ECOTOURISM AND METAMORPHOSIS IN SANGAY

I am the eternal harmony of the Earth,
the innumerable woods.
- Federico García Lorca

Prelude - I am looking out of my window, towards the east. The gaze caresses the constellations of Indian chacras that climb the steep slopes of the cordilleras, until extinguishing in the highest páramos, above the last tree lines, from where broken ridges and snowed summits shoot towards vertical worlds, the frozen locks of the Altar, monster of rocks and glaciers, perfect amongst the mountains of Ecuador. I think of its strata, its telluric culmination, overflowed from the entrails of the Earth, magmas resurrected, pregnant of ancient and unknown moons. I can almost sense the slow flowing of the rivers in the midst of the forests below, the metaphysical presence of the trees, enchanted and captive in their deep roots, and the wild deaths, by the millions, whose synthesis is the essence of the Amazon's vital element. Lands never discovered by any columbus, lands never sowed, how to describe the world there, far away - as far as my eyes allow me to see, as far as the foothills of the Altar and Sangay collapsing towards the eastern and warm lowlands. I think of the nothing I know of those prehuman worlds, despite much walking, and my hands are heavy, the mind distracted by the memory.

Roberto Caz is sitting by my side as he listens in silence, as he always does, while staring at the captivating pictures in a book he picked out of my library. Only the pictures. Roberto is a Puruhá from the Alao mountain range. He can't read or write, though he knows Sangay better than anyone else. His origins are ancient, like those of men who cross worlds following the dim glow of starry skies, without maps or compass. Like those of men who never get lost. And in this globalized world that day after day all of us contribute to construct, I often wonder what place is there for men like these, and what they can still offer. I shouldn't get distracted from the main topic of the article, Sangay Park and tourism in expansion... Roberto keeps staring at the pictures. I look out of my window, towards the cordilleras...
"In wildness," Thoreau wrote, "is the preservation of the world." It seems an arcane phrase, often misread indeed, even by Britons and the like. Wildness, in the English language so universal and sometimes so pregnant, describes a state, a condition, indeed a wild condition. English-speaking persons use the word wilderness when referring to a wild place, a pristine site, of intact origins. Thus, while wildness attains rank of abstract concept and primary gestalt, wilderness is geography. Thoreau is profound then, since it is in the concept that the world is preserved, not in its geography. Wildness in nature is wilderness, the wild condition of nature constitutes a wild place. The positivist (and reductionist) effort of protecting the wilderness materialises in parks and natural preserves. In reality, what should be protected is the wild and pristine condition of nature, in other words its wildness - while we can still do so, let us stress the distinction: "A park is a managerial unit definable in quantitative and pragmatic terms. Wilderness is unquantifiable. Its boundaries are vague or nonexistent, its content unknown, its inhabitants elusive. The purpose of parks is use; the earmark of wilderness is mystery."
And what can men like Roberto and a geographical remoteness like Sangay Park still offer? Sangay National Park is a huge territory essentially unexplored. The reason for this is related to its extreme ruggedness, which makes it difficult to travel through its immense array of ecosystems.

Pava Canal Waterfall, San Diego River, Sangay NP. Photo © 1993 Paolo Catelan. © 2004 Sangay Foundation.

