Ecotourism is big business, accounting for millions of dollars a year. Started in the 1970s and 1980s, it was not until the 1990s that the industry really began to flourish. At that time it was more about adventures on private yachts or safaris to newly accessible part of Africa. In fact, back in 1999 I was a representative at the 9th Annual World Congress on Adventure Travel and Ecotourism held in Tucson, Arizona, where I was involved in getting various ecotour companies to include a cultural component in their Caribbean and Latin American tours. I had some success, but at that time the infrastructure and overall agenda of the industry was not there to really achieve the goals desired. Now, however, this is no longer the case.
Indigenous community member teaching traditional knowledge to ecotourists
More and more ecotour companies are not only including a cultural component, but some are heavily focused on including the local indigenous people in their activities. One such ecotour company is Posada Amazonas located in Infierno in eastern Peru. Infierno and Posada Amazonas are located in the province of Tambopata, several hours by motorized canoe from the capital of Madre de Dios, Puerto Maldonado. The community covers approximately 10,000 hectares on both sides of the Tambopata River and is located within the buffer zone of the Tambopata National Reserve and near the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park.
Despite its title and legal designation by government decree as a communally-owned native territory, Infierno is culturally diverse. The members of the community comprise three main ethnic groups: Ese eja, riberenos, and Andean colonos (colonsits). The cultural and ancestral heritage of the Ese eja is tied with the lowland rainforests of what is today southeastern Peru and northwestern Bolivia. The Ese eja distinguish among themselves by referring to their place of origin, generally the river where they were born or have lived most of their lives (Ocampo-Raeder 2006). The Ese eja of the Infierno are Bahuaja Ese eja, or the “Ese eja from the Tambopata River.” Two other groups of Ese eja are associated with the Heath River in Madre de Dios and the Madidi River in Bolivia (Alexiades 1999, Lepri 2006, Peluso 2003).
The riberenos are people of mixed heritage who represent some of the earliest immigrants to the Peruvian Amazon (Chibnik 1994). Their name implies proximity to rivers. The riberenos arrived for a variety of different reasons – as part of the rubber boom, and later in search of opportunities in extractive industries like timber, gold, or Brazil nut harvest.
The Andean colonos in Infierno settled in the area during the 1980s and 1990s. They maintain cultural and economic ties with the Andes. The indigenous people of the Infierno have a mixed economy based on fishing, hunting, and gathering with some horticulture.
Until the 1970s no indigenous communities were legally recognized in Peru. Individual parcels within native territories were granted by the national government to “anyone who cared to colonize the area” (Gray 1997:77). This changed in 1974 when the Law of Native Communities stated that Amazonian indigenous peoples were to have their lands demarcated and recognized as inalienable territory. When this law led to a title of “native community” in Infierno in 1976, the Ese eja joined with riberenos and families of mixed indigenous and Andean descent who were already living in the area since the rubber boom. Information on why non-Ese eja members were included varies, but apparently support for public works was conditioned on a certain number of inhabitants.
Community members helping to build one of the lodges at Amazonas Posada
Over the past decade the members of Infierno have partnered with a private tourism company –
Rainforest Expeditions – to build, co-manage, and share revenues in a highly profitable ecotourism lodge called
Posada Amazonas. The communal-private partnership is a legally binding 20 year contract, which began in 1996 and will end in 2016.
Posada Amazonas has won several international awards, including the United Nation’s Equator Initiative Award, for its efforts to bring the ideals of ecotourism to practice. The lodge consists of an architecturally designed complex of thatched buildings that can accommodate 60 guests at a time. The number of tourists to Posada Amazonas has steadily increased from 2,000 in 1998 to 4,000 in 2002 to more than 7,000 in 2007. Between 70 to 80 percent of the profits are divided among families for personal use, and the remainder are used for communal projects, including a secondary school, water tank, and new river port. Profits are also channeled to increase social support in the form of an emergency health fund, care for the elderly, and loans for higher education in Lima.
In the case of Posada Amazonas, it appears that the collaborative effort between the local indigenous peoples and the ecotour company are working out. Not only is the ecotour company – Rainforest Expeditions – getting an excellent opportunity to expand its operations and to succeed in establishing a long-term beneficial relationship, but the local indigenous community is also benefiting. By being co-managers and revenue sharers, the local indigenous peoples are able to invest in their future on their own terms. Hopefully in the near future more ecotour and adventure travel companies will follow in the footsteps of Posada Amazonas and work directly with local indigenous groups in terms of operations, management, and revenue sharing.
Alexiades, Miguel. 1999. Ethnobotany of the Ese’ eja: Plants, Health, and Change in an Amazonian Society. Ph.D. Dissertation, The City University of New York.
Chibnik, Michael. 1994. Risky Rivers: The Economics and Politics of Floodplain Farming in Amazonia. Tuscon: University of Arizona Press.
Gray, Andrew. 1997. Indigenous Rights and Development: Self-determination in an Amazonian Community. Oxford, UK: Bergahn Books. Lepri, Isabella. 2006. Identity and Otherness Among the Ese Ejja of Northern Bolivia.
Ethnos, 71(1):67-88.
Ocampo-Raeder, C. 2006. Ese eja Signatures: A Systematic Assessment of the Effects of Indigenous Resource Management Practices on an Amazonian Forest. Ph.D. Dissertation. Stanford University.
Peluso, Daniela M. 2003. Ese Eja Epona: Woman’s Social Power in Multiple and Hybrid Worlds. Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University.
Stronza, Amanda. 2008. Through a New Mirror: Reflections on Tourism and Identity in the Amazon.
Human Organization, 67(3):244-257.
