Model Ecotourism? Studying Community and Private Partnership at Posada Amazonas, 2003-2004

"Ecotourism seeks to balance the capital-earning ends of tourism with a progressive respect for both the environment and the local communities that receive the brunt of tourism's impacts. The resulting integration of private and communal interests in ecotourism, via partnership, is a long course of trial-and-error, successful communication, and positive thinking."

This 36-page report summarises and compares the results of 2 separate field research sessions exploring the question: By what standards should "model" ecotourism be measured? The research examines Posada Amazonas' (APA) Lodge, opened within the Native Community of Infierno (NCL)'s land reserve in 1998 as part of a collaboration with Rainforest Expeditions (RFE), a Peruvian ecotourist company. The author undertook this research in Peru for a total of 5 months in 2003 and 2004.

As detailed here, with the help of outside funding and non-profit organisations, RFE is training community members to assume increasing responsibility for the 30-bedroom lodge, and then will pass full management of the lodge to NCL in 2017 if the community is ready. As of 2004, community members (or, "comuneros") were working full-time as guides, motorists, cooks, housekeepers, launderers, and waiters. Because APA's lodge is located about 1 hour upriver from Infierno by motorised boat, employees must live full-time at the lodge during their work cycle. Artisans living in the community also convene by committee in order to market their crafts to tourists at the lodge.

The researcher collected data through a mixed-method approach, combining ethnographic and survey methods to study the APA and Infierno populations. Structured research consisted of short interviews conducted with comuneros - in particular, with current and past company employees.

Communication-related insights from the "Community" segment of the evaluation follow - in the words of the researcher:
"In 2003, by and large, there were no obvious conclusions about the community's transition in response to the presence of ecotourism....In 2004 - again, perhaps due to growing intra-communal rifts; perhaps due to improved communication between RFE and Infierno - I perceived an overall more positive assessment of ecotourism's 'outside' influence. When I questioned my informants about the positive impacts of ecotourism, a considerable majority responded that there were mostly benefits....The negative trends reported in 2003 were generally more specific: that community leaders and guides had to spend more time working in ecotourism than in Infierno itself; and a lack of balance at APA between comuneros and 'outside' RFE employees...

I asked my informants in 2004 if they felt that there was a significant distance between guiding comuneros and the rest of the community....[t]he guides...agreed that their distance from daily life - family, agriculture, communal meetings and work crews - was balanced by their financial support and proud representation of Infierno....A majority of informants observed, simply, 'es así,' - 'that's how it is'; every comunero has a right to his or her own life, but also a responsibility to his or her membership in Infierno. This was reinforced by the number of informants that answered in the affirmative when I asked if the operational staff positions at APA should be able to work more than two years...

In the context of Infierno's collective unity, or lack thereof, it is necessary to acknowledge how the problem of identity is synonymous with the presence of Infierno's two general ethnic groupings: the Ese Eja (indigenous to the area that is now Infierno), and the ribereños / colonos (other people of indigenous Amazonian descent and colonists from other parts of Peru)....In Infierno's case, and for many native communities, the personal and political process of auto-definition has been further complicated by the arrival of tourists and their economically viable evaluation of native 'authenticity.' For example, Infierno's artisan committee was established in order to demonstrate and sell traditional-style native crafts, but these are constructed culture - the comuneros don't normally make such things for themselves....[I]n 2004, a majority of my informants related that the community was dividing itself, separate of ecotourism....However, most of those who did think APA had exacerbated the divisions generally saw an indirect impact: the ownership and management of APA wasn't the problem; the shared handling of possibilities brought by APA - money, projects, power - was.

...I asked my informants if they perceived good communication between RFE and the comuneros....The majority of affirmative responses for all informants believed that the comuneros do have a sense of ownership of APA, as opposed to feeling that they are merely employees of the company. Among those who perceived a need for better communication, both sides of the partnership were variously faulted....[T]he local committees and meetings about APA need to garner respect, attendance, and order. The fringe households, despite the literal and figurative distance, need to be included in the dissemination of information, because otherwise ecotourism could critically polarize Infierno....In 2004, the Project Coordinator's new monthly newsletter explaining the ecotourist project seemed to be the best alternative in the meantime. It addressed, interview-style,...necessary projects, ownership and evaluation of the lodge and its staff, community discord and separation. A few editions published the findings of the two comuneros serving as 'communicators' who had surveyed a number of households on these issues....[T]he newsletter should be a fair, dependable, and informative tool of information....In the near future, it seems that literate, financially responsible, project-oriented individuals would best take advantage of such opportunities. This should be a positive development - still, by Infierno's majority standard, informative communication, as opposed to top-down direction, may principally help those who can already help themselves...

...[I]n 2003...one of the comuneros guiding told me about when APA first opened, and adults and children alike would visit from the community in order to see the fruits of their collective labor. As business increased at the lodge, those regular visits had largely ceased....As of 2004, my informants faulted both sides of the partnership: the comuneros for general apathy; RFE for training delays...

I finally asked, simply, if my informants liked ecotourism; if they felt they had a vocation for it. The great majority responded positively, but didn't personally feel drawn to invest themselves, either figuratively or literally ....Many adult comuneros felt that they were the 'test' generation, and that the following one would be the best hope for cultivating the education and interest necessary for technical and managerial positions in ecotourism. However, there was also a general consensus that Infierno's current schoolchildren were lacking in both formal and moral education [in the field of ecotourism], and were suffering the worst effects of communal apathy..."