Sangay is true wilderness, and perhaps this represents a vast part of its tremendous attractiveness potential; but, I wonder, what does attraction mean? Certainly it affect us, Roberto and his companions in Alao, and even myself who has carried out many years of exploration - that ambitiously pretends to be one of the least ecological impact - of Sangay National Park. Obviously, this implies a penetration of its uranic wilderness, of its pristine territories. Why and how should we enter and travel through such territories?
It occurs to me to think that the issue is not to adopt and promote present tourist schemes - say, intensive and commercial recreational activities that need a network of paths, bridges, signs reporting distances and directions, rescue teams and supportive park ranger services. Within Sangay there is nothing like this, and I would do nothing at all to change this situation and condition, I would rather oppose to any technological improvements. Sangay Park is nature in its pristine condition, wild and uncontrolled, and the residency in the untouched nature and the visceral knowledge of it is perhaps the most practical way to preserve it - if Thoreau is correct. Travelling through Sangay is not an opportunity to nurture the different facets of entertainment ignorance and arrogance, but rather an opportunity to rediscover our bonding with the biological order. Ultimately, the challenge is to understand how humans can live better by living and investigating within nature without domesticating it, or worse, destroying it.
By ecological least-impact I mean many things including, but not limited to, the avoidance of throwing and leaving garbage and the prohibition of hunting for endangered species. In fact, that is not all. The extension and the degree of the ecological impact is rooted into our emotional identification with nature. We are not indeed within nature until we are truly aware of its fragility and, as Jack Turner says, "the mind remains saturated with human concerns and blind to the concerns of the natural world." Hence, entering Sangay's wilderness, we ought to be willing to give ourselves over to "gross alterations in attention, perception, body language, body chemistry, and emotion," essences of the emotional identification with the natural otherness in all its forms, something sometimes called biodiversity. Travelling through Sangay is travelling amidst the flora and the fauna of pre-human worlds, to eventually rediscover our ontogeny, which involves an indispensable link or relationship with the wild nature. The reaction will be emotionally and even intellectually metamorphic: sympathy toward the natural world as a whole, and a sentiment of profound identity with all living beings. Something incredibly important, in these times of impossible ecocides.

...over the hardened lava a deer is coming... (Odocoileus virginianus) Photo © 1993 Paolo Catelan. © 2004 Sangay Foundation.

Interlude - The clouds row in the skies. The wind moans and shatters the clouds as it did millions of years ago. The spiders tie up reeds. The dusk of the night sinks into the caves, from where pumas emerge. The bears scratch with might fallen trunks and weep for love below the drops of equatorial mists and other springs of the sky, that wet bats and nocturnal toads. Over the hardened lava a deer is coming. Higher up the tender lava is flowing over red slopes. The lip of the crater seems broken. Further down, much further down, the reptiles embrace the garlands of ferns. Below the planets and the heavenly bodies live owls and toucans. Fungi cloth the roots and decompose the soils. Minerals nourish the leaves. The ants transport them, impeccably.

Am I proposing something different than the wilderness tourism as perceived by most wilderness users? Yes, I would answer, as far as standard wilderness tourism is devoted to fun. Fun is what drove the Nature Recreation Business during the last few decades. "We hunt for fun, fish for fun, climb for fun, ski for fun, and hike for fun." However, if the spiritual and philosophical concerns so far discussed are of some relevance, then I am necessarily defending those concerns, which imply a technique, an approach, some recommendations, and specific modes of tour-ism and visiting.

...pure walking is desirable, without horses or mules... Photo © 1993 Paolo Catelan. © 2004 Sangay Foundation.

