Tambopata Ecolodge begins another year as one of nature's custodians
10 April 2018 (2209 visits)As we begin the 2018 season, Tambopata Ecolodge is preparing to continue its work to protect one small corner of Peru’s Amazon rainforest.
As ever, the many threats to the flora and fauna of the tropical forests of Peru and the other seven South American countries that share parts of the Amazon basin remain very real. Together with institutions of the Peruvian government such as the Ministry of the Environment and its subordinate regulatory bodies, Tambopata Ecolodge remains fully committed to nature conservation through responsible tourism. At Tambopata Ecolodge, we believe that carefully managed tourism is the only truly effective way to stem the tide of destruction which sees vast tracts of tropical forest removed each year.
In 2016, Tambopata Ecolodge won official recognition from the Peruvian state as a Private Conservation Area. The company obtained certification for the protection of an additional 1065 hectares of virgin tropical forest, meaning that the future of the fauna and flora within the lands owned by Tambopata Ecolodge is now assured.
Under Peruvian law, in exchange for strict compliance with conservation measures enacted by the Ecolodge, the Peruvian state will guarantee the legal protection of its lands against any invasive action and/or the illicit exploitation of the flora and fauna those lands are home to.
One of the major threats to Tambopata National Reserve is the global demand for gold. In order to understand fully this threat to Peru’s natural heritage, it should be remembered that the jungle regions of countries like Peru and its neighbors are often populated by marginalized, extremely poor communities. For many ordinary people, money is so scarce that illegal activities such as logging or mining often constitute their only chance of emerging from poverty.
Faced with such deprivation, it can be hard to convince local people that they should be concerned by the impact on the forests –and their own communities- of activities like gold mining, which employs fleets of dredgers that destroy the ecology of rivers by depositing hazardous levels of toxic mercury in waterways.
At Tambopata Ecolodge, we make every effort to ensure that all our lodge and guiding staff come from the local community, and we encourage them to take back to their families our message of love for the natural world and the ways in which our shared heritage can be harnessed in a responsible way and conserved for future generations.
