>> Responsible Tourism Showcase Award

ETC 2009 Responsible Tourism Showcase Honoree

 Surama Eco lodge

INTRODUCTION

The 2009 Educational Travel Conference recognizes the community of Surama—a village of 300 Makushi Amerindians at the northern edge of Guyana's Rupununi Savannah—for notable achievements in developing community-based ecotourism as a means of establishing sustainable livelihoods for village residents while preserving Guyana's indigenous cultural traditions and rich rainforest ecosystems.
 
The Eco Lodge at Surama is the visitor's gateway to the idyllic Pakaraima Mountains and Burro Burro River bordering the village. This part of Guyana features some of the most astounding examples of thriving rainforest ecology to be found anywhere on earth. The abundant flora and fauna is masterfully curated by local residents who convey a compellingly intimate fluency with nature through hikes, river canoe expeditions, and visits to community schools, centers, and traditional events.
 
The Eco Lodge—plus tours in and around Surama—are managed and operated solely by the Makushi. More than 70 people are employed either directly as hospitality staff, guides, cooks, artisans and drivers…or indirectly as farmers, hunters, fishermen, and construction and maintenance workers. Roughly 60% of the community’s income is now sustainably generated through tourism-related activities.
 
Apart from direct employment from eco-tourism, the community also benefits from economic activity derived from products and services that support Surama's tourism micro-industry, with profits feeding village investments in non-tourism and microlending projects. Meaningful opportunities for employment at home have significantly reduced incentives for men to abandon their homes to mine or cut timber in other parts of Guyana. This is a sparsely-populated country (larger than Idaho but with fewer people than the city of San Francisco) so economic opportunities are, indeed, rare.
 
Surama demonstrates a conscious effort to preserve an intimate, authentic, and (in every sense of the word) familiar experience for visitors. The Eco Lodge accommodates small groups only, reducing visitors' footprints not only in the wilderness but also in the classrooms, cassava factories, and village homes featured on a memorable visit to Surama.

Surama’s residents—especially the children—are personally invested in the preservation of the biological diversity that surrounds the village, leading visitors on hikes to nearby active Harpy Eagle nests, enforcing a ban on wildlife trapping, protecting groves of endangered bullet, letter, greenheart and waramaden trees, and introducing tourists and researchers to vast arrays of rainforest flora with time-honored medicinal properties.
 
That isn't to say that Surama's impact is confined to its immediate surroundings: other Amerindian communities in Guyana have been inspired by Surama’s success. Some of these (notably Aranaputa’s cultural and mountain hiking tours, Rewa’s eco lodge, Wowetta’s Cock-of-the-Rock trail, and Annai’s Heritage and Craft Center) are already reaping benefits for local villagers and visitors alike. Other villages have received assistance from a local Community Tourism Revolving Fund investing in proposed tourism initiatives. Indeed, these grass-roots, conservation-oriented efforts are fundamentally shaping the tourism landscape for an entire nation.
 
Surama’s unique position and interests are represented in a regional consortium (the Community and Tourism Services, or CATS) that operates Rock View Lodge, the Iwokrama Canopy Walkway and Atta Rainforest Lodge, and the visitor lodge at Iwokrama Rainforest Research Station. This network facilitates a vital sharing of expertise and best practices amongst Guyana’s nascent community of tourism professionals and policy-makers.
 
Surama epitomizes the ideals of the Responsible Tourism Showcase Award because it has struck an all-too-rare balance between economic opportunity-building, adventure tourism appeal, and the preservation and enhancement of indigenous culture, tradition, and nature.
 
 
BENEFITS FOR THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
Surama’s tourism enterprise has generated substantial benefits for the local community and the wider community:
 
 . In 2004, the community-based ecotourism enterprise borrowed 1 million GYD (approximately $5,000 USD) to build the eco-lodge, and repaid the loan four months early. Since then, profits from the enterprise have refurnished the eco-lodge, bought a mini-bus and established Internet service for the central community center.
 
 . Surama is also a partner in Community and Tourism Services (CATS), along with two private sector businesses: Rock View Lodge, Wilderness Explorers (a local tour operator) plus the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development. The CATS partnership manages the Canopy Walkway where a great deal of hands-on training in hospitality, facilities, nature interpretation and tourism management takes place.
 
 . More than 60% of the village’s income is based directly or indirectly on tourism products and services, with nearly half of village households reporting tourism as a source of income. In the eight years since Surama launched its ecotourism initiative, tourism has become the single largest driver of cash-based economic activity in the area.
 
 . Of Surama’s 300 residents, more than seventy are employed full or part-time in tourism. Jobs include lodge staff, guides, cooks, artisans and drivers, as well as craftsmen, tailors, construction and maintenance workers.
 
 . Visitor fees, combined with employee contributions, subsidize a local investment fund which pays for community health and transportation projects, school supplies, maintenance of community facilities, construction of a windmill that delivers a reliable source of fresh water, and university scholarships for a handful of Makushi teens (one Surama student is currently in Cuba studying medicine and another recently graduated).
 