Incidentally, I do not belong or work for any tourist agency, let alone Roberto and his friends in Alao; rather, the Association of Native Guides in Alao and Sangay Foundation to which I am associated are non-profit institutions: working for them has been and is the opportunity of our residency in Sangay Park and the source of a visceral knowledge of its overwhelming wilderness. Hence the moment where one approach rather than another crystallises, and the approach we adopt is the following: 1) outings of small groups - four or five persons, instead of latest-fashion large groups of forty or fifty - are preferred, thus reducing the ecological impact, that always is inherently big; for the same reason, pure walking is desirable, without horses or mules, or at most accompanied by llamas; 2) every member of the visiting groups would be encouraged to relate to and familiarise him/herself with the other participants in the excursion before entering the Park (short visits to indigenous markets or communities, for example, are good opportunities for that purpose); feeling amongst friends helps in the psycho-emotional identification with the wild nature, rather than hampering it; 3) the trip approaching Sangay Park would be structured in such a way as to stimulate participants to leave behind the commodities of culture and enter fully into wilderness; 4) food would be carefully chosen for its nutritional value, but in any case "just sufficient"; spirits and cigarettes would be better left behind; 5) particular attention would be paid to the moment when crossing the wilderness environments - whose boundaries can assume the form of a ridge, or a river, or a tree line; supposedly this induces a behavioural metamorphosis - walking through absolutely pristine territories is somewhat different than walking in the proximity of a mountain refuge; 6) basic instruction about sanitation, walking techniques, skills for shelter constructions, fire building and setting "zero-impact" camping installations and so forth would be provided; 7) rhythm, direction, and many of the activities would be decided by the group as a whole, not exclusively by the guides - that is, the group defends inner unity and wholeness.
What about the recommendations? It is always more difficult to make and give recommendations, above all in this world of relativists to which all of us belong. The important thing is not ending up with tedious arguments (who recommends to whom, who recommends what). Much has been written, and at different levels, about the devastating impacts, the collision of forces, often forced, that represent the "encounter" between diverse cultures. In brief, do not forget that Sangay National Park is surrounded by native communities and that while crossing or entering them one should always act discreetly and in a respectful sober manner. For example, control the insatiable desire of taking photographs of everything you see; bribery and bargaining are ethically unacceptable from any point of view.
With respect to the visits, it should be said that one might distinguish three fundamental modes of visiting Sangay National Park, tourist, exploratory, and scientific, and the visitor should be aware that they are inherently different indeed:

Ira Loma Cloud Forest, Namaquimi River watershed, Sangay NP. Photo © 1996 Paolo Catelan. © 2004 Sangay Foundation.

TOURIST VISITS - These are trips, hikes, or climbings along paths and routes already well known. The expedition chronology is therefore foreseeable, the camping sites already known, the amount of food, instruments and other work tools already established. Even with all these known factors, no expedition will be exempt of surprises, they are always present! Tracks are always chosen for their spectacular views of woods, waterfalls, rivers and mountains, or for their proximity to areas of exuberant wild life, in terms of flora and fauna. A tourist visit to Sangay is not necessarily physically mild, perhaps it is quite the opposite, and therefore it is recommended that one be in average to good physical condition. If the visitors have never experienced a tropical country or Sangay Park itself, then this is the kind of trek in which to participate in. Classic tourist walks are visits to the big volcanoes, to the lagoons and to the most accessible forests of the Park, like the Atillo-Osogoche Lagoons, the upper River Alao valley and El Placer, or the south-eastern slopes of the Sangay Volcano cone, its 5,230 mts summit not being excluded a priori.

Ayapungo Volcano (4900 m.), as seen from Atillo Lagoons, Sangay NP. Photo © 1996 Paolo Catelan. © 2004 Sangay Foundation.

EXPLORATIONS - In this case the tracks are not pre-established. If you want to join an exploration, then you will share with us the joy and the risk of rambling amidst unknown mountains, valleys and rivers, of camping where sundown dictates and, we hope, of eating every day! The emotional investment is stronger than in a normal tourist trip, and an exploration is not recommended for beginners or to persons without an excellent physical condition. A route being explored can be superimposed to a tourist route, but not vice versa. Our strategy is to explore the most spectacular and unknown routes, spanning the majority of the environments, at least in the highlands of the Park. Incidentally, this will allow us at the same time to assess in situ the present status of Sangay Park. Regions or routes that are presently being explored are, for example, the Shararumi Lagoons, the Flute Mountain Range, the upper Namaquimi and the western Sangay Volcano, or the Santa Ana River basin. These are regions of huge biodiversity, and entering them requires maximum care. Furthermore, these are routes that are not open to massive commercialisation, being close to the core area of the Park, let alone to hunting or further outrageous human activities.
SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITIONS - Roberto and his companions of the Association of Native Guides of Sangay and Altar Volcanos offer numerous services, including logistic support and guiding to all the scientific expeditions that want to enter Sangay Park. For example, vast segments of Sangay's flora and fauna are still unknown and it is likely that in the future there will be intensive investigation in various disciplines, such as botany, conservation biology, geography, and geology. (We do not collaborate with expeditions prospecting for oil or minerals - activities that are forbidden in any case within the Park.) We have already collaborated with several expeditions of this type in the past, a fundamental experience indeed, since a scientific expedition unfolds on a scale vaster and much more complex than any tourist trip. Typically, scientists get straight to the point, and are independent in what they are doing; but they need logistic assistance while their attention is being focused on coleoptera and ferns, rather than on the issue of surviving in pristine territories.

