Awards

Finalist 2008

The Ese´eja Ecotourism Project that led to Posada Amazonas, is an initiative set up to demonstrate that a tourism joint ventures between business and a local community is not just a successful means of empowering the local community and conserving natural resources; it is also sound business practice.
At the heart of this project is a 20-year contract signed in 1996. The lodge is owned by the community and co-managed with Rainforest Expeditions. In return for its stake in the lodge, the community receives 60% of the profits. Decision-making is by consensus. Other fundamental concepts include the training of community members to occupy all lodge positions. Finally, the full management of the lodge itself will pass to the local Community in 2016.
Community members can de directly involved in the project as staff members or guides, or indirectly as suppliers. They can also be involved as decision-makers on the Control Committee. At any given moment, more than 50 families are involved in any of the three divisions.

http://www.tourismfortomorrow.com/Winners/Previous_Winners_and_Finalists/
Community_Benefit_Award/Rainforest_Expeditions/index.php

Highly Commended 2006

The First Choice Responsible Tourism Awards are the largest of their kind in the world and are a collaboration between on-line travel agent responsibletravel.com who organise the Awards; UK media partners The Times and Geographical Magazine; supporters Conservation International; and The World Travel Market who host the presentation event. The central tenet of the Awards is that all types of tourism – from niche to mainstream – can and should be operated in a way that respects and benefits destinations and local people.
The Awards are different from other tourism Awards in that winners are nominated by tourists.

http://www.responsibletravel.com/copy/copy102214.htm

With POSADA AMAZONAS, an eco-tourism concept was realised that one can rarely find elsewhere. A private entrepreneur conjoins with an indigenous rural community to enhance the idea of nature preservation. And this becomes a case in point that shows that personal business interests can be linked to the requirements of a participative tourism model. The original business motive was not primarily material gain but the conservation of the threatened environment.

http://www.todo-contest.org/preistraeger-en/posada01.html

Finalist - August 2002
Posada Amazonas

In Peru, a partnership between a private enterprise, Rainforest Expeditions, and local indigenous people provides a model for how ecotourism can be used to solve problems of biodiversity loss and poverty in the developing world.
For more information link to:

http://www.undp.org/equatorinitiative/equatorprize/EquatorPrize2002
/equator_prize2002.htm#peru

Silver Otter - Honorable Mention - November 2001 Posada Amazonas

The Silver Otter Award is given for the best new overseas tourism project which not only has a tourist potential but is also of benefit to the local community. The three finalists are Sher Bagh, a forest-friendly tented camp in Rajasthan, India which is committed to the protection of the tiger; Posada Amazonas, a 24-room lodge in the Amazon rainforest in Peru which donates 60% of its profits to the local community in exchange for preserving the environment; and the Fort Apache Historical Site in Arizona, USA which highlights Native American history and provides employment for the Apache reservation.
For more information link to:

http://www.bgtw.org/currentawards2.asp?awardsID=8

Condé Nast Traveler Magazine
Best Ecotourism Tour Operator Award - July 2000

For years, The Ese´eja community´s only exposure to tourism was the tour boats plying the river in front of their homes in Peru´s southeastern Amazon basin. It wasn´t until 1994, when they were approached by Kurt Holle and Eduardo Nycander, founders of Rainforest Expeditions, that they became directly involved in the business of hosting visitors.

Ecotourism Excellence Award - July 2000
Rainforest Expeditions

RAINFOREST EXPEDITIONS founders Eduardo Nycander and Kurt Holle launched the Tambopata Research Center in 1989. Ten years later, they expanded the business by adding Posada Amazonas, a 24 room lodge on the tambopata River about 75 kilometers downstream from the Research Center. These two attractions a biological field station and tourist lodge give visitors unique opportunities to experience a pristine rain forest alongside working scientists. hey are also powerful models of ecotourism that provide local people with new prosperity and incentives to protect their lands.
Learn more about this award at:

http://www.conservation.org/xp/frontlines/species/11160501.xml