Where we are: the Amazon region of northern Bolivia.
Protected Areas
Bolivia is one of the least populated countries in South America. Ten million inhabitants live in one million square kilometers. Its landlocked situation (without access to the sea), along with other factors like its complicated geography (Andes and Amazon), have resulted in a small economic growth and a very poor road infrastructure. With few roads and few people, the capacity of humans to depredate the environment is minimal. This makes of Bolivia a giant natural reserve since it preserves 87% of its original vegetation coverage, and thus facilitates the creation of very large, unpopulated natural reserves. Today, national parks, natural areas of integrated management, wildlife sanctuaries, and other municipal reserves cover approximately 30% of the national territory.
This protection is relative. In some cases, it has been useful to stop threats like the case of logging in Madidi Park. In other cases, hunting, deforestation, mining and other threats have not respected reserve’s boundaries. On the other hand, there are many large areas that do not have any legal protection, but have a great state of conservation due to the absence of roads and population. A low population along with an advanced system of reserves and protected areas with sustainable resource management make of Bolivia in comparison with other countries, a country that enjoys a formidable state of environmental health. Still, threats exist, and we should not put our guards down.
National Park and Area of Integrated Management MADIDI
What does “Madidi” mean? Madidi is word in moseten language given to a medium sized black ant. The moseten culture is native to the areas surrounding Madidi National Park together with Tacanas, Chimanes and Lecos – all native to the amazon- and Quechuas from the highlands.
They called it “the Madidi”, before it was decreed a national Park in 1994. Saying “Madidi” was like saying “the thickest, biggest and most dangerous jungle of Bolivia, if not the world”. Explorers, when they discuss about unexplored places to go, for sure they think of Madidi. But they only think about it. Those few who have ventured into the deepest parts of the park have not come back. The exact reason is unknown, but there are many known possibilities. One of them is the fact that inside the deepest places of the park live natives that have never had contact with modern humans. This part of the Amazon is so immense that these people have managed to live there without ever being contacted. This doesn’t mean they don’t know about modern man. They know that if someone was to reach their village, everybody would die from the diseases brought by the foreigner, so when someone from the modern world is exploring these deep places, they are eliminated by these people in order to prevent an involuntary genocide.
Rurrenabaque
The location that currently occupies this fast growing town has been used since a very remote time as point of communication for travelers that journeyed between the Amazon plains and the Andes.In 1810, native colonists started arriving from the regions of Apolobamba and Alto Beni to work in the extraction and commercialization of Quina bark, product which in that time had great world wide demand for its medicinal purposes. The town was at that time called “Villa of picturesque view”. Later, popular tradition recounts that Father Giovanni Gianelli founded this place the day February the second with the name of “Villa of the cross” and had “Virgen de la Candelaria” as its patron. The first official document that registers this place with the name of Rurrenabaque dates 15 of November of 1884, when General José Ballivian did a reconnaissance trip through the newly created “departmento” (state) of Beni. He was deeply impressed with the beauty of the place and so created this document that stated that Rurrenabaque would be called “Ciudad Ballivián” (Ballivián City) and would be the capital of the newly decalared “Departamento”. Later on, an epidemic and the difficult communication this place had with other towns in Beni made this document non effective. Since then, Rurrenabaque kept its original name that means “duck stream” in Tacana language, and functioned as a port for the commercialization of jungle products such as tree rubber, nuts, animal skins and feathers.
It wasn’t until 1994, after the creation of Madidi National Park that tourism, impressed by the natural beauty of the region, began to arrive and transformed Rurrenabaque to what it is today.
Town of Rurrenabaque today
Tourism in Rurrenabaque
It all started in 1994, when an immense portion of northern La Paz that hosted all the ecosystems ranging from the high Andes to the northern Amazon plains, was declared a National Park. A place of singular attraction, untouched by humans, had no roads and was mostly unexplored and unstudied. The first tourists that visited Rurrenabaque where scientists who came to perform specific studies in the region. Rurrenabaque became known to the world after the tragic adventure of a group of travelers, led by an Israeli, Yossi Ghinsberg. He along with other four tourists, ventured into Madidi Park by themselves supposedly searching for a treasure held by an indigenous Tacana community. After a week they got lost, and in the return attempt they fought and separated. Three weeks after their departure, and seeing they didn’t come back, a rescue team was sent from Rurrenabaque to search for them, but where only able to rescue two, the others died. The Israeli was one of the survivors who later wrote a book in Hebrew telling his story. As a consequence of his book being published, word was spread about the wildness of this region, and adventure tourism began to arrive. From that point on, the type of tourism Rurrenabaque received was that of adventurous travelers that seeked to intern themselves for weeks into the jungle. It was until 2005, when the first ecolodges where built, that less adventurous tourists began to visit this part of the Bolivian Amazon. Today, Rurrenabaque offers something for everyone, from comfortable three day ecolodge tours, to week long trekking expeditions into the wild.
Problems with tourism today
The lack of government regulations regarding tourism creates serious problems that affect Rurrenabaque today. You can greatly help in this matter by choosing a responsible tour operator like Camping Madidi Tours.
Conservation problems. Bolivia destines minimal resources towards the conservation of its protected areas, therefore the capacity of the park guards to keep an effective control is limited. Responsible tourism is a way to support conservation of these protected areas. Hunters and loggers do not dare do their illegal activities near the presence of tourists. Non responsible tourism is then, the greatest conservational threat in the region today. There are agencies that offer illegal hunting programs. These agencies have been caught and denounced more than once, but continue to be open to the public.
Economic and social problems. Lack of government regulations on tour operators has resulted in a suicidal price drop battle to win clients. Services in these “cheapest” agencies have become very precarious and at times even dangerous (ex. one hour delays, food shortages on trip, thefts, etc.). Salaries for guides are extremely low and so their performance is poor (ex. no animal sightings on a trip, incidents of sexual harassment, irresponsible behaviour). While some agencies win clients by saying they are indigenous or community owned, the difference from the others is not much. They themselves have an owner and hire guides at the lowest salary possible. At the end, no one is benefited, neither the indigenous people who carry out the services, nor the clients that hire them, nor the environment their supposedly protecting
Examples of toursim problems from irresponsible tour operators:
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| Putting tourist and animal lifes in danger |
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| Harassing snakes- it has been proven that snakes can die from absorbing mosquitoe repellent from the toursits that handle them |
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| Feeding the animals |
CAMPING MADIDI TOURS, an alternative. Offers tourist services of the highest quality, security and professionalism; keeping the hospitality and human coziness that distinguishes the agency. Along with truthfull, relevant, detailed information before and on the tour, is what we think makes a profound difference to how real, rich and memorable your experience can be. By travelling with us, you will also be helping promote ecology and a sustainable tourism practice along with social justice that you’ll be able to expereince yourself when you speak to the guides and the workers of the agency. We suggest you begin this deep learning experience by reading the following information about us and what makes us different.