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Ecuadorian brothers show conservation-based microentrepreneurship possible mongabay.com March 7, 2007
Returning from his educational workshop in Ecuador, Dr. David Pearson, a research professor at the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, Arizona, offers a hopeful example of two Ecuadorian campesinos who prove sustainable entrepreneurship is not only possible, but profitable.
Pearson says that the brothers, charging $10 a tourist while permitting no more than 15 visitors a day by appointment only, now earn $5000 to $7000 a year, much more than they would have earned with their original plan to cut down the forest and grow fruit trees and bushes. "Angel and Wilson said they will never cut it down now. The money is better and the work is easier," reported Pearson. Meanwhile there is also payoff for dedicated bird watchers. "Antpittas are VERY hard to see under the best of conditions," explained Pearson. "They are shy ground dwellers, and they tend to rely on camouflage and extreme wariness to escape their many ground predators. They are best known by their haunting calls and low whistles, but these tend to be ventriloqual and almost impossible to locate." "The Giant Antpitta is especially sneaky in its limited range, and up until the effort by these two men, they had been seen only by the luckiest and most persistent birders. Being able to see three species so well and so close is exceptional and a lifetime event for anyone who has spent hours trying to see even the most common species before. Usually they drift in silently on the ground showing an eye, or a back before disappearing in the undergrowth of the forest floor. They can seemingly hide where no bird should be able to." Pearson describes his own experience with the Paz brothers as an unparalleled one. "They sat me down on the edge of a path in the cloud forest and started rattling a can of worms (disemboweled) and calling 'Maria!' In came trotting a Giant Antpitta (Grallaria gigantea) to beg worms at my feet, then two Yellow-breasted Antpittas (Grallaria flavotincta) came in and finally a Moustached Antpitta (Grallaria alleni). I have never had an experience like that. If that weren't enough, one of the campesinos said, 'Oh, by the way there is an Olivaceous Phia overhead,' another life bird that had eluded me for 40 years. "This is truly a fabulous story of business acumen by two Ecuadorians protecting the antpittas in Ecuador," said Pearson. "This shows that self-driven, grassroots-level conservation can create livelihoods for local people." Contacting the Paz Brothers to make reservations for the antpitta site:
1-800-538-2149 mercedes(at)neblinaforest.com nforest(at)q.ecua.net.ec Comments? News options
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