Tourism and the Jungle: Friend or Foe?

An email appeared in my inbox. I was 23, a zoology graduate and working in international finance; I was looking for a way out. A university friend had emailed me to let me know of a project she had worked on 5 years previously. The research project called Fauna Forever, which investigated the effects of tourism on fauna biodiversity in the Amazon rainforest, was to be repeated. I had found my opportunity.

A lot of letter writing and six months later I had managed to raise £1100, about half the cost of the project. I had received sponsorship from the Hautlieu School Trust Fund, the Strasser Foundation Trust and the Pilkington Trust. After purchasing some jungle essentials; DEET, a mosquito net and a snakebite extractor, I was ready to face the challenges of the rainforest.

11^th May and we touched down in Lima after a 17 hour journey from London. I was travelling with 2 other volunteers who were also joining the project and who I’d met at Heathrow. The Peruvian capital city was hot, hectic and disturbingly unpleasant. After an interesting taxi ride with a machete wielding taxi driver (only to be used in self defence against the unfortunate criminal who tries to break into his car) we arrived at the hostel to discover that there was no water for a shower. In Lima, due to a shortage of water there is no running water between the hours of 8pm and 6am. I had had my first taste of life in Peru.

The flight to the small jungle town of Puerto Maldonado was beautiful. Looking out of the plane window we crossed the snow-capped mountains and turquoise, glacial lakes of the Andes, descending into lush rolling hills before following a meandering river into the rainforest that spreads out from the foothills of the mountain range. I was struck by the white skeletal-like trees that stood like gravestones in patches of open ground, a telling reminder of the impact of the chainsaw in this naturally vulnerable area.

Puerto Maldonado, a bustling market town on a peninsula where the Tambopata and the Madre de Dios rivers meet, was to be our base for the project. Arriving at the hotel we were introduced to the rest of the team; the people we would be living and working with over the next 10 weeks. It was a truly multi national group; Ryan was American, Justin, an Australian with an unhealthy obsession with snakes, Liam was from Dublin, Belen was Spanish, Alan Lee, the mammal co-ordinator was South African and then there was myself and Rachel who were English.

The money the international volunteers raise towards the cost of the project enables a number of Peruvian volunteers to help with the research for free, giving the local community a chance to experience and gain a better understanding of the environment in which they live. This is an essential component of the project as it is only by encouraging the local community to protect their environment that the survival of the rainforest and its extensive biodiversity can be assured. We had two Peruvian co-ordinators, Alexis on birds and Willy in charge of herpetology. Carla, Naun and Celia were Peruvian volunteers. After a brief meeting and a chance for our first shower in 48hours, (a cold shower as there is no hot water in the area) it was straight to work.

FAUNA FOREVER: Tourism development and its impacts on Amazonian wildlife in Tambopata, Peru.

Lasting a year with 4 three-month phases, the aim of the project is to unravel and better understand the intricate and complex interactions between local wildlife and the tourists who seek to observe primates, giant otters, macaws and other species in their natural habitats. Ecotourism is not only the fastest growing tourism sector but is also of huge economic importance in developing countries like Peru. Uncontrolled tourism can potentially pose a serious threat to both the culture and natural environments of the area and risks affecting the very wildlife, habitats and protected areas that are the basis of the attraction. It is therefore of fundamental importance to the success of the ecotourism industry that there is a continued effort to assess, monitor and manage any negative impact on the unique cultures and fragile ecosystems of the Amazon.

Our first four days in Peru were spent training. The project investigated 4 taxa: birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. I was to work on the bird team. Roused from jet-lag-disturbed sleep at the unsociable hour of 4.30am, we began our training on early morning bird walks learning to identify a small proportion of the 700 odd species found in the Tambopata region. We were also taught how to set up the mist nets that we would be using to catch birds. The mist nests were large nets, 10 metres in length and 2m high and were designed to catch birds that inhabit the lower canopy. Birds in the lower canopy are more likely to be affected by the presence of tourists as they trek through the jungle.

Three nets are attached in a 30m long row. 2m tall sticks are cut into shape and act as poles holding the nets upright. We learnt how to set the nets up without getting them impossibly tangled, we were taught how to cut poles into shape using machetes and then how to take the nets down without letting them touch the ground where they would get caught up in leaf litter. Removing birds from the nets is also an intricate process so much of our time was spent practicing on sticks thrown into the nets before we were let loose on live specimens. We also attended a series of lectures not only on birds but also on the mammals, reptiles and amphibians of the area.

Finally the day before we were due to head out to the first lodge we were given the ominous jungle safety talk. For the uninitiated there was a lot to worry about. We were taught how to identify tangarana trees which live in association with a species of ant with a rather nasty bite and certainly a tree you wouldn’t want to brush up against; we were described palms with spikes so sharp that they pierce rubber boots if trodden on; we were taught what to do in case of snake bite or if we came face to face with a puma or jaguar; we were told that at least one of us would get a botfly by being bitten by a mosquito with a fly egg on its proboscis which then hatch into a rather painful maggot that festers under the skin and finally we were warned about the most feared disease of all….Leishmaniasis a parasite contracted by a sand fly bite which causes serious skin lesions and can be extremely difficult to treat. If we weren’t worried about what to expect of the jungle beforehand, we were certainly anxious afterwards!

Jungle Days

For the next 10 weeks we would spend 2 weeks at each of five tourist lodges. We stayed either in the lodges themselves or camped in the lodge grounds. To get to the lodges we boarded motorized canoes which put-putted up rivers for hours if not days, requiring us to camp on a beach overnight in one case.

