Community-owned tourism and degrowth: a case study in the Kichwa Añangu community

Abstract

Tourism is a booming global industry, seemingly at odds with a degrowth movement seeking to challenge the profit-maximizing model embedded in capitalist expansion. However, the tourism industry is not a homogenous entity, but is instead characterized by diverse forms of distinct tourisms. In Ecuador, the Kichwa Añangu Community has chosen to dedicate their livelihood to community-owned tourism. Añangu owns and operates two lodges, whose management and oversight are administered through communal governance. As a result, tourism is locally embraced as a vehicle for livelihood wellbeing, cultural reclamation, and environmental stewardship. Community-owned tourism will not provide a cure-all answer to the critiques levied against tourism or to the vulnerabilities inherent in the practice of tourism. However, Añangu’s project offers a compelling case study for considering how certain tourisms could become a vehicle for developing a localized degrowth society. The Añangu have decentralized the value placed upon profit in the practice of tourism, replacing it with Kichwa forms of communal organizing guided by their goal for Sumak Kawsay, or the “good life.” For the Añangu, the sustainability of their project cannot be separated from its economic viability, however, success is also measured by how tourism contributes to a number of community-defined goals.

Keywords:

• Tourism
• Degrowth
• Sumak Kawsay
• Diverse Economies
• Yasuní
• Ecuador

Acknowledgments

I want to thank the Kichwa Añangu Community and all of the staff at the Napo Cultural Center, the Napo Wildlife Center, and the main office in Quito for welcoming me into Añangu and supporting this research throughout the length of my stay. I also want to thank Dr. Maribel Alvarez, Dr. Marcela Vásquez-León, Dr. Mamadou Baro, and Dr. Ronald Trosper for your support and feedback throughout this research process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Website for the Napo Wildlife Center: www.napowildlifecenter.com/

2 Website for the Napo Cultural Center: www.napoculturalcenter.com

3 Information from this section is pulled from interviews and interactions carried out during my field research. Details can also be found in the community’s self-published book, Historia de la Comunidad Añangu or History of the Añangu Community (Torres, 2013) and the community’s personal website, www.comunidadanangu.org

Additional information

Funding

This research was generously funded by the Kichwa Añangu Community, Yasuní-Amazona, the Tinker Foundation, the Willian and Nancy Sullivan Scholarship Fund, the Graduate & Professional Student Council at the University of Arizona, the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, and the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona.

Notes on contributors

Sarah Rachelle Renkert

Sarah Renkert is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociocultural Anthropology at the University of Arizona. Her research interests include community organizing, critical food studies, culinary and cultural tourism, and critical development studies. Her current research is based in Lima, Perú, the Ecuadorian Amazon, and the U.S. Southwest.