Thirty Years of Co-Management Win a PURE Award
Rainforest Expeditions and the Ese Eja Native Community of Infierno took the PURE Award 2026 in the Community: The Harmoniser category. The award recognises 30 years of co-management of Posada Amazonas, the pair’s ecolodge in Tambopata. PURE Life Experiences presented it at its Marrakech ceremony in September 2026. Eduardo Nycander, the company’s founder, received it.
The Ownership Model
Posada Amazonas opened in 1996 under a 20-year contract between the operator and the community. The community owns the lodge and co-manages it with Rainforest Expeditions. Decisions run by consensus. The operator’s own awards page records those terms from its entry for the 2008 Tourism for Tomorrow awards.
Under that first agreement the community received 60 per cent of the profits, and full management of the lodge was due to pass to the community in 2016. The operator published a higher figure in its review of the partnership on 21 July 2026.
The Commercial Result
That review states that 75 per cent of the revenue the lodge generates is distributed directly among families in the community. It puts the number of families that benefit directly or indirectly at nearly 220. Most of the operation is staffed by Ese Eja members trained in hospitality, guiding, logistics, conservation and tourism management.
The operator reports more than 3,000 hectares of communal land under strict conservation and closed to extractive activity. Macaw clay licks, giant otters and primates sit inside that corridor. The lodge itself stands within 9,500 hectares of protected rainforest in the community’s reserve, connected to the Tambopata National Reserve.
For an operator buying ground services in Madre de Dios, the structure is the product. The land, the guides, the logistics and the lodge staff sit with the community that holds the territory, and the revenue share is published.
Kuaii Amazonas, the Second Joint Lodge
The second joint ecolodge, Kuaii Amazonas, is under development inside Ese Eja territory in Tambopata. The operator’s page for the property carries an opening of 2027 and a check-in date of 1 May 2027 in its booking module. The same page sells nightly rooms from US$1,688 and two packages from US$1,266 and US$1,899 per person in a double room, read on 13 October 2026.
Access runs by air to Puerto Maldonado, then about one hour by road and 40 minutes by boat on the Tambopata River. The operator states that no highways or nearby towns interrupt the approach and that the lodge stands inside thousands of hectares of protected rainforest connected to the Tambopata National Reserve.
Check-in is at 13:00 and check-out at 7:30. The operator runs fixed daily departures from Puerto Maldonado for guests who arrive before 13:00 and advises booking onward flights from 11:30.
The published activity list covers the macaw clay lick, giant river otters at Lake Tres Chimbadas, a canopy tower and the Ñape Ethnobotanical Center run with the community. The page names one room type and no room count, so confirm inventory and inclusions with the company before quoting them to clients.
Where the Copy Comes From
Rainforest Expeditions is the named contributor to the award item on the Adventure Travel Trade Association’s member news desk, dated 5 October 2026. That desk states that contributing members are responsible for the accuracy of the content they submit. The operational figures in this piece come from the operator’s own review of July 2026 and its Kuaii Amazonas page.