by Barry Thomson
Discovering the Hospitality of the Amazon's People
Ecuador -- The community of Anangu is located 60 miles down the Napo River from the frontier town of Coca, in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The community consists of 12 families of lowland ethnic Quichuas who moved into the territory a dozen years ago. Their communal lands are contiguous with the vast 982,000-hectare (2.4 million-acre) Yasuni National Park, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
Three Quichua shamen from the Nopo region. Photo: Barry Thomson |
The surrounding forest hosts such species as the endemic Golden-mantled Tamarin, monk saki and spider monkeys, as well as more than 550 species of birds. In Anangu Cocha (lagoon), the arapaima, the world's largest freshwater fish, lazily breaks the water's surface like a miniature whale.
In the midst of this abundance, the Anangu community has elected to use nature to supplement the meager income available from subsistence agriculture by entering the international ecotourism industry.
Anangu sits on the doorstep of two of the most prestigious ecotourist lodges in Ecuador. La Selva, opened in 1986, was a pioneer of ecotourism in the region, while Sacha Lodge, built in 1991, sports 26 cabins and has a turnover of 1000 tourists a year.
Giovanni Rivandeniera shrugs at the mention of his illustrious neighbors: As a guide, he has worked at both of them. He insists that the lodges are not in competition. Anangu does not offer hot water showers or gourmet meals -- Anangu offers an experience in "deep ecotourism."
Anangu is one of a number of emerging Community Based Ecotourism (CBE) projects proliferating in the Ecuadorian Amazon (the Oriente). The 38 CBE projects either operating or under development in Ecuador collectively represent all of the remaining indigenous nations of the Oriente.
To the north of the Napo River, the Cofan and Secoya nations operate their own tourist lodges. To the south, the once-feared Huaorani have emerged from the former exploitative arrangement of tours run by outside operators to organize and manage their own CBE project. This revolution has led to a reexamination of the very concept of ecotourism.
Andy Drumm, co-founder of Accion Amazonia, an Ecuadorian conservation organization, draws a distinction between ecotourism, (which implies conservation, education, responsibility and active community participation) and nature tourism (which takes place in natural areas but lacks the down-to-earth elements of ecotourism).
Although many of the lodges (and an increasing number of independent guides) observe adequate environmental standards, there are still many abuses. Accion Amazonia reports that the following practices are still too frequent: indigenous labor employed in low-paid, unqualified jobs; limited training opportunities; unpredictable intrusions by tourist visitors and inadequate compensation for purchases of handicrafts. A growing dissatisfaction with the low economic benefits and instability in relations with commercial tourist operators has provided the driving force behind the creation of the CBE projects.
Typically, CBE enterprises are started by a number of families within a community. Initial resources are pooled and the organization takes on a democratic framework. This reflects the traditional minga or cooperative approach to any large-scale endeavor -- such as clearing a field or hauling a dugout canoe to the river. Jobs and responsibilities revolve between community members. Cabins are built communally; cooking and guiding responsibilities are shared.
The CBE project must obtain legal status and comply with regulations governing tax declarations on services and products sold. Without legal status, a community must work with an established company, which passes its added costs on to the tourist. Accion Amazonia is offering technical support and legal advice to permit interested communities to become fully independent CBEs.
Sofia Darquea of Tropical Ecological Tours (and co-founder of Acci-n Amazonia) explained the difference between conventional nature tourism and the CBE experience. There are no fixed departure dates. Tours are organized around dates suitable to both the tourist and the community. Since many of the communities are extremely remote -- the final line communication may consist of a boy in a dugout canoe with a note and a paddle -- advanced bookings are obligatory.
Although the tourists will be living in an indigenous community and observing everyday life, they will not be entertained with the "secret initiation rites" and "war dances" favored by generations of documentary filmmakers. If the community is due to hunt, they will hunt; if they require a shamanic healing ritual, one will be held; and if it is time to get rip-roaring drunk, they will party.
Nothing is done just to please the tourists, Sofia stressed. What the tourist will receive are a number of excursions into the rainforest led by a native guide who learned his lore from the animals themselves. The pharmacopoeia of medicinal plant knowledge handed down by oral tradition will be explained. It may be possible to shake paws with a shaman capable of transforming himself into a jaguar to stalk the forest at nights.
What is not possible is to find "uncontacted," "untouched," or "uncivilized" tribes. All the groups within the Ecuadorian Amazon have a history of contact with missionaries, rubber-tappers, oil workers, and now, tourists.
The growth in CBE projects has allowed some communities to choose their own future, while continuing to live in a traditional manner. In this unique scenario there is no intermediary. The payments made by the tourists directly contribute to the maintenance of the CBE project: The CBE project directly contributes to the maintenance of the rainforest -- and to preserving a disappearing way of life.
For information on participating in a CBE ecotour, contact Tropic Ecological Adventures (tropieco.com), accionamazonia@ecuadorexplorer.org or www.cofan.org.
Beyond Ecotourism: Going Native