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Ecotourism - Sustainability in Tambopata
Participation of Community Leaders.- The Control Committee. Posada Amazonas is a participatory project by nature. The lodge is owned by the community and co-managed with Rainforest Expeditions. For its ownership, the community receives 60% of the profit. To make the co-management practical a Control Committee was created since the outset of the project, participating in the planning, implementation and management phases. The ten member committee is elected by the communal assembly and hold monthly meetings with RFE staff to decide upon human resources, financial and operational issues. It also has the responsibility of overseeing RFE operations and management and of communicating decision to the rest of the assembly.
Finally, communicator surveys (see awareness raising, below), reflect a warm but not homogenous, acceptance of the CC. Seventy-three percent of the community member answered the CC's main function was to take decisions on the community project and 65% answered they did this well. Forty- two percent thought their biggest problem was communicating with the community. Participation of Community Members at large.The community's participation in the project is best reflected by these two surveys. The first one responds to interviews to 69 community members done by the Critical Ecosytem Partnership Fund project "the Trueque Amazonico". In response to the question do you feel involved in Posada Amazonas, over 60 people answered yes. The second, done by our internal communicator team (see section on awareness raising below), asked community members to responed who owned the lodge. Ninety six percent answered the community did. The level of participation is another matter. 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 in the control committee. At any given moment, more than fifty families are involved in any of the three possibilities. Stronza´s thesis ("Because it is Ours") provides an in-depth analysis of how different groups of people are involved more or less intensively and is reflected in these charts. However, it can be noted that there are two "excluded" groups - older people and women.
Raising Awareness with Community Leaders, Trueque Amazonico. At the director level, the single most important action taken to develop a sophisticated level of understanding of community leaders with regards to tourism was the Trueque Amazonico. The Trueque Amazonico was a an exchange funded by the CEPF where three community based ecotourism lodges shared their experiences in an extensive format. These three lodges from the Amazon regions of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia (Kapawi, Posada Amazonas, and Chalalan, respectively) had one thing in common - they were the result of partnerships between communities and private sector (Achuar - Canodros, Infierno - RFE and San Jose de Uchupiamonas - Conservation International, respectively). The project conducted months of field work to obtain baseline information on the similarities and differences between communities and their relationship and impacts from tourism. To give an example at how important this was at developing sophisticated understanding of tourism dynamics, A list selected from the Trueque Amazonico´s report samples the effectiveness of this project at developing a sophisticated understanding of tourism dynamics. Responses are mixed - they are from the three communities.
Raising with Community Members.- The communicators. At the level of the community members it is also important to generate awareness as to the opportunities and threats brought along by ecotourism. In addition to the relationship between the CC and the assembly described in the section on community participation, the project has taken a proactive approach to communication. Two community members are hired as full time communicators. Their job is to visit each household with a predetermined agenda. The agenda is set by the CC after their monthly meetings every month or two. The agenda is designed with two items in mind - to communicate complex issues or decisions on a personal basis and to obtain a reading on the communities understanding or opinion of such issues or decisions. An example of the results of an agenda is given on the chart below, referred to a question asked on profit reinvestment.  Posada Amazonas was built on a 2000 hectare portion of the community that has remained uninhabited since the community´s creation in 1976. Since its foundation, community by-laws had restricted access and use of this reserve, prohibiting hunting, clear-cutting and logging. Therefore this reserve had essentially been used for timber extraction during 20 years. It proved an ideal place where to build the lodge, as it was both the most beautiful standing forest in the community and it allowed tourism to take its course without affecting the daily lives of people in Infierno, which occurred elsewhere. In second place, any visits of tourists to community members homes or infrastructure are programmed beforehand. In order to visit community infrastructure, two possibilities exist. A contract is signed for recurring