Claylicks in Peru
The importance of bird and mammal claylicks in the Madre de Dios region, Peru for the tourism industry of Rainforest Expeditions.
Maaike Rensing
Susan Zwerver
Claylicks in Peru
The importance of bird and mammal claylicks in the Madre de Dios region, Peru for the tourism industry of Rainforest Expeditions.
Maaike Rensing
821201002
Susan Zwerver
831013005
Research report describing methods and results of the traineeship for Animal Management for the Van Hall Larenstein. Research carried out between the 10th April till the 1st of July 2007. Supervised by A. Lee from the Tambopata Macaw Project (Cambridge University) and drs. T. Griede from Van Hall Larenstein.
March 17, 2008
Reviewed version: October 13, 2008
Van Hall Larenstein
Animal management
Summary
In 2004 a bill was signed to create the Interoceanic Highway across the countries of Brazil, Bolivia and Peru. This road will run across the Tambopata reserve in the Peruvian department of Madre de Dios. Several NGO’s and GO’s have indicated that the highway will lead to a larger environmental impact than the Environmental Impact Assessment (E.I.A) has taken into account. The most important impacts include deforestation, loss of biodiversity and a decreased aesthetic value. For Rainforest expeditions, one of the major ecotourism companies, this loss of biodiversity could mean the loss of their main tourist attractions; the claylicks.
The goal of this research will be to determine the importance of the claylicks as a tourist attraction for the ecotourism lodges of Rainforest Expeditions; how important are the claylicks for the tourists of the ecotourism industry?
The data for this research are gathered using a questionnaire given to the tourists at dinner.
This research shows that the presence of claylicks does not play a (big) role for tourists before they come to the rainforest, but is rated quite well after they have visited one. 38.3 percent of the 183 interviewed tourists had heard of the presence of claylicks in the area, but only for 12.5 percent did this presence of claylicks influence their decision to come to the rainforest. When the reasons for visiting the rainforest are summarized according to popularity, the claylick has the lowest score of all given reasons, only 5.2 percent. Another part of the questionnaire was the popularity of the claylick at the end of the stay at one of the lodges. Of all 183 tourists 95.6% have visited one or more claylicks(s) during their stay. 67.4 percent of this group rated their experience at the claylick as good, very good or outstanding.
When the ratings of all the different activities are summarized, the activity ‘visit claylick’ scores a third place on the list.
Table of contents
Summary 3
Table of contents 4
1. Introduction 5
1.1 General information about the area 5
1.2 The Interoceanic Highway 5
1.3 The project 6
1.4 Research questions 6
2. Materials and Methods 7
2.1 Questionnaire 7
2.1.1 Clarification questionnaire 7
2.2 Processing data 8
3. Results 9
4. Discussion and Conclusion 13
4.1 Discussion 13
4.2 Conclusion 14
Acknowledgements 15
Literature 16
Appendices 17
Appendix 1, Map of study site 17
Appendix 2, Questionnaire 19
Appendix 3, Common environmental and social impacts associated with highway projects in Cuenca Amazónica 22
1. Introduction
1.1 General information about the area
Peru is divided into three different geographical zones with; a narrow coastline, the steep Andes mountains running through the country from north to south, and the Amazon Rainforest in the east. The Amazon Rainforest covers 57 percent of the country’s territory, representing a total of 742.086 square kilometres (Nations Encyclopedia 2008). In this part of Peru the department Madre de Dios is situated, in which we find the Tambopata Reserve. The territory of this vast rainforest starts at the foot of the Andean mountains in the province of Sandia and stretches out to the low jungle in the province of (Tambopata CET S.A.C. 2008). This region is crossed by a dense river system, whose main river is the Madre de Dios but amongst the other important rivers of the area is the Rio Tambopata (or Tambopata River).
