For Immediate Release
Ecuador’s Tropic Journeys in Nature
Reports Partnership with Ancient Ethnic People
Yields Environmental Rewards
In Threatened Amazonian Ecuador
QUITO, ECUADOR, Aug. 27, 2013 – A cooperative program engaging the Huaorani, one of the world’s most isolated ethnic groups, as hosts on and stewards of their ancestral turf is beginning to secure their future by paying ecological dividends.
Ecuador’s award-winning ecotourism company,
Tropic Journeys in Nature (Tropic), since 1994 has led tours through the country’s most engaging landscapes. These include the rainforest region occupied by the Huaorani who, since 2008 with partner Tropic, are working to stabilize a heretofore ecologically threatened region of the Amazonian Ecuador, considered the world’s most
biologically diverse.
“The canopy is re-appearing over sections that were slashed and burned and along the rivers,” notes Jascivan Carvalho, Tropic’s owner. “The region is showing signs of regeneration with more sightings of giant river otter, jaguars, giant armadillos and the very rare short eared dog.“
The region encompasses
Yasuni National Park, a UNESCO
Biosphere Reserve that is home to as-yet
uncontacted indigenous tribes, including the
Tagaeri and the
Taromenane. Placing the region at risk are the infrastructure requirements of companies committed to pulling out vast oil reserves in the region.
Editors Note: In mid-August Ecuador President Rafael Correa signed Decree 74 removing the Yasuni Trusts and paving the way for oil field development in one region of the park, an exercise that may well lead to widespread exploitation of indigenous peoples, wildlife, the forest canopy and supporting environment.
“Even in the face of pending oil development and multinational business interests we’re trying hard to demonstrate that that the Huaorani – and other indigenous peoples – have a right to their tribal lands. By bringing visitors to them, the Huaorani become the world’s greatest advocates for conservation – of land and of peoples,” says Carvalho.
Carvalho notes that since the Huaorani Ecolodge was created in 2008, the particular interest this ancient people now show toward their ancestral land in Yasuni National Park has encouraged natural reforestation along waterways and in turn ever-more-frequent sightings of wildlife whose habitat is no longer being suppressed.
Amphibian (121 documented species), fish (382 known species), bird (596 known species), bat (117 species estimated) and insects (over 100,000 different species) abound here in numbers not found elsewhere on Earth thanks to a diverse and richly textured flora and fauna (up to 720 estimated endemic species and over 4,000 species of vascular plants). Species of vertebrates number 43.
Tropic (
http://www.destinationecuador.com/) facilitates small group interaction with these people as guests of
Huaorani Ecolodge deep within the Ecuador jungle. The lodge is the result of a sustainable tourism partnership between Tropic and the Huaorani (or “People” as the name translates). In January 2008 Tropic assisted the formation of a five-community tourism affiliation to help secure the tribe’s health and heritage through the tools of sustainable tourism. Members of this tribe are trained to work at the award-winning, five-cabin Amazon rainforest lodge that they built of traditional materials harvested from Yasuni National Park, perhaps the most biodiverse region of the world. They are also learning how to produce and sell crafts. Produce is bought locally; there are plans to create a laundry service in Quehueri'ono to increase local employment; and biodegradable products are used in housekeeping services as well as in the bathrooms.
Three and four-night packages are available from $690 per person, double, for accommodations, meals, an English-speaking guide and guided activities (including one night camping).
Accessing this wild ecolodge is by a 45-minute flight in a small aircraft from the Amazonian lowlands town of Shell, flying over the rainforest to the grass airstrip at the Huaorani village of Quehueri'ono. Guests then board a dugout canoe for the final leg. Walled by rainforest on the downriver float, guests may see monkeys, toucans, macaws and other Amazonian wildlife. After the stay, on the return drive along the Auca Road built by the oil companies in the early 1970s, guests will witness miles of oil pipelines and the damage that oil exploration has done to the forest and Huaorani hunting grounds.
“Our community-based tourism project allows the Huaorani to earn an income while maintaining control of their territory and lifestyle,” notes Carvalho. The lodge is in the Yasuni International Biosphere reserve, one of four so designated by UNESCO in Ecuador for their ecological importance in the conservation and protection of biodiversity.
Accommodations at the Huaorani Ecolodge are individual palm-thatched cabins of local wood. Each cabin has twin beds, a private bathroom equipped with a shower and flush toilet, and a porch with comfortable chairs and hammock. Environmentally friendly soaps and shampoos are provided. Lighting comes from solar panels that power the shortwave radio, refrigerator and water pump. A bio-filter renders all waste products either recyclable or harmless before being discharged into the river. Meals are taken in a c
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