The Kichwa Añangu Community lives in Ecuador's Yasuní National Park. As a community, they have chosen to dedicate their livelihood to community-owned tourism, or what is commonly called turismo comunitario in Ecuador. Tourism brings multiple, ongoing challenges to the Añangu Community. Shifting market demands, growing regional and transnational competition, and large-scale climate events each present ongoing vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the Añangu do not own rights to the petroleum reserves quietly resting under their land. Nonetheless, they persist in their tourism project and have become recognized as a model for community-owned tourism in Ecuador. In part, this thesis seeks to explore why the Añangu Community has chosen to not only pursue, but expand their involvement in community-owned tourism. This research will demonstrate that tourism is locally embraced as a vehicle for livelihood wellbeing, environmental stewardship, and cultural reclamation. The key question then becomes, why is the Añangu Community’s tourism project successful? Here, I argue that through community agency and governance, the Añangu Community is able to practice economic, environmental, and cultural self-determination via their local control of the tourism project.
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