Each team had a different schedule. For bird team it was up early, usually around 4am to allow us time to have breakfast and to trek anything up to 6km before dawn to where we had set up our nets the day before, returning at around 1pm. Mammal team headed out at 6, returned in time for lunch then headed out again in the afternoon returning for dinner, before heading out for a third time on a night walk. The herpetology team probably had the worst schedule of all, heading out at 7pm returning at around 2am then having to get up again at 7am.

Heading out into the jungle in the dark just before dawn is an awe-inspiring experience. The low thunder like rumble of howler monkeys reverberates through the canopy, leaves rustle as small mammals are disturbed and as the dawn begins to break the forest turns an eerie blue-green.

By the time we reach the nets, dawn is almost upon us and we have just enough time to unravel the nets before the dawn chorus begins. Each day we would have three sets of nets set up 200m apart. Each set would contain 3 nets. Over 8 days we would have four sites each with three sets of nets, based along a commonly used tourist trail (the treatment) then 4 sites organized along a trail very rarely used by anyone (the control). By comparing the control to the treatment it should be possible to identify whether tourists affect the biodiversity and population size of birds.

After ensuring the nets were unraveled we would set up camp 100m away and wait. From 6 o’clock we would check the nets every hour, on the hour. Any birds that were found in the net were carefully removed, placed in bird bags and taken back to the clearing where we had all our equipment set up. We identified them, (often easier said than done as there were many species which to the untrained eye looked identical) we ringed them and then measured their body length, wing length, tail length, beak size and weight. After this they were released. The data we gained will be used in a large database to which various environmental organizations will have access.

The birds we caught varied hugely. There were tiny white browed hermits (a type of hummingbird) weighing just over 2g, dazzling blue crowned motmots with their vibrant colours, comical looking Royal Amazonian Flycatchers and the fierce sharp-beaked slate coloured hawk.

Each day one member of the team would, instead of helping set up the nets, work with Alexis on point counts. 10 minutes was spent at each of the previous days net sites recording all the birds that were seen or heard. Using a recordable mini-disc player we were able to record the songs of the birds hidden in the canopy and then re-play them alongside a CD of bird songs in order to identify them. This was an important part of our work as it enabled us to collect data on bird species we were unable to catch in the nets.

At 11 we would check the nets for the final time, then carefully take down the nets, trek to the next site and put them up again. By 1 o’clock we would be back at the lodge just in time to take a cold shower before lunch. The rest of our day was spent either identifying birds from the point count recordings or taking a well-earned nap in one of the many hammocks.

Jungle Life

So what is life like in the jungle? Beginning with the negatives there are ticks, sweat bees, sand flies, mosquitoes, and chiggers (microscopic ticks which burry under your skin) all desperate for a taste of your blood. Even with every precaution taken; long sleeve shirts and trousers, 100 %DEET, mosquito nets and even head nets, it is impossible not to get bitten. All that can be done is to hope that you don’t catch anything nasty and that you have enough antihistamines to last the three months!

One team member was unlucky and as had been predicted, he contracted a botfly. The fly egg hatches beneath the skin and a small maggot forms. It feeds on muscle tissue and as a result can be identified by the sharp pains it causes when it takes a bite. Its sounds nasty but it is easily cured. A piece of sticky tape across the lump is enough to starve the maggot of oxygen. Once dead, the maggot can then be squeezed out.

In spite of the jungle nasties the jungle is a fantastic place. When you come face to face with a giant armadillo, disturb a group of stinking, teeth-clattering, belching white lip peccaries or hold a rather poisonous coral snake, the odd irritating mosquito is quickly forgotten!

The sound of howler monkeys is something that stays with you, as does the bright eye shine of caimans as they wait to prey on an unfortunate animal that heads down to the river for a drink at night. It is so easy to begin taking for granted the distinct rustle of trees as another troupe of spider monkeys swing majestically passed, the little spots of color in a forest of green where heliconias grow or the noisy cackle of macaws as they pass over the canopy at dawn to one of the many clay licks. Crossing precarious log bridges, wading through mud, tripping over buttress roots and daily cold showers becomes the norm. It is easy to be lured into the belief that all is well in the jungle.

Never will I forget the ear-piercing whine of chainsaws massacring trees at a wood cutting concession near the final lodge and of the odd quietness of the jungle when the chainsaws stopped. Or the rafts used by woodcutters made out of the trees they had recently felled, drifting down river to be sold. After nearly 3 months surrounded by dense jungle it was a brutal reminder of what is happening all over the Amazon. The need for effective research into both the effects of tourism and into sustainable use of the forest is made far clearer when you come face to face with the reality of the situation. Meeting woodcutters lost on a trail asking to be directed to the concession where they work, you realize these are very ordinary people doing what they can to make money to support their families. The economic benefit of eco-tourism as a longer term solution to wood cutting is evident but in order for eco-tourism to be successful it is vitally important that any potential negative effects to jungle are assessed and managed adequately. Only by extensive research and by working with local communities can the survival of the jungle be assured.

Jungle Characters

Butterfly

Project Fauna Forever

This project is an official undertaking of the Tambopata Reserve Society (TReeS), a British Charity (No. 298054).  TReeS has been active in the Madre de Dios region of Peru since 1986 and is dedicated to supporting biodiversity research in and around protected areas, appropriate management of rainforest natural resources, local community development, and environmental education

For more information on this project or future projects contact:

TReeS-Peru

Project Fauna Forever

PO Box 28

Puerto Maldonado

Madre de Dios

Peru.

Tel: +51-(0)82-572788 / 571827.

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