A SUSTAINABLE YACUTINGA

We have successfully implemented a long-term sustainability management system that is suitable to our reality and scale, and that considers environmental, socio-cultural, quality, health, and safety issues.

By implementing effective sustainability planning and management in accordance with a progressive set of sustainable criteria, we are focusing on reducing negative impacts and protecting biodiversity, enhancing cultural heritage, providing the local community with social and economic benefits, and through diverse environmental education programs we try to contribute to the adequate use of Natural and Cultural Resources, not only on a Provincial, but National and International level.

We strongly believe that by striving for these goals we are also providing the tourism market with a rewarding and ethical alternative. It is this cycle that defines sustainable tourism as a crucial tool in the preservation of our endangered environments and traditional cultures for present and future generations.

Examples of our sustainable policy can easily be ascertained and through various ways. These type of effort guarantees perpetuity of natural resources and protect local culture from frantic touristic development. All this with true conviction of a responsible business. Our efforts in favour of sustainability cover diverse levels in our organization. From recycling to subvention of scientific investigations in order to amplify information on one of the most threatened eco-systems in Argentina.

Yacutinga Lodge & Nature Reserve - Iguazu Falls area- Argentina

Sustainable tourism has established itself as not only a large and crucial component of a rapidly growing tourism industry, but also an invaluable and increasingly effective weapon in the fight against the destruction and loss of our natural ecosystems and cultural heritage.

Concepts of sustainability itself are relative newcomers to mainstream culture, having evolved from early ideas about ecotourism, adventure tourism and responsible travel. These contemporary forms of traditional tourism gained prevalence in the late 1980s and steadily took root as enthusiasm for conservationism and sustainable practice, or ‘green living’, grew hand in hand with increasing concerns over the fragility of our environment. In 1987, the `Brundland Report’ to the United Nations General Assembly, alerted the world to the urgency required in making swift progress toward economic development that could be sustained without depleting natural resources or harming the environment. The Brundland Report appealed to, and effectively reached a wide audience and succeeded in popularising the term `sustainable development’, leading to the ideology that is sustainable tourism today.
Sustainable tourism focuses on maintaining the environmental and socio-economic balance required to ensure that future generations will have the same access to natural and cultural heritage that we enjoy today, essentially a future for all.

A vast number of organisations from government, non-governmental (NGOs) and non-profit organisations (NPOs), have been promoting sustainable tourism, and vitally, the development of guidelines and standards to create a global benchmark for sustainability within the tourism sector. One prominent body is the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), who have moved to define sustainable tourism in these terms: “Sustainability principles refer to the environmental, economic, and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development, and a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions to guarantee its long-term sustainability” (UNWTO 2004)
Taking this definition one step further, we can formulate a set of principles to be followed by travellers, sustainable tourism providers and natural or cultural area administrators alike.

Yacutinga Lodge & Private Nature Reserve has developed the following criteria based on the UNWTO`s sustainable tourism principles and as such we aim to:

•Provide benefit to the environment and encourage biodiversity whilst minimizing negative impacts
•Provide social and economic benefits to the local community whilst minimizing negative impacts
•Support cultural heritage and minimize negative impacts of tourism
•Promote environmental and cultural awareness and respect
•Raise sensitivity to political, environmental, and social climate on both a local and international level

Yacutinga Lodge & Private Nature Reserve has been at the cutting edge of sustainable tourism and conservation for over 10 years now, working constantly in accordance with internationally accepted `Best Practice’ principles from our little corner of the Argentine subtropical rainforest, located close to the world famous Iguazù Falls.
During the intense early years of our development, we learned a great deal about our environment, in both the ecological and social sense, and whilst at the same time strengthening our commitment to the international `Best Practice’ policy, we also learned of it`s limitations and need for flexibility in order to adapt to differing social, cultural and environmental conditions.

In direct contrast to the way in which we live, work and plan for the future, the areas surrounding the Yacutinga Reserve is utterly dominated by the agricultural and logging industries to devastating effects, and despite our own efforts over the past decade in providing employment, educational and sustainable development opportunities, concepts of sustainability remain largely unheard of and ignored.
Without increased Government involvement and support of the sustainable development sector, our mission of creating a sustainable culture outside of the Yacutinga Nature Reserve, will remain a difficult challenge but one that we are wholeheartedly committed to.

This isolated and far reaching corner in the extreme northeast of Argentina, with it`s wonderfully peculiar characteristics and rich biodiversity, allows us from the Private Sector to realise a number of environmental and social projects through initiatives such as our recently built Biological Station. These research and development projects are as diverse in range as the surrounding ecosystem itself and they not only adhere to modern sustainable concepts, but help us to further develop and evolve these ideologies to implement ourselves, as well as share with the greater community.

The bestspoken ecotour at the Iguassu Falls area

This Ecolodge provides a unique opportunity to explore the mysteries of the Atlantic Rainforest far away of massive tourism characteristic of the Iguazu Falls area. Comfortable accommodations and interesting ecotours are the base of this sustainable argentinean project. Yacutinga Private Nature Reserve is home to a large list of native birds and butterflies. Some endangered species are protected here. Yacutinga Lodge was selected by the WTO as one of the 60 world examples for ecotourism.