visits (such as the Centro Ñape), or an ok is obtained from the CC. In both cases, retribution is negotiated with the CC. In both cases the CC gives the final approval. In both cases, if a second party such as the school board or the Centro Ñape committee are in charge, they also have to agree to the terms. In all cases, visits are overseen by an RFE guide and are hosted by one or more community representatives. In this way we assure that tourists follow an acceptable code of conduct during their visits. There is also only one visit to community members homes - when we visit the farm. The structure of the contract is similar to that of the Centro Ñape: we obtain agreement from both the CC to contract with the individual, and with the individual. The question of changes in family life was addressed by the Trueque Amazonico. Positive Changes
Although the project has not addressed cultural issues strategically, it has been careful not too work with culture as a tourism resource unless we were absolutely convinced that community members were comfortable with it. For example the project began without a single cultural activity or manifestation. It incorporated the ethnobotanical garden and the farm after several months of tourism visits and coordinations with the community. Two examples include the Ethnobotanical Center and the Handicraft Decoration Project. The ethnobotanical center has existed in the community for two decades, before the arrival of tourism. It served a purpose as a medical post of sorts, with community members going there for free medicine produced from plants by Eseéja elders. When the Centro Ñape (as it is called) saw tourists were interested in ethnobotanical tours around Posada Amazonas, they developed a short trail around their center where Ñape's staff now take tourists on guided walks. About 4000 tourists now visit the Center every year, and leave around $12000 a year with which the Center can maintain its activities. The Center currently wishes to expand its services and products to a line of wellbeing products, a modest spa, and a story-telling CD. The Handicraft Decoration Project, although much less economically attractive, is an important anecdote in the way in which Posada Amazonas is strengthening identitites. In 2002, we pitched to the CC the idea of decorating Posada Amazonas with carved icons of Ese'eja mythological characters related to the forests and the waters. They consulted with elders who did not want to share their ancient myths with tourists. One elder, however, returned after a few weeks saying he had a dream where one of the characters had appeared and told him to go ahead with the project because it would allow many people to hear of it and thus would allow his spirit to go on living forever and not be forgotten. The elders reconsidered and then spent months discussing the correct way in which to tell the story and draw the character. Finally, these stories were reproduced in beautiful bas-relief wood carvings in the rooms of Posada Amazonas. These are two examples which illustrate the care with which the project faces cultural issues. However, the project per se does have a cultural impact, as chapter 6 of Stronza's thesis demonstrates. A reflection of this can be gathered from the list of comments from Trueque participants on debating managing cultural resources.
Economically, the community has benefited immensely. Below is a chart of overall economic impact in the community, from 1998 through 2004
At Infierno, a family normally spends around $90 of cash a month. This indicator is taken from the Trueque Amazonico surveys. Money spent is used versus money earned, because in economies without standard monthly wages, it is easier for families to remember how much they spend a month, rather than how much they make. Using this indicator as a reference we can deduce the increase in liquid income the project represents to each Infierno household. One hundred and thirty families spending $90 a month are the equivalent of $140,000 a year. $249,000 (subtracting the $20,000 of reinvested profit, which generates an asset, but is not liquid) is an increase of 77% on each family´s income. This of course varies greatly between families, but the average is representative of the impact on Infierno families. Finally, this profit, poorly invested, would of course generate a problem. Three charts can summarize the social impact generated by this influx of cash. The first is a list of community investments spurred by tourism profits: secondary school, a boarding school for students that are far from town, a computer center, lightning rod and radio, a port, improvements to the ethnobotanical center, a handicraft workshop, a fish farm (this was an individual investment) and soon to come: a new ecotourism concession, a water tank, environmental education and entrepreneurship programs for the school and more. Individually, the following chart summarizes where families put their income from the project.  