Version en castellanoSustainable tourism in the Araucania region
Before you book a journey, think not where you want to go, but why you want to go there...
Many of us dream of waking up in some beautiful far-off land, where we can escape from the routines of life at home, and discover new landscapes and ways of living. We must do, at least the 800 million tourists who go abroad from some place to another each year must be inspired by some dream.
Sustainable tourism seeks to channel this desire to take a break into an agent for positive change - a mechanism to feed back resources to the visited region to create an incentive to maintain a healthy environment and vibrant culture in the long term.
We created Kodkod Meeting Place in 2008 out of a deep concern that something needs to be done to create alternative reasons for landowners and managers to maintain habitats for the unique native wildlife of the Chilean temperate rainforests. We wanted to establish a place where we could put in practice an alternative model for tourism, where visitors can really learn more about the place they are visiting, and in the process learn more about themselves, and their daily interactions with our shared environment. Kodkod is also home to the Araucania Field Station of Fauna Australis, wildlife research unit of the Catholic University of Chile. We work closely with their ecologists and students to discover how our native wildlife lives, and is impacted upon by human activities. Tourism informed by research supports and enriches the education of new generations of wildlife professionals.
On our web site, you will find quite a bit of information about what you can do at Kodkod, how to get there, when we have events and activities available, who the people are behind the project, and why sustainable tourism is important in a changing world.
Go directly to our Conservation Research and Education site