Mystical inspiration, permaculture & ecotourism in Peru

San Roque de Cum­baza (San Roque) is a town in the San Martín region of Peru, a 45-minute drive north­w­est of the city of Tara­poto. Loc­ated in the Amazon rain­forest near the head­wa­ters of the Cum­baza river, San Roque bor­ders the Cor­dillera Escal­era region­al con­ser­va­tion area, a small moun­tain range in the low-jungle. San Roque’s 2,000 inhab­it­ants have to keep agri­cul­ture to a min­im­um and are pro­hib­ited from enga­ging in cattle graz­ing or extract­ive activities.

As a young man Rodrigo Ponce stud­ied eco­nom­ics and built a career in fin­ance. Then after exper­i­ment­ing with sham­an­ic rituals in the early 2000s he enrolled in gradu­ate school to study eco­tour­ism. It was as a mature-age post­gradu­ate stu­dent study­ing eco­tour­ism that Ponce first vis­ited San Roque. He enjoyed the pace of life so much that in 2005 he teamed up with friends to man­age a New Age hostel in San Roque.

Through attend­ing loc­al assem­blies, Ponce real­ised that the eco­nom­ics he had stud­ied did not apply in a place where bar­ter­ing, com­munity well-being and know­ledge-shar­ing were more import­ant than money. After learn­ing how San Roque worked and hav­ing won the community’s trust through his con­tinu­ous par­ti­cip­a­tion in com­munity meet­ings, in 2008 Ponce decided to work with the com­munity on eco­tour­ism pro­jects, assist­ing with bur­eau­crat­ic red tape, logist­ics and leg­al matters.

In 2009, the San Roque com­munity cre­ated a tour­ism man­age­ment com­mit­tee (COGETUR). Thanks to the sup­port of the loc­al muni­cip­al­ity, COGETUR built four bun­ga­lows, two view­points, and a camp to receive vis­it­ors. In 2010, they opened an eco­lo­gic­al edu­ca­tion park, which receives vis­it­ors and stu­dents to teach them eco­logy and con­ser­va­tion and take them on edu­ca­tion­al hikes.

Test­ing com­post. Source: Eco­aldeas Per­u’s Face­book page

Early suc­cess and grow­ing demand meant a need for more infra­struc­ture. In 2011, COGETUR went from being a com­mit­tee of 15 people to an asso­ci­ation (ACOGETUR) of 50 mem­bers divided into six sub-groups: tour guides, cooks, port­ers, organ­ic farm­ers and women artis­ans work­ing. ACOGETUR obtained fund­ing to estab­lish a bee­keep­er organ­isa­tion, build the capa­city of guides and cooks, and devel­op infrastructure.

In 2013, Ponce foun­ded his com­pany Eco­aldeas Peru, which from the out­set col­lab­or­ated with ACOGETUR and the Chri­riky­acu and Quechua Lamas com­munit­ies, which look after estab­lished con­ser­va­tion areas. Then, via work­shops, fairs, and for­ums, Eco­aldeas forged part­ner­ships with region­al play­ers, includ­ing loc­al gov­ern­ments, per­ma­cul­ture insti­tutes, and uni­ver­sit­ies and found­a­tions that sup­port social entre­pren­eurs, as well as inter­na­tion­al tour operators.

Among its tour­ism products, Eco­aldeas com­bines altern­at­ive Per­uvi­an tour­ism exper­i­ences, the Inca Trail (trekking) and the low­land rain­forests in Madre de Dios, a region full of loc­ally man­aged tour­ism, con­ser­va­tion and biodiversity.

Eco­aldeas also cre­ated the Cen­ter for Research, Train­ing and Devel­op­ment of Loc­al Capa­cit­ies, which works in agro-eco­logy, biod­iversity con­ser­va­tion, organ­isa­tion­al man­age­ment, lan­guages and tech­no­logy. Ponce con­siders it to be one of his busi­ness’ biggest achievements.

Going for­ward, Ponce and his part­ners plan to launch the Amazon Glob­al School, a social edu­ca­tion­al enter­prise inten­ded for all Amazo­ni­an nations.

Sources: This post is a brief sum­mary of Ciro Calderon’s art­icle for Eco­sys­tem Mar­ket­place. Please read the full story for more detail and quotes from Rodrigo Ponce. The fea­tured image of a frog is from Eco­aldeas Peru’s Face­book page.