The source of the Tambopata River lies high in the eastern mountains of the Andes, in the department of Puno. It flows to the north-east through cloud forest to meander over the lowland Amazon in the department of Madre de Dios, converging with the Rio Madre de Dios at the department capital of Puerto Maldonado. (Tambopata Reserve Society)
Due to its location in a transition zone between subtropical and tropical regions, Tambopata contains a unique biodiversity; biologists recorded over 575 species of birds and >2,000 species of butterflies in the 5000 ha Explorer’s Inn sample area (Foster, 1994). This high biodiversity makes the area very suitable for ecotourism which is the main source of income for the people that live there. Along the riverbanks of the Rio Tambopata numerous ecotourism lodges are situated which can only be reached by boat from one of the ports in Puerto Maldonado. One of the major companies is Rainforest Expeditions with three lodges in the area; Posada Amazonas, Refugio Amazonas and Tambopata Research Center. The main attraction of these ecotourism lodges is the presence of claylicks. Special blinds are built for the tourists so they can see various mammal and bird species come down to the claylick to eat the clay.
1.2 The Interoceanic Highway
In 2004, the Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo, the then interim-president Rodriguez of Bolivia and the Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, signed an agreement to create the Interoceanic Highway across the continent. This road was to create a connected highway from the Peruvian ports of Ilo, Matarani, and Marcona to the Brazilian ports of Rio de Janeiro and Santos. For Peru, this means the construction and renovation of more than 2500 kilometres of roads. Besides this, a total of 22 bridges need to be build, one of which is The Billinghurst Bridge. This 722 meter long bridge will cross the Madre de Dios River nearby Puerto Maldonado. The main objectives of the construction of the Interoceanic Highway is to improve the transfer of Brazilian goods, most importantly soy, to the Pacific coast, and thus to the Asian markets and vice versa. Alejandro Toledo stated that this will give an annual increase of 1.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product in Peru (Rapp, K (2005). Several NGO’s and GO’s that monitor the development of the Interoceanic Highway have indicated that the project was approved of without a prior definitive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) (Rapp, K 2005). In this EIA they did not consider the impacts on the entire area. A barrier of three kilometres from the road was created to prevent environmental impact. But the impact won’t only be felt within this barrier. Environmental impacts will be felt at regional level. The current EIA does not take the impacts of the highway on the Tambopata National Reserve into account (Hurwitz, Z (2007). Some of the important environmental impacts in the Tambopata area that will be expected are; deforestation, pollution, invasion of protected area, decreased aesthetic and tourism value and loss of biodiversity (Wagner). All these expected impacts are working like a chain reaction. The pollution and invasion of the protected areas could lead to deforestation. This deforestation will lead to a loss of biodiversity and a decreased aesthetic value which could eventually lead to a decrease in the tourism value of the area.
1.3 The project
With the loss of biodiversity the number of species which visit the claylick could decrease in such a way that it might even threaten the existence of the claylick phenomenon. For Rainforest Expeditions this could mean a loss of their main tourist attraction. The goal of our research will be to determine the importance of the claylicks as a tourist attraction for the ecotourism lodges of Rainforest Expeditions. The main research question will therefore be; how important are the claylicks for the tourists of the ecotourism industry?
1.4 Research questions
- Is the presence of the claylicks known to the tourists?
o Had they heard about the claylicks before arrival? How?
- If known, did the presence of the claylicks have influence on their decision to come to the rainforest?
- What is the main reason that tourists come to one of the lodges of Rainforest Expeditions?
- What is the favourite activity of tourists while visiting the rainforest?
- How many tourists have visited a claylick? Which claylick?
- How did the tourists experience the claylick?
2. Materials and Methods
2.1 Questionnaire
From project manager Alan Lee came the request to quantify the importance of claylicks to tourists covering the three lodges owned by Rainforest Expedition in the Madre de Dios region, Peru. These lodges are; Posada Amazonas, Refugio Amazonas and the Tambopata Research Center. Surveys were taken in Posada Amazonas and Refugio Amazonas only, due to difficulties obtaining a permit to visit the Tambopata Research Center.
In order to obtain the answers to the questions, a questionnaire was made (to be found in appendix no.2). This questionnaire consists of 16 questions and was made in cooperation with project manager Alan Lee. The research population consisted of randomly chosen tourist groups during their stay at the Rainforest Expeditions Lodges. A total number of 183 questionnaires were used in this research.
2.1.1 Clarification questionnaire
Question 11 on the questionnaire asks people to put activities provided in the lodges in their order of preference. To clarify what these activities entail a short summary is provided below.
