Here are some shots of Reserva Ebano Verde that I took on our hike through the forest. 

July 12, 2010

            Today I met with Rildes Sanchez. He works for Reservo Ebano Verde y la Funcación Progressio en el Desarrollo del Ecoturismo en los Municipios de Constanza y Jarabacoa as an environmentalist. I first met him on a trip to Ebano Verde to hike through the cloud forest, talked with him on the trail a bit about his job and later if it would be possible to get in contact with some of the people he knows who do community based projects in ecotourism. I couldn’t have ever imagined that someone would be so helpful.

            For my research here in the Dominican I will be investigating whether working in ecotourism influence on women’s have access to resources that facilitate gender equality. He told me about a couple different communities surrounding Jarabacoa where there are small, community ecotourism projects taking place, who they work with, some of their networks, and expectations they have for the future as far as being self-sustainable. He also said he’d help me set up some time to meet with women and men working with these organizations and conduct some interviews. I’m really interested to learn more about what they’ve done and what their plans are for the future.

            Los Calabazos is community that has had some success with small ecotourism endeavors and is hoping expand their operations so that they are able to generate more money. El Salto is also another community that I’ll be visiting that collaborates with the people in Los Calabazos. Tomorrow I will be leaving for El Campo and spending the next few days living with a host family in the countryside of Manabao and on the way to Manabao I’m told there is an ecoagriculture operation called Los Dajaos which I would like to check out while out in the country. Its not ecotourism, but I’m sure a lot of the same principals apply to both kinds of endeavors.

            So what exactly classifies something as “ecotourism”?

 -Minimize impact.

 -Build environmental and cultural awareness and respect.

 -Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts.

 -Provide direct financial benefits for conservation.

 -Provide financial benefits and empowerment for local people.

 -Raise sensitivity to host countries' political, environmental, and social climate.