Conservation and River Tourism: A Paradox?

What impact does tourism really have on a community? On the world? It has become vogue recently to advertise ecotourism, sustainable tourism, tourism as a valiant defender of conservation. I cannot deny that the money that comes from jungle river trips does encourage local people to protect the wild spaces they have. But if one looks at the bigger picture, one that includes a perspective of the carbon footprint of tourism and its impact on the petroleum industry, we see the darker side of this kind of tourism.

First the bright side. Adventure tourists and paddlers who left the US seeking new adventures and new horizons brought kayaking and rafting to Ecuador. The sport has exploded here; Tena has around fifteen rafting companies, hundreds of kayakers come from November to February to take advantage of warm weather paddling, and there is a strong local paddling scene. As a kayaker and river lover, it warms my heart to find people with the same passion for the sport and rivers even when I am so far from home. The 16 year old niece of a friend in El Chaco, an up and coming kayakera, described to me her deep personal connection and love for the river that she has gained from kayaking; an intimate knowledge and respect for its beauty and power. This love manifests itself in the paddling community through acts of picking up garbage, organizing festivals to protect rivers, fighting for treatment plants to process contaminated water from cities before it reaches the river, and bringing friends and family down the river so they can also build a close connection. In this way, river tourism does have a strongly positive impact on the resource it relies on and provides rivers with an active bank of supporters.

In addition to the personal connection that the sport has brought, it also provides an essential income to all of those in the rafting industry here. This income provides an important incentive for conservation. Time and time again during interviews I have heard people describe the conflict between work/income and conservation. People agree that yes of course river conservation is important, however it does not put food on the table, as is therefore not their first priority. However, when tourists come to ooo and aww at the beauty of the rivers and the surrounding jungle and are happy to pay people to guide them down the river, a conservation minded income is born. Raft companies know that if the rivers are further degraded from contamination, mining, construction projects, etc, the tourists will look elsewhere for their jungle river experience. Employees and employers alike will fight to retain this income, and therefore fight to protect the essential resource of the river.

But there is a darker side to river tourism. In a conversation with Gynner, founder of Rios Ecuador, he explained to me the constant conflict he feels as a river tourism operator. He pointed out the fact that the people who come on his trips must first get there, and later back home, by plane and taxi and bus and car, therefore consuming hundreds of gallons of gas. In an attempt to find “sustainable” and “conservation minded” businesses to protect essential ecological areas such as the Amazon region, are we actually supporting the petroleum industry? Actually creating a higher demand for oil extraction and further degrading the very places we are trying to protect?

This topic falls close to home for Gynner who lives in El Chaco, a town that has large petroleum transport lines running along the road and along the river, lines that occasionally break and dump gallons of oil into the river. As petroleum prices fall, people in the area turn to new sources of income such as tourism, but this new industry relies heavily on petroleum and therefore increases the demand for oil. If prices follow and people return to their old oil extraction jobs, what will happen to our jungles and our rivers? Is there a way to break this cycle? It seems to me that there here must be a way to make a living, to enjoy our amazing natural resources, and still protect our rivers. But I have not yet found the answer.