "eco-tourism," without any concern for preservation, sustainable local development, and so forth. Whenever possible, we have tried to highlight companies that practice real eco-tourism. This often means that they cost more than some of the other operators but we believe that your experience will be better and that the payoff for the environment and the community will be worth it as well.