La Rana Herrero, uno de nuestros gladiadores

La Rana Herrero (Hila faber), tiene un comportamiento singular cuando se encuentra en su temporada reproductiva. Los machos tienen una actividad muy intensa durante este periodo. Son luchadores por excelencia, de hecho poseen dos notables espolones en sus axilas, los que utilizan con bastante ferocidad para mantener o conquistar su territorio, para defenderlo de otros machos y hasta para someter a las hembras en un abrazo tenaz. Se suma a esta característica, que son los machos los que custodian los huevos depositados en los pantanos. Para ello emiten una serie de cantos. Aquí les presentamos una filmación única realizada en el jardín de Yacutinga Lodge hace pocos días. Verán uno de estos machos vocalizando y advirtiéndonos sobre su presencia y territorialidad. Aparentemente las Ranas Herrero poseen al menos tres tipos diferentes de sonorización. La primera de advertencia, la segunda de agresividad y la tercera de ataque. Se han constatado luchas entre machos con una duración de más de 12 minutos. Estas luchas normalmente dañan seriamente a ambos contrincantes. Las consideramos clave en la el proceso de selección natural.

Los bailarines de nuestra selva

Son aves pequeñas muy bonitas y curiosas, de silueta compacta con pico corto y redondeado lo que indica su preferencia por frutitos, bayitas y de vez en cuando algún insecto. Sus alas son cortas, los machos son los que poseen los colores mas llamativos y en algunas especies desarrollan una cola relativamente larga. Las hembras por lo general son de color verdoso, lo que les es fundamental para disimularse en el follaje de la selva intermedia mientras custodian su nido.
Quizás lo más representativo de este grupo de aves es su espectacular ritual de apareamiento, se trata de una danza de cortejo donde el individuo más vistoso y más hábil es el seleccionado por la hembra para reproducirse. Por tanto no son aves que forman parejas estables.
La construcción del nido, la incubación y el cuidado de la cría esta a cargo de la hembra, que normalmente pone dos huevos.
En Argentina contamos con la presencia de 5 especies, una de ellas recientemente redescubierta, el bailarín Castaño (Pipitres pileata). Las otras 4 especies argentinas están presentes en la Reserva Yacutinga para el regocijo de los ornitólogos que nos visitan.

Las serpientes que amamos

La pérdida sostenida de la biodiversidad a nivel mundial atrae nuestra atención. Normalmente cuando hablamos de esta perdida, no mencionamos a las serpientes, debido a que se trata de animales que nos producen temor y miedo.
En definitiva se trata del grupo de reptiles “tabú” y quizás menos atractivo para el hombre.
Las serpientes se encuentran entre los animales más temidos y perseguidos por el hombre occidental y en particular en nuestra región estos animales son aniquilados sin mayor contemplación o análisis, produciéndose una notable disminución de individuos en las poblaciones naturales. Lamentablemente, se trata en la gran mayoría de las especies de animales inofensivos, (en Argentina tenemos un total de 130 especies y solo el 11% son peligrosas para el hombre).
La alarmante disminución de este tipo de animales es negativa, dado que ellos funcionan como importantísimos controladores de roedores. Es decir, son pieza fundamental del equilibrio ecológico que necesitamos mantener.

Aquí vemos a Naza, una de nuestras guías ambientalistas manipulando una culebra.

Rastros de Yaguarete sobre el camino que lleva a Yacutinga Lodge

El Yaguareté (Panthera onca) es el felino de mayor tamaño de América. Para vivir prefiere ambientes selváticos en buen estado de conservación, fundamentalmente próximos a ríos y pantanos; por lo que, al igual que el tigre, es evidente que a estos felinos les gusta nadar.
El jaguar es un cazador solitario y oportunista. Acecha a sus presas para, luego, emboscarlas. Siendo un súper depredador y una especie clave, juega un papel importante en la estabilización de los ecosistemas regulando las poblaciones de las especies que depreda. Posee la estructura mandibular más poderosa de todos los felinos y el mayor peso relativo de la cabeza, lo que le proporciona su perfil característico. La fortaleza de estas mandíbulas le permite, por efecto palanca, atravesar el caparazón de una tortuga o de un armadillo y emplear un inusual método de matanza: sus mandíbulas atraviesan el cráneo de la víctima de oreja a oreja, propinando un daño fatal a su cerebro.
Se trata de una especie amenaza y emblemática de nuestra Selva.
Recientemente estudios realizados dentro del Corredor Verde (Brasil/Argentina y Paraguay) concluyeron y enfatizaron sobre la alarmante disminución de estos animales en nuestras áreas protegidas. Esta drástica disminución se debe fundamentalmente a la perdida de hábitat por los desmotes y la endogamia que se origina.
Se estima que existen menos de 50 individuos en nuestra zona.

Rastros de pisadas encontrados por nuestro Director, Carlos Sandoval, el 17 de Julio 2009 sobre la ruta 101 y el arroyo Tacuara.