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ISSN 1108-8931

the International Ecotourism Monthly™

Year 4, Issue 43, Dec. 2002
In this issue, reports from our Ecolodge Members:

Eco Hotel Uxlabil, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
Stregthening ties with the Community
by Fransisco Sandoval

Community members visit Uxlabil

 Last Saturday 7 December, we held a special meeting with the leaders of our community. Twenty leaders of San Juan La Laguna, the community in where Eco hotel Uxlabil-Atitlan is located, made a familiarisation visit to our innovative project. After visiting the rooms and the hotel facilities, the community leaders came together in the meeting rancho to receive in depth explanations from the undersigned, about the philosophy and operation of Uxlabil Ecohotel. 

All Uxlabil's workers where introduced one by one to the community leaders, even though some already knew each other; each of Uxlabil's workers explained their work role and testified how they implement the project philosophy. Then the leaders of San Juan expressed their point of view and even their surprise because according to their knowledge no enterprises work with such community development philosophy. One of the leaders, a woman who is the president of the culture association of San Juan, remarked: "We hope that you never will change your philosophy because then the community will be disappointed". From our side, one of the promises Uxlabil made during the meeting was that beginning in 2004, 10% of our revenues will be channelled into ecological and community development activities, and for such purpose one committee of five members (four community representatives and Uxlabil's owner) will be instituted and will oversee the allocation of funds. Through this meeting, we believe we have strengthened further the link between Uxlabil and the community of San Juan.

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Ampahouse, Maehongson, Thailand
Maehongson's ethnic groups celebrate new year.
by Jaroon Kumnuanta

Tai
Tai New Year

The Tai (also called the Shan) are the main ethnic group in Maehonson and celebrated their new year, on November 4, with the decorated trees which have many things donated to the temple. They will hang those things on the tree and have the procession along the road to the temple. There are 2-3 types of musical instruments playing. The long drum is playing in the quick rhythm and people will dance along with the drum. The bigger drum with the cymbals is playing slowly and the women can play them too. The dresses on that date are colourful.

Hmong
Hmong New Year

Hmong is another large group of hill tribes in Maehongson. They celebrated their new year on December 8. In the picture you can see the young women in their colourful dress. They live in Huaymakuesom district high up on the hill.

Hmong Village
Hmong Village

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Black Sheep Inn, Ecuador
by Andres Hammerman & Michelle Kirby

Tigua Artist's impression of the areaThe first Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) Ecotourism Forum was held in Quito from November 19-21 2002. It was interesting and we made some good contacts. Here is an overview from the Black Sheep Inn. We met Ron Mader, the webmaster of Planeta.com with whom we had been in contact for years and have participated in a number of online Eco-Conferences. Through these conferences we had talked with Mary Finn of Santa Lucia numerous times, but never met her in person. The conference brought together some key players in ecoutourism in Ecuador, and worldwide. It was really great to finally see the faces associated with all these e-mail communications. One of the most thought provoking presentations for us was by Richard Murphy of the Ocean Futures Society. His Principals of Sustainability sounded very similar to the definition of Permaculture that we have studied. There were many more presentations at the conference: A large delegation from China-PECC spoke of Cultural Heritage Conservation using ecotourism to support local native communities and traditions, a ECO-Farm Theme Park from Columbia called PANACA talked about learning through family participation, and a community based ecotourism project in Peru said their success was through the active involvement of the community. There were also ECO Certification programs and standards presented from Australia, Urban Toronto, and the Galapagos Islands.

We were happy to meet colleagues from Ecuador. Some of them we have known over the years, like Betti and Diego from Casa Mojanda, Diego Andrade, Susanna Ponce and Tatiana Calderon of Asociación Ecuatoriana de Ecoturismo (ASEC) and others we met for the first time: Jorge Perez from Volcano Land Oswaldo Muñoz of Nuevo Mundo Travel and Chair for the Forum (he did a fantastic job organising everything and keeping the forum rolling along).

Also, on December 9th and 10th, Casa Mojanda hosted a meeting of EcuadorVerde - GreenEcuador, a Sustainable Tourism Cooperative. The group includes El Monte, Alandluz, Casa Mojanda and the Black Sheep Inn. It does not yet exclude anybody, meaning if any eco business owners are interested, they can get in touch with Betti betti@uio.telconet.net at Casa Mojanda. During this meeting GreenEcuador hopes to establish it's basic by-laws and constitution.

Finally, the Ministry of Tourism in association with the Ecuadorian Ecotourism Society (Association Ecuatoriana de Ecoturismo or ASEC) is starting a pilot program for certifying Ecotourism projects. They have chosen the Black Sheep Inn to be part of the pilot program. Diego and Tatiana from ASEC will visit us here at the Black Sheep Inn next week. Volcano Land and Kapawi are other Ecuadorian businesses mentioned for the pilot program. We hope to maintain these new contacts to improve ecotourism in Ecuador and learn new ideas for the Black Sheep Inn.

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