What Happens When a Village Trades Mining for Eco-Tourism?

Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 11.16.02 | 12:16 AM ET

The 46 families of Junín, Ecuador are finding out. In 1997 residents of Junín burned down the local mining camp, ran its owners out of town and turned to eco-tourism. Thus far, according to New York Times reporter Edmund L. Andrews, it’s been great for the environment.

“Village leaders boast of being able to find 40 kinds of orchids, rare varieties of hummingbirds and toucans and at least the tracks of jaguars, pumas, tapirs and bears. Environmental guides now list the mist-shrouded forests around here as an official ‘hot zone’ of intense biodiversity,” he writes.

Economically, however, it’s pretty much been a disaster. Andrews adds: “[F]or all the effort to develop a new economy, Junín and other villages in this region remain impoverished and isolated…Only about three families here earn a living through ecotourism; the rest live largely through subsistence farming.”