Perú: Reserva Ecológica Inkaterra

Project Rationale & Objectives

InkaTerra is a Peruvian hotel owner and operator that specializes in facilities oriented towards eco-tourism. The company has been offering eco-tourism experiences since the mid-1970s, initially in the Amazon region and more recently in the Machu Picchu area. It has carefully managed its operations and it has been able to generate sufficient cash to slowly grow its properties while also helping to preserve and investigate the local ecology.

Due to its small size and limited product offerings, InkaTerra does not, as yet, have the ability to offer stand-alone vacation packages. Consequently, most of its guests tend to stay at its properties for only 1-2 nights. Inka Terra's business strategy is to expand its product range by developing hotels at two new locations, Cusco (the gateway city to Machu Picchu) and Puno (on Lake Titicaca), thereby creating a network of hotels in Southern Peru which collectively would provide eco-tourism and cultural experiences in three distinct zones -- the cloud forest (Cusco/Machu Picchu), the high andes (Lake Titicaca), and the rainforest (Amazonia).
Inka Terra believes that a network of this type will enable tour operators and clients to plan themed vacations centered around its properties, thereby creating complementary demand from one property to the next. In addition to increasing guest stay duration at its properties, the expanded network would also generate efficiencies from the company's centralized administration structure and in its sales efforts. IFC has agreed to provide an US$5 million loan for this expansion program.

Figure 1: Project Location

In addition to this expansion program, an “incremental” proposal has been developed to save globally significant biodiversity in conjunction with Inka Terra’s Reserva Amazónica lodge in southeastern Peru. Reserva Amazónica has been in operation for over 25 years and was one of the first eco-tourist facilities developed in Peru. ¹ During much of this time, Inka Terra has leased a 10,000 hectare area of tropical rainforest located adjacent to the lodge.
Known as the Inka Terra Ecological Reserve (IER), the company has supported considerable ecological research within this reserve. The studies carried out to date in the reserve have identified considerable biological diversity, including 136 species of mammals, 366 species of birds, 83 species of reptiles, and 362 species of ants. In fact, after conducting some of his seminal work in the IER, Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson cited the area as having more species of ants than any other location in the world. Many of the species of flora and fauna in the reserve were discovered there and some have not been found elsewhere in Peru.
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Figure 2: Reserva Amazonica Lodge
espite Inka Terra’s desire to promote forest conservation, the IER has remained largely unmanaged because the company has been largely occupied with running its tourism operations. Inka Terra has fostered considerable ecological research in the IER, but most of it has been driven by the specific academic interests of visiting scientists. Although Inka Terra possesses staff members with considerable conservation experience and expertise, until recently these individuals faced conflicting demands on their time (between commercial and conservation priorities). And although the company has developed a basic management plan which meets its legal requirements as lessee of the reserve, this plan does not divide the reserve into usage zones or contain a strategy for mitigating threats. In fact, until this MSP proposal was developed, there had been relatively little diagnosis of the threats to the area’s biodiversity.²
Yet various threats have emerged to the forest. A transcontinental road has been built on the back (north) of the reserve, going to Brazil. Since it is still a dirt road it does not have heavy traffic yet, but it has nonetheless facilitated encroachment upon the reserve. The threat of logging has also been exacerbated by the road. Furthermore, in addition to three communities on the border of the IER, a fourth community arose within the reserve in recent years. Although the Peruvian Government has recently modified the boundaries of the reserve so that this fourth community no longer falls within the protected area, these communities nonetheless place pressure upon the forest and its biodiversity. Finally, mercury pollution from gold mining in the Madre de Dios River is threatening aquatic biodiversity (as well as human health).
As a result, IFC has worked with Inka Terra to develop a comprehensive strategy for managing the IER. It has involved establishing a parallel NGO called the Inka Terra Association (ITA). Some of Inka Terra’s staffmembers who possess considerable conservation expertise have been transferred to ITA, where they will be able to focus full-time on implementing the strategy. The specific objectives of the strategy include the following: (1) To develop a Forest Conservation and Management Plan that properly zones the reserve based upon a solid understanding of its ecology; (2) To develop partnerships with the four local communities so they can improve their quality of life while helping to preserve the forests; (3) To promote increased support for forest conservation and sustainable development through training programs; and (4) To generation long-term funding for conservation through ecotourism development (and eventually other forms of “biobusiness” as well). In pursuing these objectives, Inka Terra will go above-and-beyond IFC’s minimum environmental and social requirements. Doing so will involve incremental costs that the GEF is asked to cover in the form of a grant and concessional loan.
It is expected that this proposal will eliminate deforestation and poaching within the IER; reduce hunting to sustainable levels; provide conservation-compatible livelihoods for a significant portion of the four local communities; and increase awareness of and support for conservation among local and regional stakeholders. It will also generate long-term revenues to help ensure sustainability of the conservation and community development measures.