It can be concluded that 32% use the income to survive (food, clothing, relatives), 43% use it to improve their living in some fashion (improve house, furniture, equipment) and 23% use it in some form of savings or debt payment (savings, debts which could be for development or simply out of poor financial management). Finally only 2% use it for partying. It is also noteworthy that the profits may not be generating a more sustainable lifestyle, as noted by equipment investment in chainsaws or rifles or house improvements in tin roofs. Finally, this graph summarizes the organizational changes in the community as the project has brought the need for a better organization in order to take decisions and produce.  The project is intricately related to job creation and training. At the heart of the project lies the 20 year association contract, which, amongst with key issues such as the CC and the 60-40 profit division has a clause which states that every position at the lodge must be filled by a community member AND that it must rotate every two years. In addition, it states that if community members are not prepared to do the job properly, then RFE must implement a training program. As of 2005, 18 of 21 lodge positions were in the hands of community members and seven community bilingual guides were obtaining client satisfactions of 90% or above. The only two lodge positions that were not filled with community members were bartender, souvenir shop manager and lodge manager. At the beginning of the project, community members had to be trained to become housekeepers, waiters, assistant cooks and drivers. As the project evolved, we developed training mechanisms for cooks, maintenance crew and guides. We are currently in the midst of the bartending training and have a project that will allow us to train a community manager. Training for operational (versus technical) positions is fairly straightforward. Every year, RFE calls for papers amongst the 130 community families. The CC reviews all applicants to make sure all belong in the community. Then they gather for a two week course which introduces participants to tourism, customer service, environmental basics and the position specific aspects of housekeeping, driving, waiting, and cooking. The best students stay to replace the outgoing crew, about half a crew a year. In this manner RFE has trained over 100 community members and dozens have been employed at Posada Amazonas. After their stint at Posada Amazonas, at least ten have gone on to obtain tourism jobs at other lodges. Thanks to a MacArthur Foundation grant, it was possible to start covering some technical positions at the lodge. Through a seed fund, cooks and maintenance crew receive professional courses on technical aspects of these positions. The seed fund loans money to the students, whilst RFE covers half of the expenses. The fund recovers its income by discounting it from their salary and thus replenishes the fund. Guides receive more intensive training. Community guides start their training in a community guides' course, in order to level their knowledge about terms such as biology, conservation, biodiversity, ecosystem, and basic flora and fauna classification. The first four qualify for the RFE annual guide course, which is offered for all those who want to become an RFE guide. This annual course covers most major taxonomic groups, such as mammals, birds, insects, ecology, and plants, and includes Red Cross first aid training. From the four community participants, the best two are the ones selected to start their training as guides for RFE. The next step is to work at PAL as bar assistant, in order to train the ear a little and become familiar with the English language. After six months, the participant goes to Lima for three months of intense training, covered by the seed fund. Once back, the guide practices for one or two months, and then become a professional guide who starts repaying his loan for the next community guide. In this manner, nine guides have been trained, and one or two additional ones are trained yearly. Jobs at Posada Amazonas are standard payroll jobs with social security, unemployment insurance, two bonuses at mid and years end, and an additional profit bonus. Jobs pay from 75% to 150% more than the minimum wage, and 10-30% above competing lodges. Guides earn on per diem basis from $20 to $40 depending on experience and the type of group. Working hours are difficult and we try to motivate people with celebrations during holidays and an end of year party with prizes for the best employees. Since staff members live and eat at the lodge, we also provide food and housing for them. Managing visitor impacts on sensitive wildlife species.Key alliances with research projects focusing on some of the most vulnerable species has helped establish studies to determine the impact of tourists on them. We also follow their recommendations through voluntary management plans and monitoring programs. Macaw, otter and harpy eagle research and monitoring have been conducted on and off since the beginning of the project. Results can be downloaded from our web page. The following chart also provides important data that proves the little impact we have on wildlife. This data has been gathered throughout the years by our guides, who register all important wildlife encounters. A sample of the most common ones has been selected for this paper.