 . The fund also subsidizes a Community Credit Scheme, which provides microloans to local entrepreneurs. This initiative addresses poverty reduction and is central to the community’s general philosophy of self-sufficiency.
 
 . Ecotourism income in Surama reduces risks associated with traditional subsistence agriculture which can produce results that vary drastically from season to season.

PRESERVING GUYANA’S BIODIVERSITY
 
 . Surama shares a common boundary with Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Development and Conservation, and has been active in surveying the one-million acre forest preserve, building the research station, monitoring the preserve and working with scientists and researchers from around the world. Surama is currently seeking government approval to protect a larger parcel of land along its border with Iwokrama to protect and improve visitor access to the extraordinary biodiversity found there.
 
 . Through community consensus, 20 sq km of community land at the edge of the village have been set aside as protected and anecdotal indications are that wildlife populations are rebounding and expanding in the area. A grant has recently been obtained from IUCN to conduct an environmental inventory of the area.
 
 . Wildlife trapping has been banned and enforced since 1994.
 
 . Harvesting of endangered tree species such as the bullet wood, letter wood, greenheart and waramaden are banned. Greenheart reforestation and letter wood monitoring programs have been introduced.
 
 . Through the Makushi Research Unit (MRU), a Makushi biodiversity project was recently conducted involving the comprehensive study of traditional uses of local plants and animals and the ways in which these plants and animals interact.
 
 . Direct efforts to foster conservation awareness and natural resource management practices at the household level are made through public environmental awareness outreach programs.
 
 . Surama households make a conscious effort to reduce their exploitation of the forests for food, fuel and building materials.
 
 . Almost all the young people of Surama are active in the conservation effort, and belong to the Junior Wildlife Club (see below). In fact, several youngsters make a proud habit of accompanying visitors in search of one of the locally active Harpy Eagle nests (the Harpy is the world’s largest bird of prey, feeding on monkeys and sloths).
 
 . Community members have participated in a range of training and international scientific research programs that work to save biological diversity.
 
CULTURAL PRESERVATION AND SENSITIVITY
Surama’s philosophy is that ecotourism exists to support the conservation of the Makushi culture. Tourism supports cultural conservation in the following ways:
 
 . The enterprise ensures that there is a rotation of staff so that so that the traditional community lifestyle is not significantly affected and providing, for example, sufficient time to farm, fish and hunt.
 
 . Traditional skills and knowledge are the foundation of the tourism packages offered by Surama. The Junior Wildlife Club is in the forefront of providing tours and a wealth of information and cultural performances for visitors.
 
 . Makushi Language Program taught in school, which grew out of the Makushi Ethnobotany project.
 
 . Surama has a large culture group that was formed to help motivate and preserve the culture of the Makushi people especially among the young generation. The group comprises nine children and 11 adults who perform dances, songs, poems and skits and enlighten tourists about the Makushi way of life. The group was recently honored to be selected to perform at the Carifesta 10th anniversary celebrations.
 
 . A women’s cassava-making project supplies both an interesting tour and a taste of local industry.
 
 . The Women’s Activity Centre was created as a place for women to come together for craft making, sewing, embroidery, and for selling the items to visitors.
 
 . Surama been a role model for Amerindian communities in Guyana, and has inspired other communities to try their hand at developing and selling eco-cultural tourism products and services. At least six communities have started sustainable tourism enterprises.
 
 . Surama has played a key role in the formation of the Bina Hill Institute, which operates as the coordinating center for the marketing and sales of the local tourism industry and successfully set in place a Community Tourism Revolving Fund to support investment and financing of proposed tourist packages and products.
 
 . Surama has participated in cultural exchanges with two Canadian groups: Ghost River Rediscovery and Ktunaxa Nation Council.
 
BEST PRACTICES: INTERPRETATION PROGRAMS, STAFF TRAINING PROGRAMS, AND MINIMIZING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
Surama has 12 different guided tourism packages that it offers to visitors. The guides who lead the programs are authentic guides who have learned their forest skills in the everyday fight for survival in a difficult environment. However, Surama has always taken training seriously and ensures that its staff benefit from all training opportunities. Projects and programs that Surama has participated in that contribute to development of interpretation programs and staff training include the following:
 
Junior Wildlife Clubs – in 1998, together with other Makushi communities, Surama set up its junior wildlife club for children 6 to 18 years. The objectives of the clubs were to develop awareness and understanding of the tropical rainforest environment, help in wildlife inventories in the area and to understand natural resource management and conservation. The club continues to operate, and activities include forest walks, camping, learning the scientific and local names for animals and plants, wildlife knowledge competitions between villages, exchange visits to other communities, developing collections of insects, plants, and animals for the schools, and the preparation of wildlife related artwork. Cultural activities are also practiced, including skits and cultural presentations and competitions in traditional skills such as basket weaving, cotton spinning and archery. Many of the members of the wildlife club work in the tourism enterprise, and several have become environmental leaders in the region.
 
