Los legados ecológicos en el etnoturismo de montaña:  El mito de la naturaleza intacta de los flancos andino-amazónicos

Chadley R. Hollas; Fausto O. Sarmiento; Mark B. Bush; C. Renato Chávez-Velásquez; Alba Sinaluisa; Jhony Cruz; John Weatherford; Alden Yépez-Noboa; Kyle M. Woosnam

doi:10.3989/pirineos.2025.180.380

Authors

Chadley R. Hollas Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6079-2674
Fausto O. Sarmiento Neotropical Montology Collaboratory, Department of Geography, University of Georgia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0501-6020
Mark B. Bush Neotropical Paleoecology Lab., Florida Institute of Technology https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6894-8613
C. Renato Chávez-Velásquez Tourism and School of Natural Resources, Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0470-3072
Alba Sinaluisa Tourism and School of Natural Resources, Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3236-133X
Jhony Cruz Tourism and School of Natural Resources, Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6194-5356
John Weatherford New Media Institute, University of Georgia https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2550-5535
Alden Yépez-Noboa Regional Archaeological Laboratory of Water and Glaciers, Pontific Catholic University of Ecuador https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4190-7146
Kyle M. Woosnam Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6674-7578

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3989/pirineos.2025.180.380

Keywords:

Ecological legacies, biocultural heritage, conservation, Chimborazo, Ecuador, tourism

Abstract

This article offers decolonial perspectives on the paradigm shift in montology for learning about the socioecological system of mountain landscapes. By referencing the transformation of the tropical Andean landscape, we ask about the importance of emphasizing the concept of ecological legacies to both visitors and local inhabitants, and how science can support ethnotourism in generating greater awareness about the importance of the biocultural conservation of the territory in the Andean foothills and the lower mountain regions of the upper Amazon.

The results of an ethnoecological study in the upper Napo River region of Ecuador, based on responses to quintile Likertscale questionnaires conducted both in-person and online across four ethnoecological themes, show that local knowledge must be incorporated into the study and conservation of forest landscapes. This should be done using decolonial approaches to tourism that share language, methodology, tradition, and dissemination of the forest’s attributes. Our research contributed to the co-creation and formulation of the “Coca Declaration,” which calls for a philosophical shift in research, connecting science and ethnotourism in ways that are local, emancipatory, and transdisciplinary. Critical geography and ethnoecology help us understand the predicaments of forest-dwelling populations, such as the Sápara of Jandiayacu.

We conclude that facilitating a new vocabulary through the decolonial intensification of Indigenous perspectives on mountainous and forested landscapes helps to incorporate the notion of multiple Amazonias, including the mountainous landscape of the Andean-Amazonian flanks or the “Upper Amazon.” We also conclude that Ecuador cannot be considered the country of “pristine nature,” as we help to demystify the notion of untouched wilderness for foreign tourists by highlighting local perspectives rooted in ancestral practices. Finally, we conclude that ethnotourism is a viable alternative for managing the patrimonialization of the forested landscape as a hybrid territory bearing the ecological legacies of past and present inhabitants of the Upper Amazon.

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