Ecotourism Growing in Ecuador

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

9/3/96

OVERVIEW & SOURCE by EE

The following photocopy of a Christian Science Monitor article illustrates

the potential for ecotourism to provide desired development in tropical

countries while conserving vital ecosystems. Small scale, community owned

alternative development options are a necessity if the forest movement's

advocacy against industrial forest diminishment is to progess towards

sustainable forest use. In particular, a package of small scale options

such as ecotourism, fisheries, small scale sawmilling, non-timber forest

products and others may combine to provide local peoples a livelihood while

not over-exploiting any one resource base.

Glen Barry

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Ecotourism is Growing and Getting Greener Along the Trail

8/26/96

Ecuador has a model of how this popular adventure should be

BOSTON -- If saving the world's tropical forests sounds like an impossible

task, take a look at how they're doing it at Maquipucuna in Ecuador.

In a country where tourism has long been a leading - yet not always nature-

friendly industry - Maquipucuna is emerging as a model of what ecotourism

in its purist sense is meant to be.

What makes Maquipucuna's program so strong, according to Henry Tepper,

director of the New Hampshire Office of the Nature Conservancy, is that it

employs local people, is generating income and building support for

conservation, and is done with minimal environmental impact.

Located in the northwestern mountains of Ecuador, Maquipucuna is a nature

reserve of more than 10,000 acres of cloud forest - an elevated, often

cloud-covered tropical forest.

Rich in a wide variety of animals and plants - particularly epiphytes

(plants which grow on other plants) - this forest is connected to a region

considered one of the 10 most biologically diverse "hot spots" in the

world.

But it is also one of the world's most endangered regions. All around

Maquipucuna, timber cutting, farming, cattle grazing, and charcoal

production are causing the forest to disappear rapidly.

Last year, in an effort to strengthen protection for this cloud forest,

Maquipucuna, which is managed by the nonprofit Maquipucuna Foundation,

opened to tourists. Since then, according to reserve director Abigail Rome,

Maquipucuna has welcomed hundreds of students, scientists, and vacationers

from around the world.

Last spring, Brian Brown, an entomologist and assistant curator of the

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles Country, spent four days at

Maquipucuna doing what he loves - searching for undiscovered species of

flies that are parasites of ants.

While Mr. Brown used to travel to other sites in Ecuador, he and his

colleagues now go to Maquipucuna, since it has the large forest necessary

for successful research. "There is so much we still don't know about

tropical forests," Brown says.

But is ecotourism a good way to protect them? "Absolutely," he responds.

Though nature-oriented tourism is far from new, ecotourism is a concept

born and defined in only the past five years.

More and more countries are looking at ecotourism - acknowledged as the

hottest part of the tourism industry, (which in the last decade has become

the largest industry in the world) - as a means of both resource

conservation and economic development. This is particularly true in cash-

poor countries such as Ecuador where tropical forests and other natural

areas are threatened.

While Ecuador is probably best known for places such as the Galapagos

Islands, which many people say have been overwhelmed by unmanageable

tourism, this may be changing.

According to Megan Epler Wood, executive director of the Ecotourism

Society, groups such as the Ecuadorean Ecotourism Association have begun

taking a strong stand in ensuring that ecotourism operations remain truly

friendly to the environment.

To ecotravelers and conservationists such as Harold Janeway, this is very

important. What impressed him so much about his recent Maquipucuna trip,

was the feeling after he had left, that he had "had not done any harm."

Mr. Janeway tells of savoring Ecuadorean cuisine while sitting by a rushing

river, looking at rare hummingbirds and 50-foot ferns, and hiking with a

local guide who tracked forest creatures.

Traditionally, residents of villages surrounding Maquipucuna have worked as

farmers, woodcutters, and miners, all of which contributed to

deforestation.

Now, a number of these people earn good salaries working as guides, cooks,

research assistants, and maintenance people at the reserve. All employees

receive special training and environmental education (something which has

been introduced only recently in many other areas) and, Ms. Rome points

out, often share their new knowledge with family members and others in the

community.

People who don't work directly at the reserve benefit by participating in

education programs and selling goods such as baskets and hats made from

local plants and other materials.

Because of their involvement, many locals are beginning to see the forest

as an area worth protecting - rather than cutting.

"Ecotourism demands natural beauty," says Chris Wille, Director of the

Rainforest Alliance in Costa Rica and an ecotourism consultant for projects

throughout Central America. "We have talked to many peasants who now

believe that trees are worth more as ecotourism capital than dead wood on a

logging truck." People have to make a living off the land, he says, and

ecotourism is one of the least destructive ways to do that.

Even so, Mr. Wille and others stress, ecotourism is no panacea. Says

Katrina Brandon, who recently wrote a report on ecotourism and conservation

for the World Bank, "ecotourism is not the perfect solution. There are

places where it shouldn't be done, either from a social or biological

standpoint."

And at Maquipucuna, ecotourism has yet to reach its full potential. It is

impossible, Rome emphasizes, to employ or reach everyone with the

conservation message, and there are still madereros, or woodcutters, and

hunters near the reserve.

Though the Maquipucuna Foundation would like to see ecotourism generate

enough income to support the scientific research and other programs

important to long term protection of the cloud forest, that is not

happening yet.

Rome is also quick to acknowledge the downside of attracting too many

tourists. In the Galapagos Islands, for example, where visitors have come

in overwhelming numbers, the booming and poorly managed industry has caused

populations in area towns to rise dramatically. This has changed the social

and political structure of the region, says Hugo Amal, Ecuador Program for

The Nature Conservatory. It is these indirect impacts which have caused the

most harm.

But Maquipucuna, Mr. Amal says, is different. The managers are setting

conservation goals and objectives first, then deciding how many visitors -

and what activities - the area can support.

So far all the buildings - visitors' lodge, scientific laboratory, and

research station - are made from local materials such as wood, bamboo, and

palm leaves and designed to fit in with the environment. Septic systems,

nearly unheard of locally, have been installed, and kitchen waste is used

to make compost for organic gardens, which in turn feed visitors.

Intensively traveled trails are kept to a minimum. Visitors learn about

forest ecology and conservation, and - perhaps, most significantly - 90

percent of the reserve is not open to tourists at all.

As ecotourism at the reserve grows, Rome says, its managers will continue

to monitor the effects on resources and adjust their plan accordingly. In

this way, she says, they expect to keep from crossing the line between

tourism that protects nature and that which overwhelms it.

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