Tourist Eco-Cabin

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Template:Project HELP Tourist Eco-Cabin Project Type(s):
Country:	Ecuador
Volunteer(s) Name:	R Dibala
Volunteer(s) Homestate:	Connecticut
Funds community contributed:	$500
Percentage community contributed:	25%
Funds needed were:	$1500
Funds requested were:	$1500
PPCP #:	518-336
Year of project approval:	2009
Projects started in Ecuador 2009 (6).
A Home for the Elderly, Build a Library, Build a Future, Gender Seminar, Marimba Dance Group Outfits, Milk for Kids, and Tourist Eco-Cabin
Other Projects in Ecuador (9).
A Home for the Elderly, Build a Library, Build a Future, Community Sanitation Project, First Aid Workshop, Gender Seminar, Marimba Dance Group Outfits, Milk for Kids, and Tourist Eco-Cabin
Other Projects by Volunteers from Connecticut (11).
Chernivsti Listening and Speaking Classroom Project, Chernivtsi Environmental NGO "Krona", Mark Dripchak, Girls' Basketball Court and Team, Health Hut Construction, Hospital Training Facility, Jizzak English Summer Camp, Wes Moe, Pre-Kindergarten/Kindergarten School Construction, Primary School Renovation (Soungassou), Seed Storage Facility, Tourist Eco-Cabin, and What Do You Do When the Water Runs Dry? Build a New Holding Tank.
Other PCPP Projects by Volunteers (438).
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Info about the Tourist Eco-Cabin

A rapidly dwindling group of indigenous people living in 7 communities outside of Santo Domingo, Ecuador, are fighting to conserve cultural heritage through the development of tourism. An agro-artisan organization in the community believes that visiting tourists invoke a sense of pride and honor among the youth and therefore have a tremendous ability to perpetuate cultural traditions. One way that tourists can gain the full experience is by staying the night, but further infrastructure is needed to provide accommodations.

This project aims to complete the construction of a tourist eco-cabin in the summer of 2009. The cabin will provide a safe, clean and comfortable experience for the traveler. The frames will be built with ecologically sustainable materials including wood harvested from the native Laurel Negro tree, which is harvestable in as little as six years. The construction project will be coupled with the implementation of a low-density short-rotation forestry (SRF) system, in which saplings are raised in a nursery and regularly transplanted to surrounding farms. Saplings will be staggered in age and each year new trees will become available for harvest. More trees will be left standing than cut, thus reforesting the badly degraded land.

The project will be long term, providing a sustainable wood source for years to come. Project donations will go toward buying construction materials to finish the cabin and providing necessary tree nursery materials.