The Ese'eja Ecotourism Project (information provided by Rainforest Expeditions)

 
The Ese´eja Ecotourism Project is an attempt to prove that business/communal joint ventures in tourism are not only successful in empowering local communities and conserving natural resources, but are also sound business practices. Posada Amazonas, our 24 bedroom ecolodge opened in 1998, is the first completed product of this venture. 

The backbone of the project is a 20-year contract signed by the community members and Rainforest Expeditions in 1996. This contract defines the participants proportions in the profit (60% for the community) and decision-making (50% for each associate), the management and financial responsibilities of each participant, the land-use terms, the obligations and rights of both participants, and conflict resolution procedures. A fundamental concept of the project is the shared participation in the decision-making process. Work procedures, project policies, marketing strategies, infrastructure and itinerary development, are all designed and approved by Rainforest Expeditions and the Native Community as represented by its 10 member Ecotourism Committee. Other fundamental concepts include training of community members to occupy all lodge positions, purchase community products of market quality and price, and gradual incorporation of cultural resources into the tour programs.

The project was financed by the Canadian technical assistance and the Macarthur Foundation. Funds that correspond to the amount of investment that came from communal resources (wood, palm leaves, cane) were donated while those that correspond to imported materials (beds, toilets, etc.) were loaned. Posada Amazonas belongs to the native community.
Interesting socioeconomic results have already been achieved for the education, shared management and income generation objectives. The fundamental concept of this project lies in the shared management of Posada Amazonas, an objective which will allow it to be transferred to the native community.

Qualitative changes indicate progress in this challenging area: 

Community members are increasingly aware of their status as partners. Every day discourse reveals a sense of ownership. The Ecotourism Committee, is taking an increasingly active approach to decision-making. The Ecotourism Committee, deals with hiring, solving staff problems, and implementing certain itinerary improvements. 
Catalyzed by the tangible success of Posada Amazonas, the community is forming committees to lead education, handicraft, cultural rescue, agriculture, and urbanization programs in the community. 
Equally important to the project’s success is the training of community members in all aspects regarding ecolodge management. A workshop system has been adopted for some positions (housekeeping, waiting), and an apprenticeship system has been adopted for others (cooks, guides, management). 

Over 30 community members have assisted to workshops. Community members are employed in all 16 operations positions. Apprenticeships for guiding have been successful: three community members have guided needing only a translator. Problems in the training program have to do with language, general service skills, and general and specific management skills (finances, accounting, marketing, etc.). Short-term solutions include workshops to develop service skills in employees and on-site English classes. Mid to long-term solutions include the incorporation of tourism-related skill development into the community's school curriculum and financing the formal higher education of individuals interested in pursuing careers in tourism. 

A third socioeconomic impact to look for in the community is the income generated by tourism: profit from lodge operation, wages from lodge employment, and sales of products to the lodge. Five hundred dollars a month are being generated from the sale of drinks.

These revenues are invested by the community in their affairs (including financing the described committees). Wages from employment at the lodge are about 38% above the mean family income generated by traditional activities (farming, hunting, etc.). Taking into account almost every household with a member employed at Posada Amazonas has not had to give up traditional sources of income there is an estimated 138% increase in income for lodge employee households. Finally, the mean annual income generated by families selling products to Posada Amazonas is equivalent to a 36% addition to their household income. This comes from the sale of palm fronds, wood, handicrafts, etc. This figure is inflated by the local materials purchased to build Posada Amazonas, income which will disappear in the future. Income from handicrafts, however, shows enormous potential: a family which is producing them for sale at Posada Amazonas has already doubled its income with almost no training in handicraft production. Given the fact that prices for the crafts may increase with quality (achieved through training), and that the regional market is not supplied, this source of income will become important in the future. 

Environmentally, results have also been important and, in the case of wildlife conservation, very clear. The realization that Posada Amazonas´ success depends in great measure on tourists seeing animals has generated wildlife conservation schemes. For example, eight large eagle nests located within community grounds have been assigned guardians that receive money for every tourist that visits the nest. For years, although Ese´eja respected them, they hunted them for feathers. Today they are their principal protectors: a few months ago, an Ese´eja guide prevented a crew of construction workers building a road a few yards from the nest from cutting the tree it was on. A second example: the community has also declared interest in supporting macaw conservation work for the benefit of their tourism enterprise. 

On the other hand, studies preliminarily conclude that tourism and conservation in the Ese´eja community are related. Relation between hectares under annual cultivation and employment at Posada Amazonas and between hunting and employment at Posada Amazonas are both negative, theoretically meaning that the more people work in tourism the less they cultivate or hunt.
This, again, is preliminary. On the negative side, a positive relation was discovered for timber extraction and palm leaf extraction and tourism, an obvious effect of the large amounts of these resources required for initial lodge construction. 

Cultural revalorization is also one of the project's principal objectives. Although the use of communal cultural resources to enhance Posada Amazonas has incredible potential, we have been very careful with the integration of cultural resources into the concept of Posada Amazonas. Posada Amazonas was built in a 2,000 hectare reserve set apart 25 years ago within communal grounds by community members to protect primary forest and wildlife populations so that these could replenish impoverished areas elsewhere. Thus, it is the ideal location: not only is it uninhabited, preventing tourists from disturbing the community's everyday life, but it also contains beautiful and wildlife-rich forests. 

Additionally, the initial programs and marketing materials, are based on a nature product with some cultural interaction. Although visitors are interested in native culture, we felt it was dangerous to proceed rapidly because of the possibility of degenerating communal cultural resources. So we only integrated two cultural activities into our programs: an ethnobotanical walk and a visit to a farm. 

In the future, cultural tourism resources will be identified through mechanisms that will allow the community to revalue them and decide which ones to share with tourists. Some have already been tried. One involves disposable cameras that were given to community members to photograph what they were proud of and what tourists shouldn´t see. Photographs of the first kind: a project participant climbing an eagle nest, woman preparing palm fronds, etc. Photographs of the second kind: hunted animals, felled trees, etc. 

In conclusion, although cultural resources are valuable as part of Posada Amazonas, they are carefully integrated into it. At present the cultural presence of the community at Posada Amazonas can be felt, but it is not permeated throughout the program as it will be in the future. 

After our first year in operation, we are confident that Posada Amazonas has been a good business decision and, quoting anthropologist Amanda Stronza, "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 Native Community of Infierno". 

Click here for further information about Rainforest Expeditions and Posada Amazonas

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