Reserva y Ecolodge Kapawi (Kapawi Ecolodge) is a highly successful community-based ecotourism initiative in the southeastern Ecuadorian Amazon that is wholly operated by local Achuar communities through the Complejo Ecoturistico Kapawi Sociedad Anonima, a limited company that employs 32 staff at the reserve and in two urban offices. Founded by a private tour operator in 1995, the enterprise was transferred in 2008 to a regional association of the Achuar Nation of Ecuador that comprises approximately 1,200 local Achuar residents.

The initiative has successfully combined traditional and modern governance systems to ensure an accountable and efficient enterprise that channels benefits directly to its member communities. As well as the 32 staff directly employed by the initiative, local handicrafts and food producers have benefitted from the tourism trade, while quarterly payments from the enterprise are reinvested in community development projects and contribute to a communal emergency fund.

 

Key Facts 

Equator Prize Winner: 2010

Founded: 1995

Location: south-east Ecuadorian Amazon

Beneficiaries: 1200 Achuar people in 7 communities

Biodiversity: community-conserved Amazon rainforest

 

Case Study

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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