Best accommodation for local communities
highly commended Huaorani Ecolodge, Ecuador
Fighting back with tourism what the judges said Huarorani Ecolodge in Ecuador is primarily owned and operated by the Huarorani, with 49 per cent of the adult working population involved in it. This rainforest community project has been instrumental in defending the forest against loggers, exploration for oil and slash and burn, and the judges were impressed that the lodge is now working on securing a new 55,000 hectare reserve.
Until the late 1950s, the Huaorani, a traditionally proud, defiant tribe, lived an untroubled, private life, as nomadic hunters and gatherers in the Amazonian rainforest of Ecuador. But their home territory lay atop one of Ecuador’s largest oil deposits, and when the world found them they were soon on the receiving end of a cultural assault from missionaries, oil companies and other outsiders such as road-builders and loggers. Faced with the destruction of their surroundings and the disappearance of their way of life, the Huaorani have chosen to resist. By inviting small numbers of people to share their world for short periods, they intend to keep their culture alive. They have
opted for sustainable tourism. Their project is Huaorani Ecolodge, located within the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve, which is recognised as one of the most biodiverse places on earth. The lodge is owned and operated by the Huaorani and co-managed with a socially principled tour operator Tropic Journeys in Nature, whose support and partnership model has been fundamental to the project’s success. Aside from the income from the lodge and the sale of handicrafts, the most important outcome has been that the Huaorani communities now have greater control over the pace and level of any integration into broader Ecuadorian society. The latest project being undertaken by the community is to establish a
55,000-hectare forest reserve linked to the lodge. This will allow the majority of the Huaorani territory to be protected against the incursion of loggers and migrants looking for land. Jascivan Carvalho, the lodge manager and the only non-Huaorani employee, warns, however, that the threat to Huaorani culture hasn’t gone away. ‘Oil and illegal logging are still real problems, but now with the ecotourism operation the Huaorani have a good reason to have those threats on their radar and keep them away.’ He predicts that the Huaorani culture will survive – albeit in a modified form, something he says is ‘inevitable’. He explains: ‘The problem is when our hungry society comes onto the scene, our culture is so powerful and careless with the cultural richness of others that it imposes its own ways, its own development, its economic models, all complete with borders, rules and regulations. ‘So, indigenous groups that knew nothing about boundaries suddenly need to understand that this is where their territory ends and this is where the oilfields start. And clans that used to move according to the availability of forest resources now are stuck on one site. The future is complex and we humans are by nature complicated. But I believe that the lodge is an inspiration to the Huaorani. When we started building traditional style cabins for the lodge, many were doubtful of the idea. A few months later every family began building traditional houses of their own. ‘And young guys that I used to see going away to work for the oil companies now stay close by, on their land, becoming guides, working on their lodge and feeling proud of being Huaorani… that’s the real reward of all this.’ www.huaorani.com
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