Now that Miss Universe has crowned a new queen, Miss Venezuela Gabriela Isler, will Miss Earth Venezuela Alyz Heinrich follow her footsteps and lead her to victory? One of the world most prestigious beauty pageants, Miss Earth is going to crown a new queen on December 7 at the Versailles Palace in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, Philippines.

The 22-year-old beauty queen is one of the top candidates among the 94 delegates from all corners of the globe. A model by profession, Heinrich hails from Falcom and was chosen as the second runner-up in the Miss Venezuela 2012 pageant and was awarded as Miss Belleza Integral beauty award.

Just like any Venezuelan reps, Heinrich won her title a year ago and has enough time to be prepared for this year's pageant. Her last year's predecessor Osmariel Villalobos was named Miss Earth Water and her chances to be included in the Top 5 is not going to be a surprise.

Alyz Heinrich moved to Italy at the age of 18 so she can pursue a career in modeling. She was living in Maracaibo before she entered the pageant, she was there as a modeling professor and holds a BA in Social Communications. She also speaks fluent Spanish and Italian.

The 13th edition of Miss Earth is aligned with "The International Year of Water Cooperation," this year's pageant aims to promote environment related projects and will address issues concerning the environment. The winner for this year will dedicate her entire reign to address global issues through school tours, tree planting, coastal clean-ups, speaking engagements, environmental fair, eco-fashion shows and other environmental activities.

The Miss Earth pageant is the only beauty contest that is proactive advocacy in saving the environment. This year's pageant will focus more on eco-tourism as its contribution to the country's efforts to use tourism as a means to help alleviate the poverty

The event is going to be broadcast in more than 50 countries around the world and this could be a perfect venue to promote Philippines as a top eco-tourism destination in the world.