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LATIN AMERICA |
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BOLIVIA
Ecotourism, an Alternative for Bolivia’s
Amazon Indians
By Soledad Alvarez
SAN MIGUEL DEL BALA, Bolivia – Ecotourism is
becoming an economic alternative for the
indigenous peoples of Bolivia’s Amazon
region, where the Tacanas are already
managing a hostel near Madidi Park.
Lovers of alternative and sustainable
tourist adventures now have the opportunity
to enjoy one of the most important
biological reserves on earth at the hostel
in San Miguel del Bala, a Tacana community
located about 460 kilometers (285 miles)
northeast of La Paz along the Beni River.
The river is the only way to get to the
village and its hostel from the neighboring
communities of Rurrenabaque or San
Buenaventura. It takes a little more than an
hour to get there in one of the many wooden
boats fitted with outboard motors that
operate as “river buses” linking the local
villages.
The 45 Tacana families who live in San
Miguel de Bala combine their traditional way
of life as fishermen and farmers with
managing their hostel, which is a collection
of cabins located in a luxuriant tropical
forest and built of local materials like
cane, dry palm leaves for the roof and
native woods.
There, the Tacana offer visitors
accommodations, tours of the interior of
Madidi and even typical meals like their
delicious grilled fish wrapped in the leaves
of the “dunucuabi” plant.
In addition, tourists can engage in cultural
exchange activities with the Indian
community, the members of which continue
living in their huts with walls of wood or
cane and leaf roofs. The only electricity
they have is produced by their small
generators and there are no local medical
facilities.
The community’s leader, Biter Supa, told Efe
that the lack of electricity and health care
are the Tacana’s main problems. He said,
however, that they do have potable water and
a local school for the roughly 60 children
living in the village.
In any case, the idea of the national park’s
administrators is to give greater
participation and responsibility to
indigenous communities living in the zone to
combine preservation and development with
sustainable projects.
The Indians “are conserving (the area) but
they also have to receive something.
Economic alternatives must be given to the
indigenous peoples who live in the zone,”
Jose Luis Howard Ramirez, the head of
Proteccion del Parque del Madidi, told Efe.
Besides the San Miguel hostel, several
tourist agencies managed by Indians operate
in the area.
The majority of those agencies are based in
Rurrenabaque, the main town in the zone,
which receives approximately 6,000 tourists
per year since it has an airport – with a
dirt runway – and several regular daily
flights taking less than an hour that
connect it with La Paz.
However, there is no paved road linking the
so-called “Pearl of the Beni” with the
national capital, meaning that it can take
between 12 and 18 hours to cover the 410
kilometers (254 miles) separating
Rurrenabaque from La Paz.
“Tourism is an engine that is helping us
greatly to improve our quality of life.
Especially for the Tacana,” said Nicolas
Janco, with the Mashaquipe tourist agency,
who is asking the Bolivian government to
make greater efforts to promote the area as
a tourist destination.
In addition to the tourist business, other
economic initiatives managed by Indians
exist in the area, some that are up and
running like growing coffee and others that
are pending, like a project to market cocoa
being undertaken by the Madidi Chocolates
Amazon Association.
Madidi National Park, created in 1995,
covers 1.8 million hectares (4.5 million
acres) and is located between the
northeastern part of La Paz province and the
border with Peru.
The main indigenous tribes living in the
region are the Tacana, the Araona and the
Lecos.
Madidi’s rich biodiversity – consisting of
more than 1,000 animal species and between
5,000 and 6,000 types of plants – owes to
the fact that the park extends from
near-glacial habitats near the Andes
Mountains to zones just 300 meters (975
feet) above sea level. EFE |
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