Peruvians can very well tell how important conscious tourism is. The prime example need not be Machu Pichu, with its thousands visitors a day in high season. The unconscious travellers from developed countries have a massive impact on the economies of places like Peru or Bolivia. But this coin has two sides – both the visitors and the visited need to see the wider picture, to keep such essential and beautiful places like the Amazon preserved and protected, its communities supported and not abused. Colectivo Semillas del Cumbaza, a project run by our friends in Peru is committed to inspire and motivate change in both public and private organizations to guide them towards exactly that. To protect biodiversity and nature conservation, educate locals and create work placements them, to minimize migration to bigger cities and keep the traditional communities in their lands.
The project focuses on the rural areas of the Amazon, the high jungle of northeast Peru, San Martin Region where I had the pleasure to be not so long ago. The photos taken by me and the kids are also from there and the initiative is directly connected to San Roque and its residents, the village being a prime example of the issues presented (see below for details).
I am in the process of preparing a photo book and any proceedings from the book will be passed on to this project. Soon you might also see the photos in somewhere in Central London. I am playing around with other ideas what to do with the photos and how to make them available. Poster? Postcards? There is so much possibilities! It makes my head spin. Which is for once, a good thing :)
Below you can read in more detail about the Colectivo (thank you Rodrigo!):
Conscious Tourism
Co-Creating Change in the Peruvian Amazon
The program trains locals and visitor students, articulating them with the sustainable development stakeholders; empowering the processes of improving quality of life and nature conservation in rural areas of the Amazonian high jungle of northeastern Peru, San Martin region.
Vision: We articulate, motivate and inspire profound change in stakeholders (rural, public and private organizations) to guide their commitment towards education, and biodiversity and nature conservation; creating impact and environmental inclusive work for locals.
Mission: To implement "hands-on" educational programs where visitors and locals get involved in local sustainable development, empowering their ecological, social and cultural processes. We focus in complementing important issues disregarded by institutional sectors and rural areas. Our programs incorporate an academic-theoretical component, community service learning (providing interactive dynamics between locals and visitors), and ecotourism recreation.
Background:San Martin is the most deforested region in Peru. Every year 120 000 acres are cut down and only 32% of the population has access to potable water; as a result of a disordered migration process which begun last century and still happens. Unsustainable economic "booms" of jungle products (rubber, snuff, coffee, mullein, cotton, corn), inappropriate state policies, and periods of drug trafficking and terrorism; overpopulated the region, disrupted its agricultural economy, and broke down the inter-generational transmission process of indigenous traditional knowledge for doing their livelihoods while preserving nature.
Currently, some results are becoming visible for ecological alternatives that began 20 years ago, like organic fair trade coffee and cacao, the creation of natural protected areas and tourism. In 2004 San Martin created the first Regional Conservation Area (RCA) in Peru: Cordillera Escalera. Is composed of almost 370 000 acres of Tropical Montane Rainforest producing 20 m3/s of water (in normal conditions); and its conservancy goals are: water, salt sources, forests (of clouds, hills and foothills), the phragmipedin orchid, the spectacled bear and hunting animals (deer, collared peccary, crax, and tapir). There is also some feline presence.
These processes still require more inter-institutional coordination and trust among stakeholders (rural, public and private); and innovative proposals to strengthen the social fabric and thus, provide greater depth to projects coming from government, NGOs and private sector. Ecotourism brings an opportunity to guide their efforts towards Rural Education, Sustainable Agricultural Management and Care of Natural Resources. The latter are key successful factors to improve the quality of life in the field. This is the proposal of Conscious Tourism: experiences that co-create local conditions for these processes to be consolidated.
Goals:
- Provide an approach to rural Amazonian juncture linked with visitor's themes of interest (or curriculum), for them to develop good comprehension of local dynamics; useful for their studies, work, and decision making on Third World projects.
- Involve students in the region in the preparation of programs, and thus, in developing their rural areas. The exchange between urban and rural youth strengthens the social fabric required for environmental conservation.
- Encourage rural populations located in environmentally critical areas (buffer zones of protected areas); to participate in initiatives for protecting the environment. In the Amazon, often happens that participants in rural ecotourism committees become the "green guards" in their village. Developing opportunities for them encourages more ecological attitudes towards environment and more communal eco-awareness.
