The tourism industry has accepted the concept of sustainable development and adopted the notion of sustainable tourism. In the World Tourism Organisation's publication "The Tourism of 2010" specifies that: the sustainable tourism develops the idea of need satisfaction of the present tourists if the tourism industry and, in the same time, of protecting the environment and of the opportunities for the future. It is allowed for fulfilling of all economical, social, esthetical needs of tourism "actors", maintaining cultural, ecological identity, biological diversity and all life-sustaining systems. The responsibility for the environment has become a coordinate for every tourism development project and has to become a basic element in the Romanian tourism development concept. Assessing the ecological impact of the tourism development is important because tourists tend to be drawn by the most complex and fragile environments from the ecological perspective, like sea sides, small islands, mountain areas or historic and cultural centers. In regards to these considerations, this research intends to identify the opportunities for development of durable touristic activity in the natural protected areas in the Alba County. This paper starts with the literature review who tried to identify the studies and research regarding the theme approached; it follows a statistical data study regarding the tourism activity in Alba County, and a review of all the protected areas in this region, finally I tried to identify the main opportunities and directions of action in order to develop the durable tourism activity within the natural protected areas in Alba County.