Posada Amazonas Lodge (PAL)

Using local materials and architecture combined with modern expertise, the lodge is community-built and is a participatory project by nature.

To make the co-management practical, a Community Control Committee (CC) was created at the outset of the project. The 10-member committee participates in the planning, implementation, and management phases during monthly meetings with RFE staff to decide upon human resources, financial, and operational issues. It also has the responsibility of overseeing RFE operations and management and of communicating decisions to the rest of the assembly. Also, beyond being involved as decision makers in the CC, community members directly participate as staff members or guides, or indirectly as suppliers. (Elder people only have the option to participate in the decision-making CC because the nature of the jobs at PAL is physically demanding, and women are at times also excluded because taking up employment at PAL means living there and abandoning household and childcare duties. However, a woman has presided over the CC, and 80% of handicraft suppliers are women.)

A key strategy for generating community awareness as to the opportunities and threats brought about by ecotourism has involved hiring community members as full-time communicators. (Selected examples of opportunities and threats include: greater integration between the Achuar and other communities, as well as more national and international travel for cultural exchange and professional development, and yet more abandonment of families). Their job is to visit each household with an agenda set by the CC after their monthly meetings. The goal is to communicate complex issues or decisions on a personal basis and to obtain a reading on the communities' understanding or opinion of issues or decisions, such as that related to profit reinvestment.

The project is intricately related to job creation and training. Because of this focus, as of 2005, 18 of 21 lodge positions were in the hands of community members. Community guides start their training in a community course imparting knowledge about biology, conservation, biodiversity, ecosystems, and basic flora and fauna. The first 4 qualify for the RFE annual guide course, which covers most major taxonomic groups and includes Red Cross first aid training. The best 2 are selected to start their training as guides for RFE. The next step is to work as bar assistants in order to become familiar with the English language. After 6 months, the participants take part in 3 months of intensive training, then practice for 1-2 months, and then become professional guides.

Environment, Natural Resources Management, Economic Development.

Since the community's creation in 1976, access to and use of the uninhabited land on which PAL was built was restricted; hunting, clear cutting, and logging were prohibited. Therefore, this reserve had essentially been used for timber extraction for 20 years. In this context, organisers felt that this would be an ideal place to build the lodge: It was the most beautiful standing forest in the community, and it allowed tourism to take its course without affecting the daily lives of people in Infierno. To further integrate the ecotourism project into this community, any visits of tourists to community members' homes or infrastructure are organised beforehand. Also, in all cases, visits are overseen by an RFE guide and are hosted by one or more community representatives to ensure that tourists follow an acceptable code of conduct during their visits.

"Although the project has not addressed cultural issues strategically, it has been careful not to work with culture as a tourism resource unless we were absolutely convinced that community members were comfortable with it. ....The Handicraft Decoration Project...is an important anecdote in the way in which Posada Amazonas is strengthening identities. In 2002, we pitched to the CC the idea of decorating Posada Amazonas with carved icons of Ese'eja mythological characters related to the forests and the waters. They consulted with elders who did not want to share their ancient myths with tourists. One elder, however, returned after a few weeks saying he had a dream where one of the characters had appeared and told him to go ahead with the project because it would allow many people to hear of it and thus would allow his spirit to go on living forever and not be forgotten. The elders reconsidered and then spent months discussing the correct way in which to tell the story and draw the character. Finally, these stories were reproduced in beautiful bas-relief wood carvings in the rooms of Posada Amazonas."

From an economic perspective, reportedly, "the community has benefited immensely." For its ownership, the community receives 60% of the profit. Every year, the community determines how they will invest their profit share. In recent years, funds have gone toward equipment for a radio communication system, a lightning-conductor, improvement for the health post, a computer house for the school, a secondary school (created by the community since the inception of PAL), and a shelter for kids. After separating a part for these investments, the rest is split among all the families. Most of the families invest in house improvements, food, furniture, and equipment such as chainsaws or peque-peque (canoe) motors, clothes, or paying debts at or depositing savings to a bank.

Specific efforts are made as part of this project to: manage visitor impacts on sensitive wildlife species, manage lodge impacts on soil and water, and manage environmental impacts from traditional community economic activities.