Managing lodge Impacts on soil and water. We unfortunately have no data that proves our impact on water courses and soil is negligible, but we can describe what we do to keep our operation green and clean. First of all we separate and recycle. All biodegradable material is composted onsite. All non-biodegradable material is taken by boat to the city dump. And all glass material is taken to the recycler in town. Secondly, we use only biodegradable soaps, shampoos, and laundry materials, which are completely inocous. We do not use solar energy, and turn on a generator during five hours a day for essential kitchen equipment and battery recharging. The lodge is lighted by windlamps and refrigerators are gas powered. Finally, although we do have septic tanks, we need to invest in a cleaner waste management system. Managing Environmental Impacts from traditional community economic activities.Tourism in the community should generate a change in habits and decisions which lead to conservation. This can be seen anecdotally to work both ways, and is expensive to measure and follow, so we have not been successful at monitoring it. For example, on the plus side, the community has incorporated regulations which forbid members to hunt in the communal reserve, to fish with nets in the lake, and to cut forest around harpy eagle nests. Although these regulations are infracted upon every now and then, the three important take-away lessons are that the community has indeed decided to regulate the use of these resources because of their value as tourism resources, that in effect the frequency of hunting in the reserve or fishing in the lake has diminished drastically, and that the community views as a problem every time someone is heard hunting in the reserve. If it could patrol and find out who, it would sanction the infractor, likely taking his profit away for a year and blacklisting his family for jobs at Posada Amazonas. A specific example of the community´s conservation commitment and capacity to act: in 2003, a logger came to the community to buy a standing hardwood near the lake. The community assembly said no because it is close to the otters. Then the logger offered to bribe the president, and he said no. Then the logger went and cut it anyway. The community went to the police and had the timber and equipment expropriated. A second example is that they pay for two wildlife monitors, who follow Conservation International´s protocol to evaluate wildlife population sizes. The community pays for the monitors as a way to keep an eye on what impact hunting is having as a resource that is shared by tourists and community families alike. On the minus side, it is evident that community members are spending their hard earned tourism income on chainsaws and rifles. Although the monitors mentioned above will provide us data with regards to the impact of hunting on the community, it is more difficult to understand what goes on with chainsaws. These can be used for timber, but far more likely, to develop farms. In this aspect, we are hazy. As Stronza mentions in her thesis "we can be cautiously optimistic that ecotourism at Posada Amazonas is helping to protect the rain forests of Tambopata while meeting the economic needs of the people in the Community of Infierno".
Managing visitor impacts on sensitive wildlife species. Rainforest Expeditions was born out of a conservation ethic. Posada Amazonas was therefore a project directed towards generating sustainable development and conservation. Both the community and the company are aware that our clients come to see natural resources as much as cultural ones. Attractions such as the giant river otters, harpy eagles and macaws are key. Charismatic fauna such as monkeys and caiman are important. Therefore we keep an eye not only on the impacts of tourism on these species, but on how we can work to assure their populations over the long term. Key alliances with research projects focusing on some of the most vulnerable species has helped establish studies to determine the impact of tourists on them. We also follow their recommendations through voluntary management plans and monitoring programs. Macaw, otter and harpy eagle research and monitoring have been conducted on and off since the beginning of the project. Results can be downloaded from our web page. The following chart also provides important data that proves the little impact we have on wildlife. This data has been gathered throughout the years by our guides, who register all important wildlife encounters. A sample of the most common ones has been selected for this paper.
We unfortunately have no data that proves our impact on water courses and soil is negligible, but we can describe what we do to keep our operation green and clean. First of all we separate and recycle. All biodegradable material is composted onsite. All non-biodegradable material is taken by boat to the city dump. And all glass material is taken to the recycler in town. Secondly, we use only biodegradable soaps, shampoos, and laundry materials, which are completely inocous. We do not use solar energy, and turn on a generator during five hours a day for essential kitchen equipment and battery recharging. The lodge is lighted by windlamps and refrigerators are gas powered. Finally, although we do have septic tanks, we need to invest in a cleaner waste management system. Managing environmental impacts from traditional community economic activities. Tourism in the community should generate a change in habits and decisions which lead to conservation. This can be seen anecdotally to work both ways, and is expensive to measure and follow, so we have not been successful at monitoring it. For example, on the plus side, the community has incorporated regulations which forbid members to hunt in the communal reserve, to fish with nets in the lake, and to cut forest around harpy eagle nests. Although these regulations are infracted upon every now and then, the three important take-away lessons are that the community has indeed decided to regulate the use of these resources because of their value as tourism resources, that in effect the frequency of hunting in the reserve or fishing in the lake has diminished drastically, and that the community views as a problem every time someone is heard hunting in the reserve. If