COOPERATIVA DE SANTA LUCIA DE NANEGAL, ECUADOR

Finalist Conservation Award 2005

Santa Lucia Cooperative owns 650 hectares of 80 primary cloud forest in a biodiversity hotspot in the Andean-Choco corridor in northwest Ecuador. This is a truly community driven project dedicated to preserving the environment while making a livelihood from it. The Cooperative depends on tourism to survive, but tourism in turn depends on the forest. Tourist facilities have therefore been developed with minimal impact in the environment and money generated from tourism is used for restoration, conservation, monitoring and community projects. This small-scale initiative is one of the world's most successful models of conservation through tourism.