Glamping, flashpacking, digital retreating – travel trends come and go but the latest tourism buzzword is here to stay – sustainability. Proving it is possible to enjoy the world responsibly, an increasing number of hotels have committed to giving something back via local community initiatives and eco programmes designed to help counter the negative impact of air travel and mass tourism. With the UN declaring 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, we’ve rounded up some of the world’s most environmentally conscious resorts putting greener travel firmly on the map.

Nestled amid tropical rainforests on the north-west coast of Tobago in a tiny fishing village, Castara Retreats consists of 15 treehouse-style lodges with views across the Caribbean. The family-run resort on Trinidad’s little-sister island is a bastion of community-led tourism. The eco hotel’s ‘one-family’ approach empowers locals who have a stake in the business, working as waiting staff, drivers, chefs and fitness instructors. Guests can pick coconuts from trees outside their windows, watch chickens and agouti (an endangered species of guinea pig, protected by the resort’s on-site wildlife sanctuary) roam freely and soak up authentic Caribbean culture from locals who spearhead everything from kundalini yoga on the beach to bread-making in the kitchen. The trickle-down effect of tourism goes straight back to local business, so swing by Chenos for a breakfast of patty buns and eggs, or learn to dive with a local marine biologist. You’ll be rewarded with views of some of the most unspoilt reefs in the world thanks to Castara Retreats’ coral regeneration programme, which trains young locals to monitor them. They recently discovered fields of elkhorn, an endangered coral species that had declined by 98 per cent is now under protection. Paradise, it seems, is far from lost.

“If you’re seeking a turn-down service, manicured sands and an all-in bar then you’ve come to the wrong place. But then again, that’s what makes it so right. Tobago has largely escaped the Caribbean’s influx of American resort hotels – instead, a handful of boutique guesthouses scatter the shores, one of them being Castara Retreats – 12 deeply loved wooden lodges that dot the tree-packed hillside of the fishing village of Castara. Open-air bedrooms mean you fall asleep to distant calypso notes from the village bar and wake up to the sound of playful birds and gentle waves lapping the shore. It overlooks one of the prettiest bays I’ve seen in the Caribbean, a view so irresistible that by 7am I’ve abandoned my four-poster bed to float on my back in the tranquil sea, while a couple of friendly dogs guard my belongings and a few intrigued fisherman haul nets around me on the blissfully empty beach.”

“From the breeze-kissed terraces of Castara Retreats, the view sweeps around the bay, taking in the sparkling cobalt sea, the clean white curve of sandy beach and the sweetie shop – bright paintwork on the houses clambering up the hillside. It brings to mind the prelapsarian stake of a once similarly enticing Mediterranean fishing village. Have I discovered the St Tropez of the Caribbean?

…There are plenty of guest houses and holiday flats in Castara village but this is the chicest, a collection of 12 lodges and apartments cantilevered out from the lush green hillside at the southern end. No TV, no air con, just natural wood, slatted blinds, secluded terraces and simple, comfortable furniture – it’s like living in a grown up treehouse, with parrots swooping through the foliage.

…The rooms are kitted out for self-catering – buy a bonito tuna from the fisherman’s co-op on the beach for about £8, bread from the village’s traditional clay oven – but Castara Retreats has its own bar and restaurant. [It] doesn’t open for breakfast, so you have to wander down to a village café for your eggs and coconut bake – but that is exactly the point of the enterprise. Steve Felgate, founder of Castara Retreats, is determined to run it along the principles of responsible tourism, ensuring that as much cash as possible goes directly into the community.”

Woken by awe. ‘Awesome!’ shouts the figure in pyjamas leaning over the balcony. ‘Come and see, come and see this now!’. A bay 100ft below us with a scattering of narrow fishing boats at anchor, houses with metal roofs embedded into the hills of palm and banana, the sound of waves. And magnificent frigate birds…sweeping and diving into azure. Disbelief at dawn. Fishermen dragging a seine net into the shore. There seems to be flocks of parrots. We seem to have made it.

…We booked 10 days in a lodge at Castara Retreats. These lodges seem simple: polished floors and large open verandas and fretted wooden shutters, each one angled to make most sense of the spectacular views. But it is a deceptive simplicity, for there are hammocks and a dock for an iPod and the kitchen has a proper coffee machine, and the stack of novels turned up books for us all. It is not a hotel. It is owned by an English couple, but managed by a local couple, Porridge and his wife, Jeanell, warm and capable and unflappable in the face of requests. They produced the best book on the birds of Tobago one night, a bottle of disinfectant for a wound another.

…Castara itself offered the chance of easy days. The warmth of the sea was a shock for our children used to the cold waters off the coast of Scotland. The joy of playing in the waves, getting knocked over in the waves, the snorkelling. They loved disappearing into the village with a fistful of dollars and returning with fudge (delicious) and a carmine sorrel drink (peculiar). Foraging in the village for supplies was an art. If you wanted fish and rice and salad, you were in heaven.”

“There is touch of the treehouse to each of the 14 lodges that make up Castara Retreats, poking up through lush vegetation on a hillside outside the small village from which it takes its name. With views of a perfect mezzaluna of golden sand, the one-and two-bedroom, self-catering villas and apartments are simple yet stylish with louvred shutters and hammocks for al fresco lounging watching the hummingbirds dart around you. Castara Retreats has extended its wellness o ering, and now has yoga classes and massages with mind-blowing views of the aquamarine waters of the Caribbean; or you can simply wander down to the village and mingle with the locals.”