Huapachi Cloud Forest, Upano River watershed, Sangay NP. Photo © 1996 Paolo Catelan. © 2004 Sangay Foundation.

Epilogue - Lands of rivers in continuous birth and furious waterfalls, lands of dun ocelots and fast condors, lands of intact origins, never penetrated ..., what are they useful for? Perhaps one day they will salute the vast silence of the stars a last time. And then the innumerable woods and the eternal harmony of the Earth that is no longer eternal make me shudder, the presence of the moribund assassinated trees racks me. I think of the infinite nights of moons and winds and rains amidst volcanoes; I think to the people that live near those mountains, to Roberto. I delve into the memories that years ago I wrote:

Men go
clothed by moon and sweat
with wrinkles of wood
that cut the face
like water over the mountains.

In the deep pools of the eyes
drown myriads of stars.

Slowly the night takes them away
to die in the darkness
leaving a scent of mint
that falls on the grass
to sow the infinite.

Sangay Volcano (5230 m.) at sunset, as seen from Culebrillas, Sangay NP. Photo © 1989 Paolo Catelan. © 2004 Sangay Foundation.

The opening quotation is from Lorca's poem "Ritmo de Otoño", Libro de Poemas (1921): the original marvellous verse is, "Soy la eterna armonía de la Tierra, / el bosque innumerable." Further quotations and more or less vicarious inspirations have been drawn from Henry David Thoreau's essay "Walking"; Wayland Drew, "Killing Wilderness," Ontario Naturalist (September 1972); and especially Jack Turner, " 'In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World'," Northern Lights 6, no. 4 (1991). To all of them, to whom I owe indefinably so much, this article is dedicated.

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Paolo Catelan, Ph.D., Italian, has been researcher at Oxford and Copenhagen Universities and Faculty Member of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He is Founder and Director of Sangay Foundation and its journal PanNature, devoted to spreading Deep Ecology throughout the Spanish-speaking countries.

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Sangay Foundation is a non-profit institution that aims at tackling the problem of the conservation of Sangay National Park, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site in central Ecuador, via a global approach and from a native ecocentric perspective and involvement.
Its mandate is broad, ranging from projects on park's buffering, reforestation, exploration, and conservation to defining the improvement of educational, agricultural, medical and economic infrastructures and techniques within native communities surrounding Sangay Park.
In addition, Sangay Foundation is committed to spread, through its journal PanNature, the message of Deep Ecology, as expressed in the ecocentric approach developed by world-class activists and thinkers, like Paul Shepard, Gary Snyder and Arne Naess.
For further information about WNHS Sangay National Park, Sangay Foundation, PanNature and the Association of Native Guides of Sangay and Altar Volcanoes, contact us at: Argentinos 38-80 y Zambrano, Riobamba, Ecuador; P.O. Box 88; tel (593) 32955141; fax (593) 32955142; emails: paolo@tapir.caltech.edu; web page: www.sangay.org

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Spanish version

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Copyright © Paolo Catelan 2002. This material is Copyrighted © 2004 by Sangay Foundation, and cannot be indiscriminately used, but it can be freely circulated for personal, educational, and non-commercial purposes.

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