Three projects that use revenue from tourism to fund conservation

The three winners of the ninth annual Condé Nast Traveler Ecotourism Awards—one each in the categories of tour operator, destination, and hotel/resort—are all standouts in a field that aims to both preserve the natural environment and support local populations. They were chosen from almost one hundred nominees by the magazine's editors and a panel of judges representing the travel industry. Assistant Editor Brook Wilkinson, who coordinated the award process, traveled to the Peruvian Amazon with Margarita Tours this past spring; her account is followed by descriptions of the other two winners.

Tour Operator: Margarita Tours
In 1983, Albert and Margaret Slugocki started operating a ferry service from Peru to Brazil and sport-fishing tours on the Amazon. But the trips seemed ecologically unsound, so the couple spent the next decade developing greener offerings via their Florida-based company, Margarita Tours. In 1994, they established the nonprofit Project Amazonas—seeded by donations from former clients—to foster scientific study of the rain forest and provide support for the local Yagua Indian communities. This past spring, I visited the three research stations built and operated by Project Amazonas on tributaries of the Amazon River.

Margarita's expeditions now have a scientific emphasis: Zoo naturalists and aquarium curators lead trips that focus on reptiles, birds, tropical fish, or butterflies. Guests often stay at the field stations, which are also used by research scientists tracking jungle dwellers and studying plants—almost everyone in the herpetology department at the Dallas Zoo has worked at the stations. The Organization for Tropical Studies brings Latin American university students to the sites, and this year Margarita Tours awarded scholarships to 20 American and Peruvian college students to spend two weeks in the rain forest. Project Amazonas also regularly leads medical trips to the river villages, where American and Peruvian doctors treat everything from intestinal parasites to broken bones and hold workshops for the local health workers.

I met Devon Graham, Margarita Tours" director of operations, in Iquitos, where years of visits have made him friendly with nearly every local we came across. Our crew then took a speedboat three hours down the Amazon and Orosa rivers to the nearest field station, Madre Selva, whose screened-in huts, flush toilets, and electricity merit five stars for jungle-style luxury. Along the way, I realized that Peru's section of the Amazon has been largely spared the destruction seen in Brazil; it's simply too isolated to attract much commercial exploitation. The thatched huts of occasional Yagua Indian settlements are the only interruptions in the shoreline's endless greenery.