Plus, we will spend a lot of money bringing tourists to an area that will soon lack traditional lifestyle. We could lose big. Indeed, this comes to pass and the tourism project is fading. We will now split off with Agustin for greener horizons, where the community supports the venture more and is less self-destructive.
The exercise, however, takes a left turn here. When we decide to split, we are not allowed to do so. This makes no sense whatsoever. Pangayacu is no longer a concern because we are not there; we are starting our new venture. Thus, the game exhibits a gaping logical flaw here, offering a chance to leave town and then insisting that is not possible.
Regardless, the game illustrates the balance that must be taken when developing an ecotourism project. The communal aspect is important because without it, the community will never buy into the project. If their current path is destructive, they will continue on that path. An interesting note is the cultural aspect - it is entirely unreasonable that 100 Westerners in a village would come to agreement about a major matter such as this. Perhaps for the Quichua, this is not the case. As an outsider, I should have deferred to the local leaders or other experts for guidance on this issue, something that I did not do at the beginning of the project.
If we backtrack to the "success" case we see that preservation of the rainforest is one of the key success measures. Yet, knowledge of the rainforest is not passed down to new generations in this scenario.
Thus, it is only a half-victory. In that "winning" scenario, we have also traded the Quichua language for televisions and radios. We have also traded livelihoods for jobs, and unfulfilling ones at that. We have traded joy in the soul for material wealth, and not very much of it.
The "success" scenario is nothing more than a Pyrrhic victory for the Quichua people. They chased dollars and they received dollars. If that was the objective, with no social considerations, then I suppose that could be considered a success. But if the objective was to maintain the culture rather than exploit it, the "success" scenario was a dismal failure. At least with my choices, the project achieved its objectives while it could, and then disappeared when those ends were no longer attainable.
My ecotourism project was never intended to solve the problems associated with overpopulation or fluctuations in market prices for commodities. It was merely intended to supplement income without disrupting the way of life and that is precisely what it delivered.
