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There is little doubt that you will be overwhelmed with your visit to this unique destination, as the Huaorani territory encompasses an exceptionally ecologically diverse area and unique culture. But this area and other parts of the Amazon are under potential threat of being forever lost to outside influences. But with community based eco-projects such as this, we inspire to protect and conserve this fragile region through sustainable use for future generations.
Inspired by a number of visionary leaders, the Huaorani, have not fled, nor assimilated, nor disappeared. The Huaorani leader Moi Enomenga developed the concept of community tourism for his people, tourism that would help rather than hinder, that would be lead and controlled by the community itself that would provide an alternative to oil money, to deforestation, to disappearance.
After many years of consultation with the families, with the group, with neighboring communities, a plan was developed, a plan to build the Lodge in which you are now staying, a plan to show others who the Huaorani are, why they will survive, a plan to offer others a way to understand and support.
After 15 years of work and now with their Huaorani Ecolodge open the community have won international awards for its sustainable operation and recently awarded in the UK as the best Sustainable Tourism project in Latin America of the year 2008.
The community agreed to continue protecting the 55 thousand hectares they are responsible for and establish an intangible area of more than 5 thousand dedicated to conservation and tourism.
The Huaorani territory has been subject to outside influences since 1953, they were the last of the major ethnic groups to be contacted. The initial contact came through the missionaries, and it has been said that some of these evangelists often worked closely with oil companies to further their mutual objectives (Colby and Dennet 1995).
The discovery of oil in 1967 significantly increased these disruptive influences. Texaco initiated oil development near Lago Agrio. Eventually several other foreign companies and Petroecuador became involved in large parts of Sucumbios and the Napo provinces. Many indigenous men were introduced to the temporary wage labor, prostitution and consumer goods during the oil exploitation phase. Woman often lived in fear of the abusive practices of the oil-workers. The routine dumping of toxic formation water and frequent oil spills into the rivers on which the indigenous communities depend created huge negative impacts on their lives.
The flood of settlers which followed the new, oil financed road network affected the locals in several ways. First it displaced them from some of the best and most accessible agricultural soils. Second, it reduced the territory available for hunting and gathering. Finally, the example of the settlers and government policy encouraged the indigenous people to increase their reliance on agriculture and lumbar extraction and to covet the land as private property rather than a communal resource. The country´s most important source of foreign income is its oil exports, and most of the oil lies beneath the rainforests. Oil exploitation and natural resource conservation are not necessarily incompatible, as we can see in Europe and North America where there are strict environmental controls on this type of activity.
Thus community based eco-lodge maintains a way of life for the Huaorani independent of gifts and handouts from oil companies. This venture links the Huaorani to tourism as an alternative means of income, in their irreversibly changed world, enabling them to preserve their culture, heritage, traditions and at the same time conserve the land.
During the first 10 years of work, we limited the group sizes (up to 8 people) and only one group per month, to slowly transmit what tourism is all about and how it operates, once the community were happy with the operations and a well designed code of conduct for the visitors, the community and guided we decided to build a fixed infrastructure entirely powered by renewable energy and with capacity to only 10 people.
The lodge and operation belongs entirely to the community. All the finances are managed under the Quehueri’ono Association, its financial sustainability depends on your booking.
The commitment towards sustainability and the new model and approach works as a model to many communities and operations. For the community the decision to work with tourism is an alternative to many extractive operations that surrounds the territory, so we believe is no longer a matter of making a difference, tourism is no longer the motive. Tourism is no longer the end, but rather the means. The end is the survival and strengthening of indigenous peoples and their forest environments in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The end is to save unique human cultures.
This community based lodge is an example towards our environmental and cultural goals of sustainable development. By facilitating a greater flow of interested Amazon visitors to this community, who manage the operation, allows the generated income to be put back into the community and conserve the natural resources.
What is more, the visitors will, through the unique experience of seeing the rainforest through the eyes of the people that live there, almost certainly gain insights which will make them a new ally in our common struggle to defend the rainforest.
Passionate animal-lover Jules was galloping on a horse across the plains of Mongolia when he had the idea to set up a travel company which used tourism to raise funds and awareness of the plight of endangered animals. He worked with the Orangutan Foundation in Borneo to put together one of his first trips and today has a portfolio of incredible holidays that work with leading authorities on wildlife and contribute toward conservation. All staff share his ethos of ‘travel to protect’ and believe responsible tourism can be an effective tool if it helps local people realise the economic potential of their natural habitats.
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