- Build the habit of working in coordination between stakeholders involved in tourism, environment and sustainable economic development, both in rural and urban; and on the basis of experience.
- Enhance and restore holistic traditional knowledge for survival in nature. For example: agricultural knowledge which maintains and improves soil fertility and water levels, moon phases and their influence on sowing and harvesting seasons, hunting periods, ways to respect water sources, usages and preservation of forests, medicinal properties of plants and animals, and indigenous dances and parties; play an important role in their livelihoods. The production of pottery for the kitchen, native cotton belts for farming, and rum and molasses from sugarcane, are also some traditional craft processes.
- Providing low cost eco-technologies and skills required to improve the quality of rural life: sustainable farm management, access to water, sanitation, recycling, renewable energy and bio-building; are some disregarded but important needs.
- Facilitate local processes for medium term regional development of ecotourism, sustainable or responsible tourism; as well as other economic alternatives or cluster production (organic products, volunteering, and complementary rural education, among others). Visitor’s programs complement in practice with public and NGOs efforts in promoting and training community based tourism towards sustainable development. Through these experiences is possible to identify and implement solutions for local training and skills required to meet more demanding markets.
Proposal: Our cultural exchange programs are presented as educational ecotourism (or "projects"). They motivate active local groups towards specialization. These last ones ensure projects' continuity. Each program is designed in coordination with both the visiting groups as well as with local groups. They are personalized to link visitor's interest themes and local needs. The destinations that we can currently offer are:
1.-San Roque de Cumbaza: small village located in the Buffer Zone of Cordillera Escalera Regional Conservancy Area (RCA). It has a center populated by 440 mestizo families and an Ecotourism Management Committee where 32 of them are participating in this kind of programs. In this district Cumbaza River is born. This basin supplies water to more than 200 000 people (within the region) and ends up in the Amazon River. In this town there are initiatives focused on children’s participation in taking care of the environment and their artistic abilities. It has accommodation, camping areas and nature walks.
2.-Organic Coffee Trail: located in the upper Cumbaza River, in the territory of the Native Communities of Alto Shamboyacu and Chirikyacu (Quechua-Lamas ethnia). They are also in Buffer Zone of RCA Cordillera Escalera and produce organic coffee for Oro Verde Coop, who exports it in fair trade coffee markets. These communities are interested in participating in the initiatives for developing ecotourism, for the conservation of the Cumbaza River basin (to which they belong), and also in meeting alternatives for preserving their communal lands and forests. They have humble lodging, camping space and a full day hike to the Sunipi Kausani waterfalls (150 m).
3.-Chazuta: village with people proud of their cultural identity, and whose tradition is about producing utilitarian clay pottery. They have a small workshop for this ceramics production, a humble museum for exhibiting them and also to show some archaeological crafts (in ceramics too); and another smaller workshop for elaboration of recycled paper. Chazuta is placed in the Buffer Zone of RCA Cordillera Escalera and in the Buffer Zone of Cordillera Azul National Park. As touristic and recreational alternatives, it has primary forest walks, waterfalls, hot springs, small boat expeditions along the Huallaga River, and centers for rituals of traditional medicine.
4.-Blue Lagoon: has a size of 865 acres where the sky is reflected. Is the touristic highlight in the region and is located in the Buffer Zone of Cordillera Azul National Park. Its residents are active in participating in tourism and in organizing activities for their community (i.e.: gastronomic festivals, communal cleaning days for the lagoon). However, coordination levels can still be improved between hotels, restaurants, rural committees of mothers, fishermen, young touristic guides, and local school. Besides boat rides and myths of the lake, there are some hikes (Pukayacu Falls), and short visits (agricultural plots where liquor is made from sugar cane), among other alternatives.
5.-Alto el Sol: small village in the province of Mariscal Cáceres, at three hours of support city: Tarapoto. Known for having the highest quality cacao in the world, main ingredient of the chocolate that bears its name. It is the favorite of French President Sarkozy, and is distributed in Europe, USA, Canada and Asia. This community transformed from being a producer of coke; to a producer of a legal, ecological, and successful activity.