Wildlife Club Training – over the past 10 years, and through partnerships with international partners, such the Audubon Society, Rain Forest Alliance Network and Iwokrama, club members have received training in bird and wildlife watching and field research and monitoring techniques, such as using mist nets to safely catch birds, deploying sound recording equipment, setting automatic camera traps that photograph passing mammals like tapirs and jaguars, rainfall monitoring, conducting floral transect and the “Cycle of Inquiry” methodology. It also encouraged members to study conservation aspects of the environment that are of special interest to their community.
 
Makushi Research Unit (MRU) and Bina Hill Institute – Surama plays a leading role in the establishment and on-going operation of these two organizations. The MRU is an active women’s group that has collected a wealth of information on Amerindian lifestyles and the use of local forest resources and through international partnerships has published a number of books and educational resources based on local knowledge. BHI was established in 2001 to develop training, research and other resources in the North Rupununi. Its training programs focus on natural resource management, traditional knowledge systems, and building capacity for both occupational and economic development.
 
Iwokrama ranger and tour guide programs – several Surama community members have taken ranger, tour guide and birding guide training programs through Iwokrama International Centre, and gained experience working as rangers and guides at Iwokrama. Surama tourism leader selected to participate in train-the-trainer program of the tour guide and birding guide programs.
 
Hospitality and tourism training – Surama members have also taken several hospitality and tourism training programs offered by Iwokrama, Guyana Tourism Authority, the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana.
 
Eighth World Wilderness Congress (WWC) – held in Anchorage, Alaska, in 2005. Village tourism leader emerged among the 10 top persons who performed well in the courses held on wilderness management.
 
Canadian International Development Agency Indigenous Tourism Training – 2008 program providing indigenous tourism development basics training. Surama tourism leader selected to participate in train-the-trainer program through which knowledge is being disseminated throughout North Rupununi.
 
Internships – Surama also helps with training for Guyana’s tourism industry. Trainees or interns from Iwokrama training programs, other Amerindian villages, and non-Amerindian tourism enterprises have received training at Surama. Surama has been so successful as a community-based tourism enterprise that it has been suggested that it establishes a hospitality and training institute to assist with capacity and skill development for Amerindian communities across Guyana.
 
The community based tourism enterprise has not written any rules or established best practices as yet for environmental protection and minimizing impact on the environment, but the enterprise conducts all of its programs in sustainable manner. The tourism enterprise has been the catalyst to developing general understanding and agreement within the community to use natural resources for economic benefits for the community without too much harm to the natural environment.
 
GUYANA TODAY AND TOMORROW
Guyana is a tiny English-speaking country on the northeast shoulder of South America. It hosts just a few hundred thousand tourists per year allowing Guyana to remain an authentic destination featuring remarkably unspoiled nature, unjaded locals, and non-commoditized opportunities for adventure. Guyana is roughly the size of Idaho but is sparsely populated with fewer than one million people. The majority of Guyanese live in a narrow strip along the Atlantic coast, leaving intact up to 80 percent of the country's interior tropical forest. The population is made up of six races: Indo-Guyanese, Afro-Guyanese, Amerindians, Europeans, Chinese and mixed-race people. English, Hindi, Urdu, Caribbean Creole, and native Amerindian languages are spoken. 40% of the population is Christian, about a third is Hindu, and just under 10% are Muslim.
 
This biodiversity hotspot is without doubt one of the least explored rainforests on the planet and home to some of the biggest, noisiest, and weirdest animals in South America, like the world’s largest otter (Pteronura brasiliensis), largest anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), largest bat (Vampyrum spectrum) largest pit viper (Lachesis muta, or ‘Bushmaster’), largest freshwater turtle (Podocnemis expansa), largest freshwater fish (Arapaima gigas), largest spider (Theraphosa blondi, commonly known as the bird-eating spider), rodent (Hydrochaeris hydrochaeri), and the endangered black caiman (Melanosuchus niger). The waterways within and around the Iwokrama Forest are home to an extremely high diversity of fish, with recent studies suggesting up to 600 species are represented in the immediate area alone. By comparison, there are only 700 species of fish in all of North America.
 
The elusive jaguar is, of course, one of the most dramatic inhabitants of Guyana's jungles and even a brief glimpse of the elegant cat becomes a lifetime memory for those lucky enough to spot one. Guyana is especially known for its teeming abundance of birdlife, and it is this birdlife that is becoming a focus for nature-oriented tourism in the country.
 
Guyana is poised on the brink of changes that could have devastating effects on its rich flora and fauna. Logging and mineral extraction threaten to wreak havoc in habitats that have survived undisturbed for thousands of years. The forests of the Guyana Shield (which include Guyana’s neighbors Surinam, formerly Dutch Guiana) and French Guiana are the source of 20 percent of the world's fresh water and represent 18 percent of the world's tropical forest carbon. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that causes climate change, and the burning and clearing of tropical forests causes 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than all the world's cars, trucks and airplanes combined. If the Guyanese forests are cleared, hundreds of millions of tons of carbon would enter the atmosphere, worsening global warming. In this age of climate change, the global community needs to develop incentives for developing nations such as Guyana to conserve their tropical forests for both the climate change benefits and the irreplaceable resources and services they provide.

Websites for more information:
www.suramaecolodge.com
www.iwokrama.org
www.guyanabirding.com
www.guyana-tourism.com