Lake: Guided tour to the oxbow lake which starts with a boat trip of approximately 15 minutes, after which a short hike to the lake of about 20 to 30 minutes (depending on group size and composition). At the lake the tourists board a viewing boat with benches and a staff member rows the boat across the lake staying close to the edges to optimize wildlife viewing (birds and mammals). Halfway there is a stop were people can try their hand at piranha fishing using simple rods and small pieces of meat.
Jungle walk: Guided tour across pre-cut paths through the jungle surrounding the lodges taking from 20 minutes to several hours. The guide shows the tourists different plant and tree species sometimes including their medicinal purposes and points out the many animals to be found in the jungle.
Tower: A guided tour to the tree top canopy tower. From here tourists have an overview of the forest and the chance to see many bird species and sometimes different species of monkeys.
Claylick: A guided tour to one of the claylicks. Tourists have a chance of seeing macaws, parrots and parakeets from up close and see their feeding behaviour and group interaction. Sometimes mammals also visit the claylick. The guide explains the tourists what species there are on the claylick and also to which purpose the birds use the claylick.
Boat trip: Boat trip from and to the lodges starting in Puerto Nuevo in Puerto Maldonado. The boat is powered by an outboard engine, but still birds and mammals can be seen along the banks of the river. A boat trip can also be from one lodge to another lodge. For instance from Posada Amazonas to Refugio Amazonas.
Research was carried out in the following study sites:
· Rainforest Expeditions Lodge Posada Amazonas
· Rainforest Expeditions Lodge Refugio Amazonas
In order to distribute the questionnaires it was agreed upon that the researchers would have dinner with the tourists. During dinner there was time for the researchers to explain the project and ask the tourists if they wanted to participate by filling in the questionnaire.
The research was carried out by both researchers from the 10th of April till the 4th of May in Posada Amazonas lodge, after which it continued in Refugio Amazonas lodge from the 4th of May till the 26th of May by both researchers. After this one of the researchers went back to Posada while the other stayed on in Refugio to collect more data. This lasted until the 5th of June. After this period both researchers were again stationed at Posada Amazonas lodge until the 1st of July.
The questionnaires were distributed in the two lodges (Posada Amazonas and Refugio Amazonas), one per person, alongside with a small talk as to explain the goal of the questionnaire. The filled out questionnaires were collected after dinner or handed in the next day by the guides of the group.
2.2 Processing data
All the data collected were put in Excel sheets.
To process the data obtained with the questionnaire, SPSS version 15.0.1 and Excel Office 2000 were used.
Tables and charts were made in SPSS using Custom Tables and Chart Builder.
Simple “yes” or “no” questions have been made into tables using Count and Column N%, multiple response questions have been made into tables using Responses and Column Count% (base responses).
Besides the questionnaire, data for the Tambopata Macaw Project was also collected daily. This allowed for more contact with the tourists and a more diversified insight into their opinions about the claylick and Rainforest Expeditions as a tour operator.
3. Results
In this chapter the results to the research questions will be presented.
The first table shows that the majority of the tourists were interviewed at Posada Amazonas.
Table 3.1: distribution of the interviewed tourists
Is the presence of the claylicks is known to tourists visiting Posada Amazonas, Refugio Amazonas or Tambopata Research Centre? The results of the questionnaire showed that 38.3 percent of the 183 interviewed tourists had heard of the presence of claylicks in the area.
Table 3.2: Is the presence of the claylicks known to the tourists?
Subsequently, we asked this 38.3 percent of the tourists how they had heard of the claylicks. Because multiple answers were possible we used the given responses to answer the research question. 33.7 percent of the responses given by the tourists that had heard about claylicks before coming to the rainforest had heard of them through television documentaries.
Table 3.3: How had the tourists heard of the claylicks?
If we just look at the tourists that had heard of the presence of claylicks, 32.9 percent were influenced by the presence of claylicks.
Table 3.4: Did the presence of the claylicks had any influence on the decision to come to the rainforest?
If we then look at the results per lodge, we see that in Posada Amazonas and Refugio Amazonas the claylicks or of much less influence compared to those of TRC.