service learning
Chasqui Trek founder, Peter Shear, has been teaching and organizing Academic and Service Learning trips since 1996. These programs have been organized in collaboration with local communities in Ecuador, and Middle School, High School, University, and Independent Adult groups.
Currently we offer Service and Academic programs in Ecuador´s Amazon and Cloud Forest bioregions. Below are a few samples itineraries. All itineraries are custom designed to meet a group´s needs and interests.
5 Day Íntag Community Service Adventure:
Agro-ecology and Reforestation in the Cloud Forest
9 Day Íntag Community Service Adventure: Cloud Forest, Agro-ecology, and the Costs of Copper
ā
The Battle Over Oil and Biodiversity in Ecuador´s Amazon
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
One of the paradoxes of our time is that humans are destroying the natural world they depend on for their own survival. Nowhere is this paradox more visible than in Ecuador´s Upper Amazon Basin where oil is extracted within the boundaries of national parks established to protect the most bio-diverse ecosystem in the world.
Ecuador has been heavily dependent on revenue from oil since its discovery in the 1970s. Yasuní National Park holds the majority of Ecuador´s remaining oil within its boundaries. Studies have shown that Yasuní is the most bio-diverse place on the planet and home to several uncontacted groups of humans living in voluntary isolation. Indigenous peoples are still fighting the ecological and cultural devastation wrought by oil field development.
In 2007 Ecuador launched the Yasuní ITT Initiative which proposes to leave an estimated 846 million barrels of oil underground in exchange for $3.6 billion of aid and debt forgiveness from the international community. By not exploiting this oil, 407 million cubic tons of CO2 will not be released into the atmosphere. In 2014 Ecuador scrapped the proposal and made plans to start drilling while anti-extraction civilian groups gather signatures to force a national referendum on the issue.
The Yasuní ITT proposal serves as a fascinating case study through which to examine some of the most compelling questions our world is facing: Where does the line between corporate and human rights lie? How important is biodiversity to the survival of humans? Why doesn´t modern economic theory incorporate the value of ecosystem services provided by the natural world? To what extent can carbon credit markets be utilized to mitigate global warming? What are the socioeconomic factors preventing a swift transition to a post-oil economy? Are there viable economic options to non-renewable resource extraction?
Students will have the opportunity to examine these questions and more during this field course in Ecuador´s Amazon. We will also receive guest lectures from government officials, Indigenous leaders, and world-prominent scholars regarding tropical ecology, altitudinal zonation and biodiversity, and the politics of oil and energy.
ITINERARY
Day 1- Arrive to our hotel near the airport in Quito
Day 2- Day-long Seminar: primers in Tropical Ecology, the Geography of the Tropical Andes, and the History of Oil and Politics in Ecuador.
Day 3- Travel by airplane to Coca, and then by motorized canoe and car to the Tiputini Biodiversity Station; p.m.- night hike with a professional guide to see flora and fauna as well as to receive explanations about the rainforest and the people who live in surrounding areas.
Day 4- a.m.- We explore Tiputini´s canopy walkway system to get another perspective of the forest. Once again, this means a different kind of access to different species that can only be heard or barely seen from the forest; p.m; Lecture: Tropical Ecology and Biodiversity with Kelly Swing, world renowned ecologist.
Day 5- a.m.- visit a black water lagoon, an ecosystem quite unique to this part of Amazonia, home to species that are not likely to be seen in other parts of the forest. p.m; Group Learning Activity: Ecuador and Oil in the World Economy
Day 6- a.m.- Group Learning Activity: Yasuní ITT and its Geopolitical Actors. p.m.- We hike through the rain forest to Tiputini´s tree platform 160 feet above the forest floor to bird watch and enjoy the sunset
Day 7- Return to Coca and Hostel la Misión.
Day 8- Toxic Tour: meet with members of Defense of the Amazon to learn about the social and environmental impacts of oil extraction in Ecuador. Visit a refinery, oil derricks, and abandoned wells and waste treatment pools. Stay the evening in Lago Agrio.
Day 9- a.m.- Lecture: The history of Texaco in Ecuador and the class action lawsuit against the company, with Pablo Fajardo, Goldman Environmental Award Winner. p.m.- Visit the Cofán indigenous community of Dureno, Meet with members of the Cofán indigenous nation to hear about their experience with the establishment of oil extraction on ancestral land; back to Lago Agrio.