it could patrol and find out who, it would sanction the infractor, likely taking his profit away for a year and blacklisting his family for jobs at Posada Amazonas. A specific example of the community´s conservation commitment and capacity to act: in 2003, a logger came to the community to buy a standing hardwood near the lake. The community assembly said no because it is close to the otters. Then the logger offered to bribe the president, and he said no. Then the logger went and cut it anyway. The community went to the police and had the timber and equipment expropriated. A second example is that they pay for two wildlife monitors, who follow Conservation International´s protocol to evaluate wildlife population sizes. The community pays for the monitors as a way to keep an eye on what impact hunting is having as a resource that is shared by tourists and community families alike. On the minus side, it is evident that community members are spending their hard earned tourism income on chainsaws and rifles. Although the monitors mentioned above will provide us data with regards to the impact of hunting on the community, it is more difficult to understand what goes on with chainsaws. These can be used for timber, but far more likely, to develop farms. In this aspect, we are hazy. As Stronza mentions in her thesis "we can be cautiously optimistic that ecotourism at Posada Amazonas is helping to protect the rain forests of Tambopata while meeting the economic needs of the people in the Community of Infierno". The FuturePosada Amazonas has some exciting years ahead. The lodge is working at an average annual occupancy of above 70%, which is virtually unsurpassable. Rainforest Expeditions has just opened a third lodge, Refugio Amazonas, which will absorb Posada Amazonas huge waiting lists. Thus, commercially, Posada Amazonas can always tinker with its infrastructure, products and services but it has no major tourism related projects which will change it drastically. For example, this year´s projects iunclude the maintenance of beams and the improvement of laundry services through the use of solar dryers. Projects in the near future will look much the same. The challenges for the project do not necessary lie in the tourism operation angle but in the communal angle. Two huge undertakings need to take place. The first one is continued capacity building. The second is enhancement of economic opportunities. So far we have succeeded in building capacity to cover all the operational lodge positions, except for manager. We have also haphazardly developed leaders through the CC, travel and the Trueque Amazonico. However it is important to implement a strategy that will produce leaders with a degree of cohesion to the community fabric. Since the manager at Posada Amazonas is in essence a leader, we have secured funding from the Interamercian Foundation to develop a two year program where twenty to thirty individuals will benefit from a curriculum specifically designed for community leaders from a Bolivian University. Topics such as accounting are mixed with gender issues and hr management during week long workshops given once a month for more than two years. In between some of these workshops we contract specialists on topics ranging from communal law to sustainable agriculture to basic computer skills. Thus after two years we hope to a have a handful of committed and trained individuals with the capacity, commitment, and fiber to the handle both the organizational challenges of the community as well as its commercial opportunities. A second challenge is the multiplication of the economic impact. Posada Amazonas profit potential is reaching its peak, both in terms of employment and profit. It will increase marginally as per person prices are raised and RFEs lodge chain continues to grow, but it will not be enough to make a meaningful difference from the present. So more cords need to be established between tourism and the economies of the families, and more importantly, these cords need to outgrow tourism eventually so that stability is achieved. Many such initiatives are now under away, and the projects concentrates on keeping them alive and finding them new opportunities. The project also concentrates on developing new initiatives. For example, five such initiatives currently in place are the Ñape ethnobotanical center, the port, the handicraft workshop the fruit plant and the fish farm. The Ñape center produces about $12,000 of services. However, we are working (very slowly) to develop with them a service that they can take to other lodges in the region, and double or triple their income. We are also working to establish a line of products which can be sold to tourists, such as wrinkle creams or relaxants. These are the same concepts we follow with the other initiatives, always allowing the committees behind each initiative to take the lead and execute their ideas. A person contracted by the project, a Project Coordinator, facilitates the realization of these little dreams. Finally, the foremost challenge we will be facing in the near future will be the construction of the Interoceanic Highway forty kilometers from Infierno. This highway will connect the Atlantic Ocean in Brazil to the Pacific Ocean in Peru. It will change the way the state of Madre de Dios looks. We are taking two measures to counter this threat. The first, is that the community has asked and obtained from the government an ecotourism concession which essentially seals the unprotected border of the lake. This should assure the lake does not suffer encroachment from the Interoceanic Highway. The second is that RFE is securing alliances with communities further upriver from Posada Amazonas to assure that the land between Posada Amazonas and the Tambopata National Reserve remains protected. With its new lodge, Refugio Amazonas, Rainforest Expeditions plans to establish the same connections that have worked well at Posada Amazonas, with four small communities around the new lodge. These four communities comprise the entire population between Infierno and the begin of the TNR. By allying with them and securing their support for the conservation of the forest, we will be in essence producing a buffer zone to the Interoceanic Highway. | As Seen In
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