Tropical Nature Selected Project Narratives

Selected Tropical Nature Project Narratives

The projects described below are a sample of the wide variety of ways in which Tropical Nature has used ecotourism as a tool to protect wild areas. In some cases the ecotourism projects directly pay the costs of large private protected areas, in other cases they provide the only direct support for National Parks and other public protected areas. Each case is different, so each project is carefully matched to the existing social and political context. In all cases, the local shareholders are treated as partners in our common cause.

Manu Wildlife Center
Area under direct protection: 1200 acres, expanding to 46 square miles

©Gary Lee

Manu Wildlife Center is an ecotourism project that saves rainforest once scheduled for timber extraction and market meat hunting. The Center is located outside the eastern border of Manu National Park and abuts the northern border of the new, 400,000-hectare Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, a national protected area. The lodge staff maintains a presence and monitors the area, which is the largest uninhabited section of a major river in Amazonian Peru.

The lodge has 24 double-occupancy bungalows with hot water showers and flush toilets, and overlooks the Madre de Dios River. The primary attractions for visitors are Peru's largest and most visited Tapir clay lick, Peru's most visited large macaw and parrot clay lick, two large oxbow lakes harboring families of Giant Otters, two canopy platforms at 100 and 130 feet above the ground, and 10 species of monkeys. Tourists from other local lodges pay to observe the macaw clay lick from a large, floating observation blind. In December 2002, Condé Nast Traveler Magazine called the Center "The most intense wildlife experience in Amazonia".

Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge
Area under direct protection: 16.7 square miles

©Luis Claudio Marigo

The Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge is the focal point of a project to save the most pristine altitudinal transect in South America. A single-lane, dirt road travels northeast from Cusco, and descends from high Andean grasslands through intact cloud forest to lowland forest. This road runs along the eastern edge of the higher elevations of Manu National Park. We worked with recent colonisist to buy their land and preserve the cloud forest – now only a handful remain. Our 16.7 square miles of forest holdings run from 3,000 to 9,000 feet of elevation, and income from the lodge pays for private guards to patrol the altitudinal transect by motorcycle.

The lodge has 10 double-occupancy cabañas with hot water showers, flush toilets, and is nestled in a reforested patch of montane cloud forest near a small, rushing Andean river. The primary attractions for visitors are Peru's most visited Cock-of-the-Rock display ground (or "lek"), Woolly Monkeys, Brown Capuchin Monkeys, orchids, and feeders full of colorful tanagers, barbets, and hummingbirds.

Sandoval Lake Lodge
Area under direct protection: 100 acres

Sandoval Lake Lodge is the only lodge in the Tambopata National Reserve, and is an ecotourism partnership with the five families that own all of the private land surrounding the lake. These local community members receive 49% of the net profit from the lodge, and some community members are also paid lodge employees. Sandoval Lake Lodge had 3,400 guests in 2003 and 4000 guests in 2004, making it one of the top two lodges in the Tambopata region. Additionally, the lodge contributed $19 per tourist to the Tambopata Reserve, a total of $65,000 in 2003 and over $75,000 in 2004. This total represents 60% of the visitor fees paid to the Tambopata Reserve, more than the combined total contributed by all of the other 15 lodges of the region. Lodge employees and the lake community members protect the lake.

The lodge has 25 double-occupancy rooms with electricity, overhead fans, hot water showers, and flush toilets, and overlooks the largest and most attractive of the four oxbow lakes in the Tambopata National Reserve/Bahuaja-Sonene National Park. The primary attractions for visitors are Giant Otters, seven species of monkeys, a variety of water birds, the largest concentration of Red-bellied Macaws in southeastern Peru, and the scenery of the largest lakeside Mauritia palm swamp in southeastern Peru.