Day 10- Return to Quito by airplane, travel one hour to Papallacta.
Day 11- Study and Reflection day at Papallacta Hot Springs
Day 12- Transport back to Quito.
5 Day Íntag Community Service Adventure:
Agro-Ecology and Reforestation in the Cloud Forest
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
The Intag Valley of northern Ecuador is located on the western slope of the Andes between Cotocachi and Los Bancos, and is swathed in cloud forest and small farms. The Chocó cloud forest of the valley are part of one of the world´s ten most bio-diverse ecosystems, deemed a Biodiversity “hot spot” by UNESCO. The valley was a pre-conquest trading route and sparsely inhabited until a seasonal road was constructed in the 1960s. The opening of the valley to vehicles brought colonists desperate for land and the area quickly grew a reputation for its excellent soil and hot climate: perfect conditions for a wide variety of market crops. Because the valley traditionally connected the coast and sierra, colonists from both regions arrived, forming a fascinating mix of Afro-Latino, Otavalo, and Kayambi cultures, traditions, languages, and agricultural techniques. Today, the Intag valley has gained a reputation for its staunch resistance to mining interests and an investment in sustainable development and eco-tourism.
We will have the chance while in the Intag Valley to talk with youth, activist, and community groups on a variety of subjects including sustainable development planning, politics, small scale agricultural models, and cooperative enterprise and micro-credit programs. These meetings will also focus on the controversy over a proposed copper mine inthe valley. Despite incredible economic and political pressure, a grassroots environmental movement has managed, thus far, to stop the development of a proposed open pit copper mining facility in the middle of the cloud forest. The fight against the mine has led to an explosion of alternative development projects including AACRI, an organic coffee cooperative founded to demonstrate that economic alternatives to mining exist.
Through its relationship with CASA Interamericana the village of Pucará has been engaged in a variety of alternative economic development strategies, like The Íntag Spanish School, and has been operating a homestay program for visitors for ten years. Pucará is also working with CanopyCo reforesting denuded agricultural lands.
ITINERARY
Day 1- Leave Otavalo hotel after breakfast, visit the beautiful crater lake of Lago Cuicocha; Travel 2 hours to the agricultural community of Pucará, our base for the next few days. Lunch at community center, walking tour of the village, development projects, y una Bienvenida.
Meet homestay families and get settled in your new home!
Day 2- AM- Agro-ecological tour of Finca Organica la Fé: fincalafe.wordpress.com Lunch. PM- demonstration of making Panela and weaving artesan products from cabuya fiber.
Day 3- AM- Volunteer work in Pucará organized by CanopyCo, a reforestation program financed by the sale of carbon offsets www.canopyco.org Lunch. PM- ¡Futbol! Going away fiesta.
Day 4- AM- Visit Café Rio Intag project. Tour of Wariman archeological site. Lunch. Enjoy Ecuador´s longest zip-line (canopy). Soak in Nangulví hotsprings. Dinner and lodging at Cabañas Rio Grande.
Day 5- Breakfast. Travel by bus to Otavalo stopping for lunch and a cloud forest hike at the Flor de Mayo forest reserve.
9 Day Íntag Community Service Adventure: Cloud Forest, Agro-ecology, and the Costs of Copper
This itinerary includes the same activities as the 5 day Community Service Adventure but allows more time for volunteer work, hikes, and community integration.
Day 1: Leave Otavalo at 8am, visit Lago Cuicocha, Arrive in Pucará for lunch; bienvenida, tour of town, meet homestay families
Day 2:Am- agroecological tour of Finca la Fé; Pm- free time for orientation, fútbol, etc.
Day 3: Am-tree planting as part of the CanopyCo reforestation project; Pm- demonstration of Cabuya fiber artesanship
Day 4: Am-tree planting; Pm- see the process of harvesting sugar cane and making panela
Day 5: Am- Visit the Río Intag Coffee Plant, To Wariman archeological site; lunch; zipline; to Nangulvi hot springs. Soak.
Day 6: All Day- cloud forest hike and talk re: the mining conflict in Íntag;
Day 7: Am- Help with Environmental Education Program at the Primary School
Pm- free time for fútbol, etc.
Day 8: Am- Volunteer Work Fina La Fé, Pm-Despedida and going away ceremony
Day 9: Back to Otavalo arriving by noon.
ā
