Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve
Case Study C0073
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| Date | 1996 |
| Project type | Self implemented |
| Context(s) | Protected area |
| Geographic coverage | Ecuador |
| Locality | Ecuador's Northern Amazon region |
| Biodiversity focus | Habitat |
| Development focus | Local communities |
| Conservation goals | Conserve the biodiversity of the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve |
| Poverty reduction goals | Provision of goods and access to services from tourist agencies to local indigenous groups; creation of indipendent, locally owned, tourism enterprises |
Summary
The Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, a biodiversity-rich area in Ecuador's Northern Amazon region, was created as a protected area in 1979. Gradual land occupation in the Northern Amazon region of Ecuador was eminently assisted by the construction of oil roads. Throughout the last two decades, the share of Amazon oil in total Ecuadorian exports has fluctuated between 35 and 65%), so there is a powerful economic argument for continuous exploration and drilling. At the same time, this is a main environmental threat in terms of deforestation, water pollution, and indirect impacts. While oil, logging, unsustainable tourism and squatters are the main environmental threats to Cuyabeno, site-specific internal pressures by indigenous residents, in terms of over-hunting and deforestation for cash crops and cattle ranching, should not be neglected.
The history of tourism development in Cuyabeno is basically shaped by the private sector, rather than by aid agencies. The pioneer tourist agencies Nuevo Mundo and Etnotur have arranged trips to Cuyabeno since the beginning of the 1980s. The number of agencies operating in the Cuyabeno lakes has now risen from the original 2 to 14–20.
Different Cuyabeno indigenous groups have developed different modes of tourism participation, ranging from autonomous operations to pure salary employment. Overall, tourism has provided significant additional income to all local indigenous groups, indipendently from the their specific modes of participation in the tourism industry.
Conservation impact
Tourism related cash flow has helped raising environmental awareness and has given local indigenous groups incentives for a new rationality in traditional resource use; lack of environmental data makes it impossible to examine conservation impacts in greater depth.
Poverty reduction impact
Tourism has provided significant additional income to all local indigenous groups. Generally, more money is spent on consumer durables, mainly outboard motors, radios, solar cells, etc. Part of the money was also saved or invested in children’s urban education.
Strategy for Conservation/Poverty Linkages
Provision of basic goods/services
Local conservation enterprise opportunities
Reference 1
Wunder, S., 2000, 'Ecotourism and Economic Incentives: An Empirical Approach', Ecological Economics 32: 465-79
More information
http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/6656/report/0
http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/publications/pdf_files/OccPapers/OP-21.pdf